Liquid Fuels from Alternative Carbon Sources Minimizing Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Abstract

The energy needs of the world continue to grow, as does the resulting environmental impact. Policy makers continue to call for alternative energies to replace today's petroleum‐based liquid fuels. However, liquid fuels have significant advantages, and it is probably unwise to abandon the existing infrastructure without appropriately exploring alternatives to lessen the environmental burden of producing liquid fuels. Biomass and coal are often proposed as alternatives to petroleum‐based carbon sources, but those processes lose a significant amount of their potential product to unwanted carbon dioxide emissions. However, combining biomass and coal with cleaner natural gas yields processes with less environmental impact to produce liquid fuels with small, zero, or even negative carbon dioxide emissions. Our process synthesis approach is applied to commonly encountered liquid fuel production methods to identify promising routes and to establish feasibility limits on those less promising alternatives. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 2062–2078, 2013

Hygroscopic Hydrogels for Removal of Trace Water from Liquid Fuels

“…Liquid fuels, such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, are largely derived from fossil resources and remain the dominating energy source at present, playing a primary role in transportation and the economy . During the production, transportation, and storage of liquid fuels, water is inevitably incorporated, leading to serious problems to fuel engines and the storage facilities. , For instance, water in jet fuel may freeze to block the fuel line in aircraft, leading to serious safety hazards. − Therefore, dehydration is a crucial process during the production of liquid fuels to ensure fuel quality.…”