Why the amount of fossil carbon is the defining metric.
Healing the planet’s atmosphere is a pretty straightforward proposition. Basically, we stop burning fossil fuels to produce energy for electricity, heat, and transportation and replace them with renewable energy such as wind, solar, and biofuels.
Because coal, oil, and natural gas have been forming underground since the Carboniferous Period, we’re talking about carbon compounds entombed for several hundred million years. Today we know that exhuming and burning these zombie hydrocarbons overload the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide. The runaway release of CO2 overheats the planet and wrecks the natural carbon cycle. Disastrous change follows.
As scientific methods and tools for measurement advance, we’ve identified a key correlation: the fuels sending fossil carbon into the atmosphere are often the same fuels contributing to life-endangering air and water pollution. Carbon intensity (CI) scores point directly to the challenges.
The problem isn’t just fossil fuels. It’s also fossil chemicals.
Granted, the world’s dependency on digging up hydrocarbons seems permanently stitched into the fabric of contemporary life. The good news: government and industry leaders are taking bolder action.
Today wind and solar are succeeding in replacing coal and natural gas in electric power generation and creating new jobs in the clean energy sector. But only environmental dilettantes think wind and solar are all we need. Or that electrifying everything is the answer. Or that any of this happens overnight.
Until every internal combustion engine is replaced by a 900-pound underbelly of lithium-ion batteries, and the lithium is recycled into spaceships somewhere in the Nevada desert, some of the world’s billion-and-a-half motor vehicles will keep running on liquid fuel. And for a low-cost, easy-to-produce, non-carcinogenic, renewable liquid, first-generation ethanol is the best choice for replacing gasoline.
Thanks to government and industry action, my company’s New Energy Biomass Refineries will soon be producing the second generation of ethanol. It’s not made from grain but from fermenting the cellulosic sugars in wheat straw, barley straw, corn stalks, sugarcane stems, and leaves—the leftovers of the harvest. So no additional land is needed for growing the feedstock.
This is not rocket science. Think back to your high school biology and photosynthesis classes. Remember how sunlight, CO2, and water create plant growth? Remember learning that flora breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, which allows fauna to do the opposite? And how the carbon cycle nicely balanced the health of earth, sky, sea—all of life?
Our new generation of cellulosic ethanol (same lovely C2H5OH molecule) will be made in near-perfect harmony with the natural carbon-cycle. Essentially, we pull carbon out of the atmosphere instead of out of the ground. And we draw hydrogen and oxygen from the water in the biomass. This helps us design New Energy Biomass Refineries to produce zero-carbon or even carbon-negative fuel.
By replacing gasoline with cellulosic ethanol, says the U.S. Department of Energy, America can cut GHG emissions 108%. A good start, we’d say. But we think we can do better. We expect our cellulosic ethanol to score up to 150% below the baseline of gasoline.
What counts is how California defines low-carbon.
Long a leader in fighting automotive air pollution with tough regulations, California has again captured national headlines by requiring that all new cars sold in the state after 2035 must be electric. Meanwhile California remains the largest market for zero-carbon or carbon-negative liquid fuel due to the state’s 2015 law requiring 50% renewable energy by 2030.
Defining carbon intensity (CI) is a complex process based on how much fossil fuel is burned to make the fuel and how much CO2 the fuel emits when it’s burned to power automobiles. All of our engineering and testing to date tells us that our cellulosic ethanol will be awarded one of the lowest CI scores of any liquid fuel by the California Air Resources Board. Because of the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a very attractive carbon reduction premium is paid for a fossil-free fuel like ours.
A low CI score isn’t the only requirement. The California Ambient Air Quality Standards sets the nation’s toughest requirements for lowering harmful air pollution, requirements our cellulosic ethanol can meet or exceed. Tests performed by the federal EPA and DOE have consistently shown that ethanol is superior to gasoline in virtually all forms of environmental protection.
Biobased feedstocks for fossil-free chemicals.
New Energy Blue’s flexible process and adaptable products are keys to future success. Beginning in 2025, most anything that now comes from a barrel of oil can be made from our fossil-free, plant-based renewables.
The lignin, which binds the cellulose fibers and gives every plant its structure, is easily separated during the process once it releases the sugars. Because we use no ammonia or acid, ours is a clean lignin, ready to be dried and shipped and begin replacing oil-based products such as textiles, hard plastics, lubricants, and the bitumen binder in road pavement and roof shingles.
Our cellulosic ethanol can be blended with gasoline to clean auto fuel, or be further refined into jet fuel or biobased ethylene, the foundation of a range of products including plant-based plastics.
What part will your fuels or chemicals play in the biobased economy? Will you join us in putting our green carbon cure to work in healing our beautiful blue planet?
Thomas Corle
CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder, New Energy Blue