Chemical and Biochemical Catalysis for Next Generation Biofuels

By Blake Simmons

The Royal Society of Chemistry

Copyright © 2011 Royal Society of Chemistry
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84973-030-3

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Blake A. Simmons,
Chapter 2 Biomass Availability and Sustainability for Biofuels Dominique Loqué, Aymerick Eudes and Fan Yang,
Chapter 3 Surface Science Studies Relevant for Metal-catalyzed Biorefining Reactions J. Will Medlin,
Chapter 4 Dilute Acid and Hydrothermal Pretreatment of Cellulosic Biomass Deepti Tanjore, Jian Shi and Charles E. Wyman,
Chapter 5 A Short Review on Ammonia-based Lignocellulosic Biomass Pretreatment Venkatesh Balan, Bryan Bals, Leonardo da Costa Sousa, Rebecca Garlock and Bruce E. Dale,
Chapter 6 Cellulases and Hemicellulases for Biomass Degradation: An Introduction Supratim Datta and Rajat Sapra,
Chapter 7 Advances in Gasification for Biofuel Production Christopher R. Shaddix,
Chapter 8 Bioinspired Catalysts for Biofuels: Challenges and Future Directions Ted J. Amundsen and Alexander Katz,
Subject Index,

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

BLAKE A. SIMMONS

Joint BioEnergy Institute, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Emeryville, CA; Biofuels and Biomaterials Science and Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA

The development of advanced biofuels, defined here as those that are derived from non-food sources, capable of displacing a significant amount of petroleum within the global transportation sector has quickly become a topic of significant interest. The primary drivers for this effort are found in two areas: (1) concerns over energy security related to finite sources of fossil fuels, and (2) the environmental risks associated with unabated carbon emissions that are linked to global warming. While there are significant efforts underway in the fields of renewable energy for electricity production (e.g. wind, solar and geothermal), more than half of the current energy consumption of the planet is currently met with the consumption of liquid fuels, with over 20% of current global carbon emissions in 2008 generated by the transportation sector alone (Figure 1.1). The significant price fluctuations observed in the petroleum ($32-147/barrel) and natural gas ($4-13/1000ft3) markets over the past few years have had dramatic effects in all aspects of commerce, and increase concerns over resource availability and supply stability.

Recent estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA) calculate that global demand for transport will increase by 45% by 2030, placing even further strains on a system that has reached the upper limit in terms of production and further increase carbon emissions. These results underscore the need for the realization and rapid commercialization of scalable and cost-effective means of generating low-carbon fuels to meet the growing global energy demand in a sustainable fashion.

To meet this challenge, the US federal government, several state governments, and numerous governments worldwide are strongly committed to displacing fossil fuels with renewable, low carbon fuels produced from biomass. For instance, the US federal government has set a target of displacing 36 billion gallons of current US petroleum consumption within the transportation sector by 2022 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) legislation. With a production cap of 15 billion gallons per year placed on corn ethanol, this leaves a gap of 21 billion gallons per year that must be met by other sources and conversion technologi