SBIR Phase I: Process Development and Catalysis for Novel Higher Alcohol Fuel Synthesis

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将确定高级醇（C4+）合成（HAS）和水分离串联工艺的可行性，该工艺具有成本效益和高转化效率。 （i）费-托（F-T）合成，其是非食品原料的气化以产生合成气的一部分，其中需要昂贵的催化剂并且产物具有不理想的分布;以及（ii）用于汽油替代的谷物乙醇工艺，其面临原料限制（即，可食用碳水化合物）并且需要困难的、能量密集的产物-水分离。 该项目旨在展示一种以合成气和稀乙醇作为共反应物的工艺，该工艺将使用比F-T更低成本的催化剂和更温和的工艺条件，以提供相对于乙醇的上级燃料产品。 工作计划包括新催化剂的合成，在扩大的操作条件范围内的评估和工艺经济学建模。 这些工艺优势的示范和实际集成是有针对性的。 该项目的更广泛/商业影响始于在改造方案中为当前乙醇制造商提供有益的产品。 作为一个“螺栓”实施，该过程可以潜在地增加生物燃料的体积生产和燃料能量输出的两倍或更多。 如果成功，降低原料成本和减少能源需求将大大改善经济状况，同时减少玉米和能源价格波动的负面影响。 这项技术有可能将替代燃料的能力从目前的约110亿gpy提高到约200亿gpy，同时提供更高能量密度的燃料。 该工艺有望降低燃料价格（由于原料成本降低，能源成本降低，以及与管道分配相关的运输节省），并将温室气体排放量减少50%。 在现有的生物炼油厂全面实施，该技术还可以减少每年256，000，000 MMBTU（约10亿美元）的天然气消耗量，并每年取代1.78亿桶原油。 该项目有可能提供一种突破性的方法，这是最近的联邦立法（2007年EISA）所寻求的，其任务是到2022年提供210亿gpy的“先进”替代燃料。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will establish the feasibility of a tandem process for higher alcohol (C4+) synthesis (HAS) and water separations that is cost effective and has high conversion efficiency. This process is intended to address the shortcomings in: (i) Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis, that is part of gasification of non-food feedstocks to create syngas, where expensive catalysts are needed and the products have non-ideal distribution; and (ii) grain-ethanol processes for gasoline replacement, which are faced with feedstock limitations (i.e. edible carbohydrates) and entail difficult, energy-intensive product-water separations. This project seeks to demonstrate a process with syngas and dilute ethanol as co-reactants that will use lower-cost catalysts and milder process conditions than F-T to deliver superior fuel products relative to ethanol. The work plan includes synthesis of new catalysis, their assessment under an expanded range of operating conditions and modeling of process economics. Demonstration and practical integration of these process advantages are targeted. The broader/commercial impact of this project begins with a beneficial offering to current ethanol manufacturers in a retrofit scenario. Implemented as a "bolt-on", the process can potentially increase biofuel volumetric production and fuel energy output by two fold or more. If successful, lower feedstock costs and reduced energy needs will dramatically improve economics while reducing the negative impacts of corn and energy price fluctuations. This technology has the potential to increase alternative fuel capacity from the current ~11B gpy to ~20B gpy, while delivering a more energy-dense fuel. The process promises to reduce fuel prices (due to lower feedstock costs, lower energy costs, and transportation savings related to pipeline distribution), and to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50%. Fully implemented at existing bio-refineries, the technology could also reduce annual natural gas consumption by an estimated 256,000,000 MMBTUs (~$1B) and displace an incremental 178MM barrel of crude oil each year. This project has the potential to deliver a breakthrough approach sought by recent federal legislation (2007 EISA) with its mandate for 21B gpy of "advanced" alternative fuels to be available by 2022.