The feedstock challenge.

The problem we face today is that while petroleum supplies are diminishing, there is growing demand for renewable fuels that can utilize the existing transportation fuel infrastructure and engine technology in a carbon-constrained market. The solution is to create a cost-effective way to use multiple, geographically-dispersed feedstocks to produce meaningful quantities of on-spec, clean, compatible renewable fuels.

Environmental concerns and the finite petroleum reserves outside our nation’s control demand a transition of feedstock used in the production of liquid transportation fuels from petroleum (hydrocarbons) to carbohydrates (oxygenated hydrocarbons). Carbohydrates are bulky plant materials that come in many small streams of diverse and geographically-dispersed biomass feedstocks. For example, crude corn oil (a by-product of ethanol plants) is readily available in the Midwest, while wood waste (from forest harvesting residues, forest undergrowth removal or wood processing residues) is abundant in the Pacific Northwest. Ag processing waste (such as potato and sugar beet waste), ag waste (like straw or corn stalks), forest and wood waste, and grasses (whether naturally occurring or raised as energy crops) are all potential biomass feedstocks. This is the real challenge:  locating these feedstocks and transporting them to a place where they can be converted to fuels.