Shell demonstration plant turns biomass into gasoline

March 24, 2010

Virent CEO Lee Edwards at the new demonstration plant

The world’s first demonstration plant to turn plant matter directly into gasoline, rather than ethanol or biodiesel, has started up in Wisconsin.

Oil giant Shell and its partner Virent Energy Systems, Inc., have been developing the “BioForming” technology since March 2008.

The demonstration plant at Virent’s site in Madison has the capacity to produce up to 10,000 gallons of fuel each year.

The fuel is to be used for engine and fleet testing, the companies said yesterday.

Shell and Virent believe their new production process will mean biomass-sourced fuel that can be blended in high concentrations within gasoline for use in transport.

It could eliminate the need for specialized biofuel distribution infrastructure and engine modifications that might be necessary for fuel blends with more than 10% ethanol, the firms believe.

“Moving from lab-scale to a demonstration production plant is an important milestone for biogasoline,” said Luis Scoffone, Vice President of Alternative Energies at Shell.

”There is some way to go on the route to commercialisation, but we have been delighted with the speed of progress achieved by our collaboration with Virent.”

Technology

The BioForming technology, which has been patented by Virent, is based on the Aqueous Phase Reforming process, using catalysts to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules that are similar to those in petroleum.

Renewable fuels that provide high performance, reliability, and lower emissions are now closer to reality” - Lee Edwards, Virent Energy Systems

The developers of the process say these “biogasoline” molecules have a higher energy content than the ethanol produced from biomass by fermentation.

This means the biogasoline can be “seamlessly” blended with petroleum-based gasoline, and achieve a better mileage according to its producers.

The process can make use of non-food feedstocks such as corn stover, wheat straw and the pulp by-products from sugarcane as well as conventional biofuel feedstocks like wheat, corn and sugarcane.
The demonstration plant is currently using beet sugar.

Lee Edwards, CEO of Virent, said: “Renewable fuels that provide high performance, reliability, and lower emissions are now closer to reality as a viable alternative for transportation fuels from crude oil.”