Biofuel production

Abstract

Depleting fossil fuel resources and increasing CO2 emissions have motivated the search for suitable biofuels to replace fossil derived fuels, particularly for the transportation sector. Because liquid hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel have high energy density and simple storage and combustion properties, they have provided an ideal solution to powering transportation. The problem of powering aircraft is particularly constrained since it combines the need for high energy content, small volume, low weight, tolerance to wide ambient temperature variations, and compatibility with simple propulsion systems. The search for renewable and low-carbon liquid fuels has resulted in the development of ethanol and biodiesel as renewable replacements for gasoline and diesel, respectively. While these fuels work in many applications and have lower carbon impacts than fossil fuels, to date they have both been produced primarily from food crops, either sugar or grain or vegetable oils, and as such compete with growing food demand. Responding to this need, there has been much research on developing biofuels that can be derived from cellulosic feedstocks, which can be produced more abundantly, less expensively and more sustainably than food crops. This chapter presents an overview of some biofuel technologies that could be appropriate for converting wood into liquid fuels.