Evaluation of sustainability, economic, and technology readiness of biomass-derived blendstock candidates that could increase fuel economy of light-duty vehicles

The Department of Energy (DOE) Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative is accelerating the introduction of affordable, scalable, and sustainable fuels and high-efficiency, low-emission engines. Co-Optima... [ view full abstract ]

The Department of Energy (DOE) Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative is accelerating the introduction of affordable, scalable, and sustainable fuels and high-efficiency, low-emission engines. Co-Optima brings together multiple DOE offices, national laboratories, and industry stakeholders to simultaneously address fuel and engine research and development (R&D) in order to maximize energy savings and on-road vehicle performance, while dramatically reducing transportation-related petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.  As part of this effort, Co-Optima researchers have been investigating a set of biomass-derived blendstocks that could be blended with conventional gasoline to provide advanced spark-ignition engines with the fuels necessary to operate at high efficiency conditions which require high boost and high compression ratio.  The resulting blended fuel is targeted to have properties that yield gains in fuel economy and engine performance.  One aspect of assessing these different biomass-derived blendstocks includes evaluating their sustainability, economics, and technology readiness.  Potential blendstocks that may offer fuel economy gains and have desirable blending and combustion properties may not be economically viable, may be produced from technology that is at a stage well before commercialization, or may not offer environmental benefits over current fuels.  In this presentation, we will review the approach used to carry out an evaluation regarding these aspects for twenty different biomass-derived blendstocks, candidates for use in advanced spark-ignition engines when blended with gasoline, including alcohols, furans, esters, ketones, alkanes, alkenes, and aromatics.  The evaluation involved eighteen different metrics and, given the uncertainty regarding the production route and other factors including properties of gasoline blended with the blendstock, assigned each blendstock a favorable, neutral, or unfavorable rating for each of the metrics rather than using discrete quantitative metrics.  We will discuss the results of this evaluation in which a multi-national laboratory team of experts in techno economic analysis and life cycle analysis participated. The insights gained through this exercise coupled with insights into the physical properties of these blendstocks and their effect on

blended gasoline properties can provide a holistic picture of the blendstocks
and inform the direction of the broader Co-Optima effort.