Sustainable energy and transportation: Engineering the 21st century

The MixAlco process, a novel method for producing fuels from biomass, such as municipal solid waste, agricultural residues, sewage sludge, and manure, is presented. In this process, the biomass is treated with lime and air to enhance digestibility. Then, the lime-treated biomass is fed to a mixed-culture of microorganisms that produce carboxylic acids. In the fermentor, the carboxylic acids react with calcium carbonate buffer to form carboxylate salts. The salts are dried and thermally converted to ketones. Finally, the ketones are hydrogenated to alcohols, which may be used as motor fuel. The high-efficiency StarRotor engine, which could triple automotive fuel economy while reducing pollution, is also described. It employs the Brayton cycle, the same thermodynamic cycle used in jet engines. It uses a positive-displacement compressor and expander, which gives it more operational flexibility than conventional jet engines. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2006 AIChE Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA 11/12-17/2006).

Sustainable energy and transportation: Engineering the 21st century Conference Paper