New research shows price competitive H2Bioil biofuel creation

Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana, US have suggested its cost-effective process for creating biofuels could now move out of the laboratory and into production.

Analysis has shown that when using certain energy methods to create hydrogen for thermo-chemical H2Bioil methods of biofuel creation makes it price competitive against barrels of crude oil that cost $100 (€79).

‘In the past, I have said that for biofuels to be competitive, crude prices would need to be at about $120 per barrel. This process looks like it could be competitive when crude is even a little cheaper than that,’ says professor of agricultural economics Wally Tyner.

H2Bioil is created when biomass is heated rapidly to about 500°c in the presence of pressurised hydrogen and then passed over catalysts to produce high energy carbon molecules.

Professor of chemical engineering Rakesh Agrawal has said that the process is extremely quick and converts entire biomass into liquid fuel meaning ‘once the process is fully developed, the yield is expected to be two or three times that of other competing technologies’.

The research has been funded by the Airforce Office of Scientific Research and the US Department of Energy, with Agrawal and his team receiving a patent for the conversion process.