Phase Shift: 12 Hot Gas-based biofuels technologies

In traditional biofuels, the story to date been all about solids and liquids – grains, juices, mash, slurries and eventually files, chemicals and biomaterials. A lot of the early companies through the advanced biofuels IPO gate – like Amyris, Solazyme and Gevo, work on liquids too. In short, the wet stuff is the publicity hog.

But a new generation of technologies is coming along fast, primarily in advanced biofuels, which is gasifying biomass at the front end along its path towards making fuels, chemicals or other biomaterials – or in some cases, using organic chemicals already in a gaseous state. One of the most exciting new technologies, syngas fermentation – described recently as the “third path for cellulosic ethanol” by Advanced Biofuels USA, is profiled here.

… Full text: biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2011/08/08/phase-shift-12-hot-gas-based-biofuels-technologies/

Keywords: Fischer-Tropsch, plasma gasification, aviation biofuels, advanced biofuels, fermentation