Reports indicate that the worldwide energy consumption and fossil fuel energy production level will have an opposite trend in the coming two decades. The former will continue to increase while the later will decrease. Therefore, additional sources of energy need to be developed. Field pennycress (Thlaspi, arvense L.) has been found to be an ideal source of energy because it has prolific yield and has no value as food. We demonstrated conventional and catalytic fast pyrolysis of whole pennycress biomass in a fluidized bed reactor. Characterization studies on field pennycress showed that the biomass had a potential to be converted to energy-rich bio-fuel. Thermogravimetric and kinetic study on field pennycress provided vital information on the degradation behavior of the feedstock. A parametric study was conducted on conventional rapid pyrolysis by using the effects model. The optimum experimental condition that gave maximum liquid yield was found to be at a temperature of 500 °C and a gas flow rate of 24 l/min. The catalysts used for catalytic fast pyrolysis were HZSM-5, a commercial catalyst, and red mud, an alumina industry waste material. The liquid products obtained from pennycress were found to have better qualities compared to a typical lignocellulosic feedstocks pyrolysis bio-oil. The bio-oil from the red mud catalyzed experiment had almost neutral pH of 6.5 and the pH in the case of HZSM-5 was 5.7. In comparison to bio-oil from conventional rapid pyrolysis, HZSM-5 and red mud reduced the viscosity of the bio-oil by 3 and 5 times, respectively. However, red mud was only found to be effective in improving the higher heating value (HHV) of the bio-oil from 33.18 MJ/kg (dry basis) in conventional pyrolysis to 35.7 MJ/Kg (dry basis). The HHV of HZSM-5 catalyzed bio-oil was 33.63 MJ/kg. The composition of non-condensable gases and the chemical makeup of the bio-oil from the two catalysts were different, suggesting that the reaction pathways could be different. HZSM-5 had higher selectivity for aromatics whereas red mud produced longer aliphatic chains. The bio-oil obtained from red mud catalytic pyrolysis of field pennycress is a promising alternative energy source that could replace petroleum fuels after some upgrading.

<p>Much of current interest in aviation biofuels centers on trying to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) [1]. The problem is that the alternative aviation fuels which have been developed so far are not economically viable without policy supports and are underwhelming in regards to their environmental sustainability. The objective of this research is to identify biofuel pathways that perform better economically and environmentally than those which have been developed thus far. This paper will pursue this objective by examining the economic performance of a CH pathway fed by field pennycress under a number of possible scenarios.</p> <p>We conduct a stochastic discounted cash flow techno-economic analysis (TEA) of a plant designed to use catalytic hydrothermolysis (CH) technology to produce renewable diesel fuel, renewable jet fuel, and renewable naphtha from pennycress seed oil on a “greenfield” site under sixteen different scenarios defined by plant location, stage of commercialization, choice of fuel product slate, and policy environment. We combine process parameters such as conversion efficiencies, heat and water requirements, and capital costs for our model plant with stochastic projections of key input and output prices in order to model the distribution of possible financial outcomes for the plant over a twenty-year productive life. Our work follows McGarvey and Tyner (2018) in many respects, but uses updated process parameters from Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), connects with economic analyses of the potential pennycress oil supply chain, and includes novel approaches to modeling key policies (US Renewable Fuel Standard, California Low Carbon Fuel Standard, and US Biodiesel Blender Tax Credit) and price series (US No. 2 diesel fuel, soybean oil, and dried distiller’s grains with solubles) [2]. Our output metrics include distributions of Net Present Values (NPVs), Probabilities of Loss (POLs), and distributions of Breakeven Prices (BEPs) for key inputs and outputs.</p> <p>Our results show that aviation biofuels production at a greenfield CH plant fed by pennycress seed oil is not economic under current market and policy conditions. Our breakeven metrics for a renewable jet fuel policy incentive, crude oil prices, and the input cost of pennycress oil indicate this could change if one of the following were to occur: </p> <p>· A crude oil price increase of at least 31-52%</p> <p>· A jet fuel price increase of at least 11-26%</p> <p>· A pennycress oil price discount of 2-6% from soybean oil prices</p> <p>· Some combination of the above</p> <p>These findings are heavily influenced by current policy design.</p>