To improve our environment, to deliver sustainable and secure fuels for transportation,
these are today's pressing energy issues the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is working to solve.
>> Thomas Foust: It's really a dynamic time now for transportation
and so really being at the cutting edge and really doing research to improve society,
improve the human condition on this planet is really what gets myself and our team
in to work in the mornings.
>> Narrator: NREL'S National Bioenergy Center is leading
the research and development of advanced fuels made from biomass - known as biofuels.
>>Thomas Foust: The National Bioenergy Center is a collection of
of 180 scientists and engineers, technicians
doing real cutting-edge research on biofuels.
>>Narrator: And it's making an impact.
NREL achieved the national goal of delivering domestically-produced cellulosic ethanol that's
a cost-competitive alternative to gasoline.
>>Thomas Foust: The huge success story is that we accomplished
that goal. And now, that technology is being deployed in the marketplace.
>>Narrator: That's just the beginning. Researchers here are innovating and advancing an array
of biofuels from sustainable land- and water-based energy sources.
This is the algae research lab.
Algal biomass is rich in lipids similar to vegetable oils
that can be extracted and used for biofuels.
The National Bioenergy Center is analyzing the best conditions for growing algae, and
developing cost-effective strategies for production.
>> Phil Pienkos: It's really a combination of the engineering,
looking at the entire process and putting together all the different unit operations
that go in how to grow the cells, how to harvest, extract all of those things to
determine what the best process option looks like.
We are in the biomass compositional analysis laboratory.
>> Narrator: Identifying the exact make-up of a biomass feedstock helps determine the most efficient
way to break the plant material down into the components needed to create liquid fuel.
>>Justin Sluiter: The future is definitely going to be prediction
of the chemistry as it's going into a plant,
so you can change the conditions inside the reactor to accommodate changing feedstocks
as they're moving in real time.
>>Narrator: NREL's near-infrared spectroscopy provides
that real-time information - as the biomass is treated to allow engineers to adjust
the process, which means faster, better results start to finish.
>>Justin Sluiter: So, my group is involved from the very beginning to the very end, providing the feedback
on how well everything is proceeding in the process.
This laboratory supports the thermochemical platform of the biomass program.
Thermochemical conversion is one of the pathways NREL uses for biofuels production.
Researchers use high-heat and low-oxygen, a process known as gasification, to create
a carbon monoxide-hydrogen mixture called syngas.
>> Kim Magrini: So, you're heating up the biomass to a high temperature to basically deconstruct
it, to break it apart into its component molecules that are very simple.
>> Narrator: A catalyst is introduced to speed up the chemical reaction that turns the biomass into syngas
used in biofuel. NREL is improving catalysts
for better performance and higher yields.
>> Kim Magrini: At a laboratory scale, we've been able
to develop a reforming catalyst that was recently patented and licensed by other companies that
are using it to clean up biomass-derived syngas.
>> Narrator: Pyrolysis is another thermochemical approach.
The biomass is heated this time, to create a bio-oil
that's stabilized and converted to fuel.
Biochemical conversion is basically extracting
the sugars primarily out of these feedstocks and converting them.
With the biochemical conversion pathway, a pretreatment of steam and acid is used to
Access the biomass sugars needed for biofuels. Naturally-occuring enzymes then break the
long chains of sugar molecules into to simple sugars finally, micro-organisms ferment
the sugars into a solution for final finishing.
>> Jim McMillan: We're also looking to take those same
sugars from biochemical roots and convert them to hydro-carbons. Things that look like
gasoline, not an alcohol have a little bit more energy-density, lower water solubility
and they're more compatible with our current fueling infrastructure.
>> Thomas Foust: Drop-in biofuels, sometimes referred to as hydro-carbons, are technical terms
really for making gasoline, diesel, jet fuel directly from biomass that's blended with
some petroleum counterparts.
>>Narrator: Drop-in biofuels that can integrate into our
existing infrastructure of refineries and pipelines, fueling stations and vehicles
offer an economic solution to our energy challenges. The world-class researchers at the national
Renewable Energy Laboratory are partnering with industry and academia to unlock the
promise of drop-in biofuels and address the challenges of moving them quickly and
affordably to the market.
>> Thomas Foust: So by increasing the diversity of the fuel supply,
we feel we can level out fuel prices, make them less volatile and plus, very importantly,
we can make fuel and transportation much lower on
greenhouse gas emissions, environmental impacts.
>> Narrator: To generate renewable biofuels
to meet our nation's transportation needs, from abundant, home-grown biomass,
this is a greener, cleaner energy future.