Future Opportunities for Biomass Fuels and Power

President Bush, in his 2006 State of the Union address, established the goal of reducing crude oil imports form the Middle East by 75% in 2025. In support of the goal the U.S. Department of Energy has established a goal of replacing 30 percent of today?s motor gasoline with biofuels by 2030; this goal will require the commercial production of biofuels at a level of 60 billion gallons of ethanolequivalents. Today the U.S. production of biofuels is approximately 4 billion gallons of ethanol. This presentation will discuss existing biomass usage and bioenergy technologies; biomass potential as discussed in the 'Billion Ton Study'; and products and technologies for the future. Emphasis will be placed on emerging technologies for fuel production: biochemical production of ethanol fromlignocellulosic biomass; production of biodiesel and green diesel from fatty acids; thermochemical production of mixed alcohols, Fischer Tropsch liquids, methanol, and dimethyl ether via gasification; production of green gasoline and alkanes from pyrolysis oil; and production of fuels from algae. A discussion of energy efficiency and renewable/fossil energy ratios will be made. Brief discussionsof power production technologies will also be given, concentrating primarily on gasification-based technologies, i.e., gasification -- IC engine CHP for small systems and IGCC for large systems.