The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) promotes the production of a range of liquid fuels and fuel blendstocks from lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks by funding fundamental and applied research that advances the state of technology in biomass collection, conversion, and sustainability. As part of its involvement in this program, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) investigates the conceptual production economics of these fuels.Between 1999 and 2012, NREL conducted a campaign to quantify the economic implications associated with measured conversion performance for the biochemical production of cellulosic ethanol, with a formal program between 2007-2012 to set cost goals and to benchmark annual performance toward achieving these goals, namely the pilot-scale demonstration by 2012 of biochemical ethanol production at a price competitive with petroleum gasoline based on modeled assumptions for an "n th " plant biorefinery. This goal was successfully achieved through NREL's 2012 pilot plant demonstration runs, representing the culmination of NREL research focused specifically on cellulosic ethanol, and a benchmark for industry to leverage as it commercializes the technology. This important milestone also represented a transition toward a new Program focus on infrastructure-compatible hydrocarbon biofuel pathways, and the establishment of new research directions and cost goals across a number of potential conversion technologies.This report describes in detail one potential conversion process to hydrocarbon products by way of biological conversion of lignocellulosic-derived sugars. The pathway model leverages expertise established over time in core conversion and process integration research at NREL, while adding in new technology areas primarily for hydrocarbon production and associated processing logistics. The overarching process design converts biomass to a hydrocarbon intermediate, represented here as a free fatty acid, using dilute-acid pretreatment, enzymatic saccharification, and bioconversion. Ancillary areas-feed handling, hydrolysate conditioning, product recovery and upgrading (hydrotreating) to a final blendstock material, wastewater treatment, lignin combustion, and utilities-are also included in the design. Detailed material and energy balances and capital and operating costs for this baseline process are also documented.This benchmark case study techno-economic model provides a production cost for a cellulosic renewable diesel blendstock (RDB) that can be used as a baseline to assess its competitiveness and market potential. It can also be used to quantify the economic impact of individual conversion performance targets and prioritize these in terms of their potential to reduce cost. The analysis presented here also includes consideration of the life-cycle implications of the baseline process model, by tracking sustainability metrics for the modeled biorefinery, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fossil energy demand, and consumptive water use.Building on prior design reports for bioch...

Executive SummaryThe goal of the U.S. Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is to enable the development of biomass technologies to: Reduce dependence on foreign oil  Promote the use of diverse, domestic, and sustainable energy resource  Establish a domestic bioenergy industry  Reduce carbon emissions from energy production and consumption. (DOE 2013) To meet these goals, the BETO promotes the development of liquid hydrocarbon fuels that can serve as gasoline, jet and diesel blendstocks.This report describes a proposed thermochemical process for converting biomass into liquid transportation fuels via fast pyrolysis followed by hydroprocessing of the condensed pyrolysis oil. As such, the analysis does not reflect the current state of commercially-available technology but includes advancements that are likely, and targeted to be achieved by 2017. The purpose of this study is to quantify the economic impact of individual conversion targets to allow a focused effort towards achieving cost reductions.

Decentralized biomass processing facilities, known as biomass depots, may be necessary to achieve feedstock cost, quantity, and quality required to grow the future U.S. bioeconomy. In this paper, we assess three distinct depot configurations for technical difference and economic performance. The depot designs were chosen to compare and contrast a suite of capabilities that a depot could perform ranging from conventional pelleting to sophisticated pretreatment technologies. Our economic analyses indicate that depot processing costs are likely to range from ∼US$30 to US$63 per dry metric tonne (Mg), depending upon the specific technology implemented and the energy consumption for processing equipment such as grinders and dryers. We conclude that the benefits of integrating depots into the overall biomass feedstock supply chain will outweigh depot processing costs and that incorporation of this technology should be aggressively pursued.

This perspective provides an overview of wood pellet markets in a number of countries of high signifi cance, together with an inventory of market factors and relevant past or existing policies. In 2010, the estimated global wood pellet production and consumption were close to 14.3 Mt (million metric tonnes) and 13.5 Mt, respectively, while the global installed production capacity had reached over 28 Mt. Two types of pellets are mainly traded (i) for residential heating and (ii) for large-scale district heating or co-fi ring installations. The EU was the primary market, responsible for nearly 61% and 85% of global production and consumption, respectively in 2010. EU markets were divided according to end use: (i) residential and district heating, (ii) power plants driven market, (iii) mixed market, and (iv) export-driven countries. North America basically serves as an exporter, but also with signifi cant domestic consumption in USA. East Asia is predicted to become the second-largest consumer after the EU in the near future. The development perspective in Latin America remains unclear. Five factors that determine the market characteristics are: (i) the existence of coal-based power plants, (ii) the development of heating systems, (iii) feedstock availability, (iv) interactions with wood industry, and (v) logistics factor. Furthermore, intervention policies play a pivotal role in market development. The perspective of wood pellets industry was also analyzed from four major aspects: (i) supply potential, (ii) logistics issues, (iii) sustainability considerations, and (iv) technology development.Perspective: Wood pellet market and trade: a global perspective CS Goh et al.

The 2011 US Billion-Ton Update 1 estimates that there are enough agricultural and forest resources to sustainably provide enough biomass to displace approximately 30% of the country's current petroleum consumption. A portion of these resources are inaccessible at current cost targets with conventional feedstock supply systems because of their remoteness or low yields. Reliable analyses and projections of US biofuels production depend on assumptions about the supply system and biorefi nery capacity, which, in turn, depend on economics, feedstock logistics, and sustainability. A cross-functional team has examined optimal combinations of advances in feedstock supply systems and biorefi nery capacities with rigorous design information, improved crop yield and agronomic practices, and improved estimates of sustainable biomass availability. Biochemical-conversion-to-ethanol is analyzed for conventional bale-based system and advanced uniform-format feedstock supply system designs. The latter involves 'pre-processing' biomass into a higher-density, aerobically stable, easily transportable format that can supply large-scale biorefi neries. Feedstock supply costs, logistics and processing costs are analyzed and compared, taking into account environmental sustainability metrics.