U.S. Patent No. 5,697,987 may be one of the most important developments in fuel technology since the invention of the 45-gallon drum.
A new fuel designed to replace gasoline is moving from the testing stage to full production this year.
Developed at Princeton University, the fuel patent has been licensed to New York-based Pure Energy Corporation.
Approximately 70 percent of the fuel can be made from waste products and the remaining 30 from natural gas liquids. Fermenting biomass from agricultural crops and urban waste creates the renewable portion of the fuel.
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Dubbed P-Series, the fuel is a mixture of ethanol from waste, pentanes plus (a hydrocarbon byproduct of natural gas) and methyltetrahydrofuran. By varying the proportions of these components, different octane levels can be achieved.
Initially, P-Series will be sold for use in flexible fuel vehicles, now marketed by Chrysler and Ford. A D-Series fuel, powering traditional gasoline engines, will also be available in the near future.
“The majority of the fuel is derived from renewable sources. Crops such as grasses can be grown specifically for ethanol or we can use agricultural waste,” said Irshad Ahmed, chief science officer of the company commercially developing the fuel.
“Rice and grain straw will no longer have to be burned in the farmers’ fields. Sugar cane bagasse, corn husks and cobs, forest trimmings and cuttings, sawdust and portions of urban and industrial waste, such as paper and cardboard are all good sources for fermentation. The MTHF is also renewable.”
In the United States, ethanol has been too costly to be a practical fuel on its own. Even when mixed with gasoline, an American ethanol subsidy of 54 cents (U.S.) a gallon is applied to the alcohol.
“You can’t afford to make ethanol at a $1.20 a gallon when gasoline is wholesaling at 54 cents. Corn seed is too expensive but the stocks and cobs are cheap,” said Ahmed.
A P-Series refinery is planned for construction beginning later this year at an undisclosed location, said Pure Energy officials. The refinery is expected to process 1,800 tonnes of agricultural waste per day, producing 600 litres of ethanol per tonne.
The refinery design allows the manufacture of higher value chemicals as byproducts of the process. The plant will also burn non-fermentable lignin, which represents 40 percent of crop residue. The byproducts and lignin will make the refinery nearly self-sufficient in energy use.
Timing is right
American energy policies require 75 percent of all affected federal and state government vehicles to be operating on alternative fuels by 2001. P-Series will be taking advantage of that market.
A diesel fuel, B-Series, is also under development by the company and project partners, Archer Daniels Midland, Growmark and the Illinois department of commerce. The bio-diesel will be 35 percent renewable and include soybean or rapeseed oil.
“For every ton of grain produced there is another ton of biomass left over. We can produce a lot of fuel from the waste of North American farm crops,” said Ahmed.
