(780b) Scale up of IH2 Process for Converting Biomass to Gasoline and Diesel

The IH² process is a new technology which directly converts biomass such as wood, cornstover, and lemna, into high quality liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuels using hydropyrolysis. Initial work was done on a small bench scale semi-continuous unit, which processes 0.45kg/hr of biomass. Technoeconomic and LCA studies of a commercial process based on these bench tests is very favorable, showing that gasoline and diesel can be produced from biomass at less than $2.00/gallon and have greater than 90% greenhouse gas reduction compared to fossel fuels.

 Now the IH² process has been scaled up to a continuous unit which processes 50 kg/day of biomass. The new pilot plant unit helped us define key design parameters and also determine catalyst life and stability. GTI will discuss controlling process variables and show continuous data from the 50kg/day pilot plant. The 50kg/day tests lay the ground work for our design of a 50 t/day demo IH² unit which should lead directly to 2000 t/day commercial scale process in 2015-2016.