Ethanol opportunities in a transition from gasoline to diesel fuel

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Ethanol opportunities in a transition from
gasoline to diesel fuel
Renewable Fuels Summit, 12 June 2006 Bismarck
State College Ted Aulich Energy Environmental
Research Center, Grand Forks, North Dakota
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Why transition from gasoline to diesel fuel?

• National security Increase fuel economy by
  20with hybrid and other improvements by 50vs
  todays gasoline engine
• Achieve well-to-wheel fuel life cycle efficiency
  near that of fuel cell vehicle, with technology
  available todaywhile working on fuel cell
  economics
• Reduce CO2 and evaporative emissions
• Transition from petroleum to renewable diesel as
  production comes on line

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Well-to-wheels total energy usedata from May
2005 GMArgonne National Lab Report
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Well-to-wheels petroleum energy usedata from May
2005 GMArgonne National Lab Report
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Ethanol opportunities beyond low-level gasoline
blendstock

• Direct addition to diesel fuel (E-diesel)
• Biodiesel feedstock (replace methanol)
• E85 and aviation-grade ethanol
• Hydrogen feedstock
• Chemical feedstock
• Conversion to high-cetane diesel fuel

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E-diesel

• Attributes
• Increase renewable content of diesel fuel
• Reduce particulate and NOx emissions
• Considerations
• Increased vapor pressure puts E-diesel in same
  volatility class as gasoline
• Near-zero cetane of ethanol means cetane
  enhancement required
• Ethanoldiesel separation at 35Fmitigate with
  emulsifiers and/or cosolvents, including
  biodiesel

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E-diesel blends at low temperature
Ethanolbiodiesel (5/5) and 2001 commercial
Additive A and B formulations (left to right)
after 1 week undisturbed exposure to temperatures
of 2 to 4F. Temperature at time of photos was
0F.
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Ethanol as biodiesel feedstock

• Attributes
• Increase renewable content of biodiesel
• Achieve economic benefits by co-locating ethanol
  and biodiesel production
• Considerations
• Ethanol contribution to biodiesel only about 17
  on volume basis
• Biodiesel process more efficient with methanol

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E85 and aviation-grade ethanol

• Take advantage of ethanol octane to improve fuel
  economy
• Computer-controlled variable valve profiling
• Effect increased compression ratio when burning
  high ethanol-content fuel
• Develop AGE-certified aircraft operable at lower
  gallons/hour cost than avgas
• Avgas market about 300-700 million gallons/year
• Ethanol for jets?

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Ethanol as hydrogen feedstock

• Attributes
• Use hydrogen for internal combustion engine (ICE)
  or proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell (FC)
  vehicles
• Each gallon of ethanol converted to hydrogen and
  utilized in ICE or FC will displace more oil than
  each gallon burned as E85 or E10
• Improve economics by integration of ethanol and
  hydrogen production
• Considerations
• At 500K/vehicle, FCs may not soon be commercial,
  but hydrogen ICEs (60K/vehicle) could help in
  transition
• Non-transportation solid oxide fuel cells will
  likely be commercialized well before PEMs, and
  could be good market for ethanol

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Ethanol as chemical feedstock
Catalytic
Ethanol
Condensation
Butanol
and
Ethanol
Distillation and
Catalytic
Butanol
Dehydration
Condensation
Ethanol-based Guerbet catalytic condensation
2-Ethylhexanol
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Guerbet catalytic condensation with ethanol

• Compatible with ethanol plant integration
• Low-temperature/pressure reaction
• Continuous-process in flow-through column
  containing bed of solid catalyst
• EERC, oil industry, Japanese chemical companies
  developing catalyst systems
• Butanol and 2-ethylhexanol worth 2-3 times
  ethanol value

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High-cetane diesel fuel (butyl formal or butyl
ether mixtures) from ethanol

• Attributes
• Produce from ethanol-derived butanol in
  low-temperature flow-through processes compatible
  with ethanol plant integration
• Blending cetane numbers of 7090
• Blending cold filter plug points of 40C
• Considerations
• Cost of production?
• Impact on emissions and other fuel properties?

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Challenges to transition from gasoline to diesel

• Per-vehicle cost increase of 2,0005000 with
  hybrid may come down as car companies retool
• Oil companies have big investments in clean
  gasoline production infrastructure
• Public perception of diesel vehicles

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Strategy for energy/national security

• With existing technology, start
  gasoline-to-diesel transition
• Expand ethanol production capacity
• Improve cellulosic ethanol economics
• Convert ethanol to high-cetane diesel fuel as
  demand warrants
• Improve biodiesel economics and expand production
  capacity
• Develop alternative fatty acid oils with
  production economics sufficient to enable
  large-volume petroleum displacement
• Improve hydrogen and fuel cell economics
• Cellulosic ethanol likely most economic hydrogen
  feedstock
• Transition to hydrogen as economics warrant

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Progress

• Conservation may be a sign of personal
  virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a
  sound, comprehensive energy policy.
• Vice President Dick Cheney, April 2001
• The first step toward making America less
  dependent on foreign oil is to improve
  conservation and efficiency.It makes sense to
  promote ethanol as an alternative to foreign
  sources of oil.
• President George Bush, June 2005