Recipient Organization
SIMONPIETRI ENTERPRISES LLC
519 KEOLU DR APT A
KAILUA,HI 967343941
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Addressable markets: U.S. commercial airlines have been extremely proactive in identifying and sourcing lower-cost alternative jet fuel since the global crude oil price spikes in 2005-2008. These efforts have accelerated starting in 2018-2019 due to the Low Carbon Fuel Standards in the states of California and Oregon, and then the International Civil Aviation Organization's Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) requirements for airlines to start reducing the greenhouse gas impact of their international flights starting in the year 2021. Commercial airlines have demonstrated the technical feasibility of renewable jet fuel in thousands of flights over the past ten years, but to date no fuel made from woody biomass has achieved commercial viability due to very high capital and feedstock costs. At the same time, the U.S. construction industry generates hundreds of millions of tons of waste wood each year, but this wood is contaminated with paints, resins, and heavy metals from treated lumber, making this material unacceptable for recycling or disposal in anything other than dedicated C&D landfills. In our technical consulting for industrial clients over the past 3 years, we have identified innovations which apply these two problems against each other to develop a novel solution for both.Focus of research: With this research, we will do a modest proof-of-concept laboratory trial to compare two different methods for heavy metal contamination removal from wood-derived gas, and also engineering and commercial analyses to refine our cost estimate for a first commercial plant. With a successful proof of concept from this research, we will continue to develop the engineering and techniques for a unique fuel refining capability that can handle the contaminants in urban wood waste and C&D debris and convert it to lower-cost jet fuel. This urban wood waste then can form the base to cover the capital cost of commercial biorefinery plants. Those plants could then also recycle clean and pest-damaged forest biomass into fuel, and dispose of invasive species.Key locations where this is applicable: These innovations were developed in and tailored for the State of Hawaii, where the sole permitted C&D landfill has only seven years of life left, forests are challenged by invasive species and pests, and watersheds are challenged by ever-increasing wild fires. Other commercial challenges and opportunities for Hawaii include small land mass, remote location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, complicated island logistics, and extremely high jet fuel demand. However, these innovations will also apply in several other U.S. cities where C&D landfills or forest industries are located near petroleum refining complexes, especially those in termite-prone areas containing a higher proportion of treated lumber in construction waste, such as the southeastern U.S.. Our overall goal is to develop a unique and innovative way to manufacture jet fuel in the U.S. from waste that currently can only be disposed of in landfills.
Animal Health Component
70%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
70%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Our overall goal is to demonstrate that wood waste containing treated lumber can be utilized to make petroleum-competitive fuel intermediates suitable for refining into jet fuel in established commercial distillate hydrotreating systems.Objectives:Modest proof-of-concept bench-scale gasification trial on "dirty" commercial feedstock. The trial will compare two different commercial gasifier bed materials to determine the efficacy of our hypothesis that key catalyst poisons (specifically arsenic from treated lumber) can be sufficiently sequestered by a combination of bed material and operating parameters.Engineering study at AACE IV level to refine our capital cost estimate for a green field project and estimate the additional balance of plant savings from our "bolt on" conceptAssuming the trial shows successful sequestration of at least 30% of the contaminants in bed and ash, and the modeled commercial capital cost estimate is at least 30% below the current technology benchmarks discussed earlier, we would request to proceed to Phase II.
Project Methods
Experimentation:Bench-scale gasification of treated lumber, subtasks of which include gasifier system and test port and method planning and setup, feedstock preparation including hammer-milling to get to the <1" particle size needed for feeding into gasification component trials, trial operation, and effluent analysis. Methods include Gas Fuel (ASTM D1946 and D3588) and Arsenic (EPA Method 108, 7061A)Real-world sampling of commercial construction and demolition waste using ASTM D6883 - 17 coal samplingWaste characterization and sample analysis using ASTM D7582-12, D5373-08, D4239-12, and D5865-12Manufactured "recipe" sample preparation of reference treated lumber waste for process benchmarkingComparison of two different commercial bed materials and 1-2 different operating system combinations for arsenic captureChemical/laboratory analysis of the disposition of key contaminants in solid, liquid, or gas effluent including ash analysis using ASTM D4326, D6357-11, and TCLPMass balance calculations of key contaminantsEngineering: planning and cost estimation using Aspen engineering software at AACE Class IV levelCommercialization planning:Commercial supply chain partnering and relationship development and managementTechnoeconomic evaluation: Microsoft Excel technoeconomic model and decision support tool using inputs and outputs from Phase I to determine whether 30% capital cost reduction compared to state of the art renewable jet fuel biorefineries is achieved. Evaluation methods will include tornado chart/sensitivity analysis, Least Cost of Energy capital and operating cost optimization, and Greenhouse Gas Lifecycle reduction relative to the ICAO CORSIA international benchmark