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Liquid Fuels from Alternative Carbon Sources Minimizing Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Author(s) -
Metzger Matthew J.,
Glasser Benjamin J.,
Patel Bilal,
Fox James,
Sempuga Baraka Celestin,
Hildebrandt Diane,
Glasser David
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.13989
Subject(s) - coal , biomass (ecology) , environmental science , waste management , liquid fuel , carbon dioxide , carbon fibers , greenhouse gas , petroleum , natural resource economics , environmental engineering , environmental protection , engineering , chemistry , materials science , economics , ecology , organic chemistry , composite number , composite material , biology , combustion
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