Advanced biofuels show real promise for replacing some fossil fuels


Date:
August 24, 2020
Source:
Colorado State University
Summary:
A new study predicted significant climate benefits stemming from
the use of advanced biofuel technologies.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Biofuel and bioenergy systems are integral to scenarios for displacing
fossil fuel use and producing negative emissions through carbon capture
and storage.

But the net greenhouse gas mitigation benefit of these systems has been controversial, due to concerns around carbon losses from changes in land
use and foregone sequestration benefits from alternative land uses.


==========================================================================
A new study led by Colorado State University -- including an
interdisciplinary team of plant scientists, ecologists and engineers -- predicted significant climate benefits stemming from the use of advanced biofuel technologies.

Accounting for all of the carbon flows in biofuel systems and comparing
them to those in grasslands and forests, the team found that there are
clear strategies for biofuels to have a net carbon benefit.

This is one of the first studies to look at both current and future
carbon- negative biofuels.

"Robust paths to net greenhouse gas mitigation and negative emissions
via advanced biofuels," was published August 24 in Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.

Biofuels deserve another look John Field, research scientist at the
Natural Resource Ecology Lab at CSU, said that it has been a challenge for
the biofuel industry to demonstrate commercial viability for cellulosic biofuels, created using nonedible parts of plants.

Switchgrass, a native grass that grows in many parts of North America,
is a leading candidate for the sustainable production of plant material.



==========================================================================
The research team used modeling to simulate switchgrass cultivation,
cellulosic biofuel production and carbon capture and storage, tracking ecosystem and carbon flows. Scientists then compared this modeling to alternative ways to store carbon on the land, including growing forest
or grassland.

Carbon capture and storage technology is being used by at least one
facility in Illinois that is processing corn as a conventional biofuel
to create ethanol, but these systems are not yet widespread. As part of
the study, researchers created models to simulate what this would look
like at a cellulosic biofuel refinery.

"What we found is that around half of the carbon in the switchgrass that
comes into the refinery becomes a byproduct that would be available
for carbon capture and storage," said Field. The resulting byproduct
streams of high- purity carbon dioxide would not require much separation
or clean-up before being stored underground.

The research team analyzed three contrasting U.S. case studies and found
that on land where farmers or land managers were transitioning out of
growing crops or maintaining pastures for grazing, cultivating switchgrass
for cellulosic ethanol production had a per-hectare mitigation potential comparable to reforestation and several-fold greater than grassland restoration. (A hectare is about two-and-a-half times the size of an
average football field.) Using switchgrass can be particularly helpful
in parts of the country where planting more trees is not an option.



==========================================================================
"In the Great Plains, prairie is the more natural cover," said
Field. "Those systems don't suck up as much carbon as a forest system
does. If you start putting biofuels in the mix, they have two-and-a-half
times the carbon benefits over grasslands. If you're in an area where
grassland would be the native cover, there's a clear advantage to using biofuels." Field said that the team's motivation for the study comes
on the heels of several prominent critiques of biofuels. "We wanted to
see if we came to the same conclusion or not as the researchers who have
been critical of biofuels," he said.

"Our analysis shows that large climate benefits can, in fact, be achieved through biofuels if there is an intent to do so," said Lee Lynd, a
co-author and Paul E. and Joan H. Queneau Distinguished Professor in Environmental Engineering Design at Dartmouth College.

Use of biofuels imperative to meeting climate goals Scientists said
because of the current delays in tackling climate change, it's imperative
to take a more proactive stance on biofuels and other negative emissions technologies if countries like the U.S. want to limit the impacts of
global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

"If we want to hit that goal, we really have to deploy alternatives to
fossil fuel use as quickly as we can," said Field. There is also a need
to clean up carbon pollution from the atmosphere and walk back historic emissions, he added.

Cleaning up carbon pollution is an idea that has been widely discussed
since the Paris Agreement was established within the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2016.

"We're going to have to start cleaning up some of the carbon pollution
that has been emitted in the past, because we are too slow at reducing
our emissions," said Field.

There are different ways to accomplish this clean-up, with the simplest
idea to grow trees to store more carbon on the land.

Other alternatives are outlined and analyzed in the study, including the
use of carbon-negative biofuels. Plants pull carbon out of the atmosphere
to grow and the carbon is used to build plant tissues.

If that plant material is harvested and converted to energy, some of the resulting carbon dioxide byproduct can be captured and pumped underground
into storage in depleted oil wells or other geological formations,
instead of sending it back into the atmosphere.

Likewise, cellulosic biofuels are attractive because they could help
reduce fossil fuel use in aviation, shipping and trucking, all fields
that are challenging to move to electricity.

Moving forward, the research team hopes to expand on its modeling,
scaling it up nationally rather than looking at a few specific sites
across the country.

"A lot of the pieces for future use of advanced biofuels exists at some
small scale," said Field. "The trick is putting all of these pieces
together and making sure we continue to have support so it can thrive
and take off, even when gas prices are relatively low, like now."
This research was funded in part by the National Institute of Food
and Agriculture -- U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department
of Energy via the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, and the Sa~o Paulo
Research Foundation in Brazil.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Colorado_State_University. Original
written by Mary Guiden. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. John L. Field, Tom L. Richard, Erica A. H. Smithwick, Hao Cai,
Mark S.

Laser, David S. LeBauer, Stephen P. Long, Keith Paustian,
Zhangcai Qin, John J. Sheehan, Pete Smith, Michael Q. Wang, Lee
R. Lynd. Robust paths to net greenhouse gas mitigation and negative
emissions via advanced biofuels. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, 2020; 201920877 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1920877117 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200824165632.htm

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