Chevron, Georgia Tech Form Fuels Alliance

Chevron and Georgia Institute of Technology are forming a partnership to conduct research and develop technology that they hope will make cellulosic biofuels and hydrogen viable transportation fuels.

Chevron Technology Ventures, a subsidiary of San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron, will work with Georgia Tech's Strategic Energy Institute and contribute up to $12 million over five years for R&D of the emerging energy technologies.

"This research alliance underscores Chevron's commitment to expand and diversify the world's energy sources and represents an ambitious effort to achieve breakthrough technology in the development of cellulosic biofuels,??? says Donald L. Paul, Chevron???s vice president and chief technology officer.

Beyond this project, Paul says Chevron expects to spend approximately $400 million this year to further develop alternative and renewable energy technologies.

Chevron says the goal of the alliance with Georgia Tech is to develop commercially viable processes for making transportation fuels from renewable resources such as agricultural waste. This would be considered an advance over first-generation biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, which are made from corn, sugarcane, soybeans, and other food crops.

"Once developed, second-generation processing technology will allow waste products to be converted into renewable transportation fuels, opening the door to a new phase in alternative energy," says Rick Zalesky, vice president of biofuels and hydrogen for Chevron Technology Ventures.

Chevron says the research will focus on four areas: production of cellulosic biofuels, understanding the characteristics of biofuel feedstocks, developing regenerative sorbents, and improving sorbents used to produce high-purity hydrogen.

Researchers hope to develop processes to directly convert biomass, such as wood or switchgrass, into hydrogen or hydrocarbon fuels. The study is expected to help researchers determine the feasibility of producing commercial volumes of cellulosic biofuels or hydrogen from biomass and also understand the conditions needed for large-scale production facilities.

Researchers will also examine the characteristics of biofuels produced from different feedstocks and their effects on biofuel production processes. Defining the properties of various biofuels will help engineers design equipment and procedures to accommodate different feedstocks.

Sorbents are used in hydrogen production from natural gas to remove odorants that contain sulfur. They are usually costly and can be used only once. Scientists from Chevron and Georgia Tech plan to develop regenerative sorbents that can be used repeatedly, thereby reducing the cost of producing hydrogen from natural gas.

In a related project, researchers will try to develop sorbents for the purification of hydrogen produced from natural gas reforming. Both hydrogen performance and vehicle performance increase with sorbent performance, leading to greater overall energy efficiency.

Chevron recently formed a biofuels business unit and invested in a new biodiesel facility in Galveston, Texas, that will produce diesel fuel from soybeans and other renewable feedstocks (C&EN, May 22, page 19).