Feedstocks
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Bioenergy > Feedstocks
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Feedstocks refer to the crops or products, like waste vegetable oil, that can be used as or converted into biofuels and bioenergy. Each feedstock has advantages and disadvantages in terms of how much usable material they yield, where they can grow and how energy and water-intensive they are.
- Click on any of the feedstocks for the different biofuels below for more information. Many of the feedstocks can be used for a range of technologies.
Contents |
First generation feedstocks
First generation feedstocks includes those that are already widely grown and used for some form of bioenergy or biofuel production. The vast majority of these crops are also used for food and feed production, which means that there are possible food versus fuel conflicts.
Sugars and starches
Sugars and starches are a primary source of energy for animals and are easily convertible into alcohols or other types of biofuels.
Alcohols
Alcohols, including ethanol (drinking alcohol and butanol ("wood" alcohol), have been used as a source of bioenergy for thousands of years. Henry Ford designed his first cars to run on ethanol. Alcohols are produced by the fermentation of sugars, so the higher the yield of sugar in a feedstock the higher the yield of ethanol. Starches can be broken down into sugars with the use of enzymes and then converted into alcohols for fuel, although this extra step means that processing starches is somewhat less efficient than processing sugars.
- While enzymes that can break down starches have been well commercialized, the enzymes and other technologies for producing cellulosic ethanol (see below)are still relatively expensive.
Sugars
Starches
Waste feedstocks
Oils & Fats
- Feedstocks for: pure plant oil, biodiesel, biogas.
Plant and animal oils and fats have been used as sources of bioenergy, light and heat since the beggining of human civilization. In the modern world, Rudolph Diesel's original diesel engine was designed to run on peanut oil[1], and today diesel engines, power plants and other machines can be converted to run off of pure plant oil. Plant oils and animal fats can also be converted, through transesterification to biodiesel, which will run in any diesel engine without modification. Different feedstocks produce biodiesel with slightly different properties (Citation needed). Many of the plants with the highest oil-yields are also important sources of food like soybeans. As a result there are real concerns over the food vs fuel conflicts. As a result, many countries, like India, are looking at non-edible oils from plany like jatropha. There are also a range of waste oil products that can be used without effecting food supplies.
Edible-oil plants
- coconut oil
- oil palm - Has the highest oil yield of any plant and is grown mostly in Indonesia and Malaysia. There are concerns that expanded production will come at the expense of rainforests and biodiversity.
- rapeseed - Is the main feedstock for biodiesel in Europe (Citation needed).
- soy beans - Is the main feedstock for biodiesel in the United States (Citation needed).
- sunflower seed
Non-edible-oil plants
Waste feedstocks
Oil yields of Common Oil Crops
Note: Yield figures are most useful as comparative estimates as actual crop yields vary widely.
| Crop | kg oil/ha | litres oil/ha | lbs oil/acre | US gal/acre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| corn (maize) | 145 | 172 | 129 | 18 |
| oats | 183 | 217 | 163 | 23 |
| lupine | 195 | 232 | 175 | 25 |
| kenaf | 230 | 273 | 205 | 29 |
| calendula | 256 | 305 | 229 | 33 |
| cotton | 273 | 325 | 244 | 35 |
| hemp | 305 | 363 | 272 | 39 |
| soybean | 375 | 446 | 335 | 48 |
| linseed (flax) | 402 | 478 | 359 | 51 |
| euphorbia | 440 | 524 | 393 | 56 |
| camelina | 490 | 583 | 438 | 62 |
| sesame | 585 | 696 | 522 | 74 |
| safflower | 655 | 779 | 585 | 83 |
| rice | 696 | 828 | 622 | 88 |
| tung oil tree | 790 | 940 | 705 | 100 |
| sunflowers | 800 | 952 | 714 | 102 |
| peanuts | 890 | 1059 | 795 | 113 |
| rapeseed | 1000 | 1190 | 893 | 127 |
| olives | 1019 | 1212 | 910 | 129 |
| castor beans | 1188 | 1413 | 1061 | 151 |
| jojoba | 1528 | 1818 | 1365 | 194 |
| jatropha | 1590 | 1892 | 1420 | 202 |
| coconut | 2260 | 2689 | 2018 | 287 |
| oil palm | 5000 | 5950 | 4465 | 635 |
| Source:Journeytoforever.com | ||||
Traditional biomass feedstocks
The following feedstocks have been traditionally grown for use as a raw material or for charcoal or other form of bioenergy production. Most of these crops are also candidates for being used as a feedstock for second generation technologies.
Second generation feedstocks
Second generation feedstocks refers broadly to crops that have high potential yields of biofuels, but that are not widely cultivated, or not cultivated as an energy crop. It is sometimes used to refer to convential crops, like mustard that are considered to have strong biofuels potential. Most commonly, it refers to cellulosic feedstocks.
Cellulosic feedstocks
Most plants and trees are made of inedible cellulose. Cellulose, in the form of firewood has been used as a basic form of bioenergy for millenia. Recent advances in bioenergy, ranging from the simple (biomass pellets) to the complex (cellulosic ethanol), have created a need for high-yield feedstocks.
- The crops under consideration are mostly grasses and trees, which as perennial crops may also provide a range of environmental benefits over annual crops like corn and soybeans.
- Because yields of cellulosic feedstocks are much higher because any part of the plant can be used and because they don't compete with food, cellulosic feedstocks are seen as the best hope for large-scale, sustainable biofuel production.
- Crops, like switchgrass, which are grown purely for energy and have no use as food or fibre, are also called dedicated energy crops.
- Cellulosic technologies that can use these feedstocks include Cellulosic ethanol, biomass-to-liquids, gasification, biogas and others.
Grasses
Trees
Other second generation feedstocks
While humans have been growing grasses and trees for millenia, there are completely novel crops that are being considered as bioenergy feedstocks. Even more then cellulosic feedstocks developing techniques to cultivate these crops at scale pose major challenges.
- algae
- halophytes (Saltwater plants)
Publications
See books, reports, scientific papers, position papers and websites for additional useful resources.
Websites
- The Woody Biomass Program at SUNY-ESF - Research and news on willow biomass at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
- NewCROPTM - Website for the Center for New Crops & Plant Products at Purdue University
- B I O B I B - A Database for Biofuels - A database that provides calorific content and ash analysis for a wide range of feedstocks, including energy crops and biomass waste.
- Bioenergy Feedstock Information Network (BFIN) - "BFIN is a gateway to a wealth of biomass feedstock information resources from the U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and other research organizations."
| Bioenergy feedstocks | edit | |
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Biodiesel feedstocks: Ethanol feedstocks: Charcoal feedstocks: Bamboo | Wood | ||
| Types of bioenergy | edit | |
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Gases: Biopropane | Biogas | Synthetic natural gas | Syngas | ||
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