The Oil Drum

Introduction

I had to dig way back in my Gmail archives to figure out how it was that I first interacted with Choren. I had written several articles on biomass gasification in 2006, and when I announced that I would be moving to Scotland in early 2007, I received an e-mail from Dr. David Henson at Choren. David, at that time in Business Development at Choren and now the President of Choren USA, said he had been reading some of my essays, and he extended an invitation to visit the biomass-to-liquids (BTL) plant that Choren was building in Freiberg, Germany.

Introduction

There is a lot of government funding available for cellulosic ethanol processes. So, I have developed a new cellulose conversion process. I plan to get some of that government funding and apply for a patent. The invention is a personal cellulosic biomass reactor. In the first reaction step, the cellulose is gasified to CO and H2 (syngas). In the second step, there are several options for the syngas: produce methanol, ethanol, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, or combust it for heat or electricity. I chose to combust for heat, which occurs very rapidly following the 1st step. The combustion products are CO2 and water, but the CO2 that is released is equivalent to the CO2 that was taken up by the biomass while it was growing. It is therefore carbon neutral with respect to greenhouse gas emissions. I am hoping to get some government subsidies, or possibly Silicon Valley startup money for my invention. You can see a picture of it below.