Forecasters predict double-digit annual increases in demand for biofuels (Demand For Biofuels To Grow At Double-Digit Pace). Meanwhile, researchers are developing a host of technologies to make fuels from biomass (see, e.g., Researchers Rethink Biomass Processing, Combination Buoys Biofuels, Bio-Based Projects Blossom , Wood-based Chemicals Get Boost, Potent Potions Convert Cellulose to Fuels and Bio-Based Fuels & Feedstocks.) However, moving promising biofuels technology from the lab to demonstration scale often poses a significant financial as well as technical hurdle.
Now, though, developers can take advantage of an expanded government research facility. Indeed, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, Colo., is eager for firms to use its Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility (IBRF).
The IBRF represents a $33.5-million two-stage investment by NREL to add a new high-bay building that houses feed-handling systems, two new pilot-scale pretreatment reactors and four large high-solids enzymatic hydrolysis reactors. Stage 1 was completed last August and since then has been undergoing testing and bringing equipment online. It includes a complete process train — feedstock milling and handling, pneumatic conveying to conversion operations, pretreatment and high-solids enzymatic hydrolysis. Its pretreatment system is designed to handle a wide range of catalysts and operating conditions in one or more interconnected horizontal screw reactor tubes.
