Although ethanol remains the dominant liquid biofuel in the global market, there is a strong interest in high-energy density and low-hygroscopicity compounds that can be incorporated into gasoline at levels beyond the current ethanol blend wall. Isopentenol (3-methyl-3-buten-1-ol) is one of these promising advanced biofuels that is also an important precursor for isoprene (the main component of synthetic rubber). In this study, we model the production cost, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water footprint of biologically produced isopentenol, including the current state of the technology and the impact of potential improvements. We find that the minimum selling price of bio-based isopentenol, given the current state of technology demonstrated at bench-scale, is $5.14/L-gasoline equivalent, and the GHG footprint exceeds that of gasoline. However, bio-based isopentenol could reach $0.62/L-gasoline equivalent ($2.4/gal-gasoline equivalent (gge), just 5% above the 10-year average gasoline price) in an optimized future case where yield and other process parameters are pushed to near their theoretical limits. In this future case, isopentenol could achieve a GHG reduction of 90% relative to gasoline and a carbon abatement cost of $9.3/metric ton CO2e. Reaching these goals will require dramatic improvements in isopentenol yield, near-100% recovery of ionic liquid used in pretreatment, and low-lignin, high- cellulose and hemicellulose biomass feedstocks.
BT - ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering DA - 04/2020 DO - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b02928 IS - 18 LA - eng N2 -Although ethanol remains the dominant liquid biofuel in the global market, there is a strong interest in high-energy density and low-hygroscopicity compounds that can be incorporated into gasoline at levels beyond the current ethanol blend wall. Isopentenol (3-methyl-3-buten-1-ol) is one of these promising advanced biofuels that is also an important precursor for isoprene (the main component of synthetic rubber). In this study, we model the production cost, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water footprint of biologically produced isopentenol, including the current state of the technology and the impact of potential improvements. We find that the minimum selling price of bio-based isopentenol, given the current state of technology demonstrated at bench-scale, is $5.14/L-gasoline equivalent, and the GHG footprint exceeds that of gasoline. However, bio-based isopentenol could reach $0.62/L-gasoline equivalent ($2.4/gal-gasoline equivalent (gge), just 5% above the 10-year average gasoline price) in an optimized future case where yield and other process parameters are pushed to near their theoretical limits. In this future case, isopentenol could achieve a GHG reduction of 90% relative to gasoline and a carbon abatement cost of $9.3/metric ton CO2e. Reaching these goals will require dramatic improvements in isopentenol yield, near-100% recovery of ionic liquid used in pretreatment, and low-lignin, high- cellulose and hemicellulose biomass feedstocks.
PY - 2019 SP - 15434 EP - 15444 ST - ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. T2 - ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering TI - Greenhouse Gas Footprint, Water-Intensity, and Production Cost of Bio-Based Isopentenol as a Renewable Transportation Fuel UR - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b02928https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b02928 VL - 7 SN - 2168-0485 ER -