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The World’s First Solar-Biomass Refinery

Biofuels would be an excellent alternative to conventional gasoline and diesel if it weren’t for one nagging problem: they are energy-intensive to produce. Bio-ethanol was once seen as the holy grail of alternative fuels, but a poor energy balance and competition with food supply made it more of a lame duck than any sort of exalted enviro-savior.

New Mexico-based Sundrop Fuels, however, has developed a hybrid solar-biomass refinery to address those issues. The company plans to use concentrated solar power (CSP) to heat plant scraps and wood chips to create a biofuel. That biofuel can then be used to create gasoline or diesel fuel.

The use of solar power to reduce consumption of biomass at the refinery should considerably improve their product’s energy balance, i.e. energy put into production versus energy pulled out. Sundrop’s SurroundSun reactor technology is similar to relatively new Power Tower tech now used to create solar thermal electricity. In fact, Sundrop has licensed CSP technology from well-known start-up eSolar to make their prototype biorefinery a reality.

Instead of using mirrors to reflect sunlight and to heat water or molten salts in a central tower, Sundrop Fuels’ design will use that solar energy to heat biomass to very high temperatures. The solar heat “blasts organic materials with super high temperatures…tearing apart the materials at the molecular level…which creates a synthetic gas that can be formed into gasoline or diesel,” said Sundrop CEO Wayne Simmons.

solar biomass hybrid plant Some burning of biomass will be necessary to reach the desired temperatures, but the company claims that roughly 30 percent of the necessary heat will come from the sun. That translates into roughly one-third less fuel burnt to create their end-product.

Sundrop is seeking investors to get a demonstration project off the ground. $100-$150 million is needed to build the plant that could create up to 8 million gallons of alternative fuel per year. From there, Sundrop hopes to expand into foreign markets with sunny, arid climates, such as North Africa, the Middle East and China. They plan to have the demo project online around 2012 and then expand from there.

The use of wood chips, corn stalks and other plant scraps would address the issue of competition with food supply that plagues the biofuels industry. Using solar thermal power rather than burning all biomass or natural gas will address the issue of energy balance for their product. In the end, Sundrop may provide consumers and commuters with an alternative fuel that actually makes a difference. While this writer still hopes for widespread use of electric vehicles, there are definitely some hangups – such as commercial trucking – that a hybrid solar-biomass fuel could eliminate, and in the relatively short term.

Source: Green.TMCnet.com

Photo Credit: OUC

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