(227b) Coal, Biomass, and Algae as Precursors to Liquid Fuels

Fossil fuels will be prime fuel source for next several decades, with coal as the largest domestic source of fossil fuel in the U.S. Studies at NETL have shown that co-feeding of biomass can make coal carbon friendly. Understanding the effects of biomass feed on gasification products is important. Although significant research has been conducted on the thermochemical conversion of pure coal and pure biomass, uncertainties remain on co-feed schemes such as the thermochemical conversion, differences in solid, liquid and gaseous products, and intrinsic kinetic data for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. NETL is conducting research in each of these areas. Another area of research at NETL is the production of a ?drop-in? transportation fuel derived from algae. Algae has the potential of helping meet future fuel demands due to their ability to produce oil (typically a mixture of triglycerides) from CO2 and sunlight and their ability to double their biomass in 24 hrs. Conventional production of bio-fuels from the algae oil (the reaction of the triglycerides with methanol and a base) produces a mixture of methyl esters and glycerin. NETL is investigating the extraction of oil from the alga and the conversion of the algae oil to fuels that are direct replacement for fuels derived from petroleum.