Pacific Northwest National Laboratories - The path to renewable fuel just got easier

[Meredith Poor + 883]

https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/path-renewable-fuel-just-got-easier

Quote

Now, a research team at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed a system that does just that. PNNL’s electrocatalytic oxidation fuel recovery system simultaneously turns what has been considered unrecoverable, diluted “waste” carbon into valuable chemicals, while simultaneously generating useful hydrogen. Being powered by renewables makes the process carbon-neutral or even potentially carbon-negative.

...CogniTek Management Systems (CogniTek), a global company that brings energy products and technology solutions to market, has licensed the technology from PNNL. CogniTek will be integrating the PNNL wastewater treatment technology into patented biomass processing systems that CogniTek and its strategic partners are developing and commercializing. Their goal is the production of biofuels, such as biodiesel and bio jet fuels. In addition to the commercialization agreement, PNNL and CogniTek will collaborate to scale up the wastewater treatment reactor from laboratory scale to demonstration scale.

“We at CogniTek are excited by the opportunity to extend the PNNL technology, in combination with our core patents and patent pending decarbonization technology,” said CogniTek Chief Executive Officer Michael Gurin.

This is particularly relevant for jet fuels and aviation in general.

[markslawson + 1,042]

1 hour ago, Meredith Poor said:

This is particularly relevant for jet fuels and aviation in general.

Sounds interesting. Difficult to tell from just the story, of course, but let's see the scale-up. It would be quite impossible for any such process to beat petroleum on a straight cost basis, but these days the additive for car fuels is usually some form of bio-fuel (as opposed to the old lead additives). That could always be cheaper. Worth watching..  

[specinho + 440]

21 hours ago, Meredith Poor said:

https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/path-renewable-fuel-just-got-easier

This is particularly relevant for jet fuels and aviation in general.

errr.... not sure if this party pooping  assumption is correct, but..

- from wastewater to biogas might be a process we can assumed to be fermentation (without air or with less air) or digestion (with air). Both processes might start with fuel i.e. sugar.

Wastewater from defecation and such might have those nutrients broken down and absorbed prior their flow with gravity. The remained might be fiber, carbon, indigestible excessive food etc? Non specific conversion into biogas might be rather low?

[Meredith Poor + 883]

2 hours ago, specinho said:

fiber, carbon, indigestible excessive food

Fiber is cellulose, which is made up of starch, which is made up of sugar.

'Excessive food' might be fats, oils, or proteins.

Soap and detergents are often long chain hydrocarbons terminated with a sodium radical.

Other contents of waste water are H2S (hydrogen sulfide) which can be converted to hydrogen and sulfur (separated), ammonia, and various (poly)phenols.

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,129]

So, NO ONE actually read the link/article... it sounds nice

Title should say: New Ruthenium based Catalyst using 100X less power for processing biocrude products. 

• Requires: Biocrude source ~ Doesn't really exist and this is its main input, but if algae ponds become a thing... maybe
• Requires: "waste water" which does exist but is HIGHLY diluted and in small quantities and is thrown in as a gee whiz, this could work point of interest(So, if we start barging all our poop around)... This IS possible.  Especially anyone living near water transport(large portion of the world), but the bigger source of "biocrude", Pig, Chicken, Turkey, Cow, poop gets used as fertilizer already and is highly valuable so this is NOT a source.  A few rare areas have too much of this poop, but this is rare and nowhere near a barge for cheap transport.
• Requires Ruthenium catalysts.... I'll let you guys figure out how much Ruthenium is in the world...Almost zero
• Requires vast amount of electricity which apparently is just floating around in "excess" 🙄🤡
• All for ... maybe, some refined biocrude which uses less power than other methods, but requires an even RARER metal than Platinum in a wear environment. 

This is going to end well 😆

Sorry, until I read of a catalyst which does not require an unobtanium metal, this is a joke. 

[Meredith Poor + 883]

14 hours ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Requires: Biocrude source ~ Doesn't really exist

"Biocrude" is produced by heating plant matter (wood chips, for example) to 500 - 600 degrees for about 1 minute in an oxygen-free reaction vessel. Anyone could do this in their backyard.

https://task34.ieabioenergy.com/bio-crude/#:~:text=Bio-crude is a liquid,biomass to form a liquid.&text=Slightly higher density than petroleum,commensurate with the starting biomass.

Ideally, the thermal input should come from a solar concentrator.

[Meredith Poor + 883]

15 hours ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Requires Ruthenium catalysts.... I'll let you guys figure out how much Ruthenium is in the world...Almost zero

Wikipedia: "Ruthenium is usually found as a minor component of platinum ores; the annual production has risen from about 19 tonnes in 2009 to some 35.5 tonnes in 2017."

From the original article: "The novel catalyst requires 1,000 times less precious metal, in this case ruthenium, than is commonly needed for similar processes. Specifically, the laboratory-scale flow reactor uses an electrode with about 5 to 15 milligrams of ruthenium, compared with about 10 grams of platinum for a comparable reactor."

15 hours ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Requires vast amount of electricity which apparently is just floating around in "excess"

Can you explain what you mean by 'vast'?

The article points out that the process is 100 times more efficient than those available now. In cases where solar or wind is curtailed due to grid overload, there is in fact 'excess' that could be used.

[specinho + 440]

On 2/4/2022 at 5:42 AM, Meredith Poor said:

Fiber is cellulose, which is made up of starch, which is made up of sugar.

'Excessive food' might be fats, oils, or proteins.

Soap and detergents are often long chain hydrocarbons terminated with a sodium radical.

Other contents of waste water are H2S (hydrogen sulfide) which can be converted to hydrogen and sulfur (separated), ammonia, and various (poly)phenols.

Those might in need of specific enzymes..........

That’s why i mentioned, non specific conversion, as commonly done, e.g in Singapore, would produce rather low yield.......... or with low efficiency...... but would use much energy and burn much money during the processes.........

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by specinho

[Meredith Poor + 883]

3 hours ago, specinho said:

Those might in need of specific enzymes..........

That’s why i mentioned, non specific conversion, as commonly done, e.g in Singapore, would produce rather low yield.......... or with low efficiency...... but would use much energy and burn much money during the processes.........

 

Nothing in the article says anything about enzymes. In any case, one of the products is hydrocarbons, the other is the clean(er) water.