Biofuels and Bioenergy

Biography

Biography: Janea A Scott,

Abstract

In September 2016 California put into law statewide goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions including 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.  To help achieve these goals California has a number of policy initiatives including the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant (SLCP) Reduction Strategy and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). The SLCP Reduction Strategy identifies a range of options for accelerating short-lived climate emission reductions including regulation, incentives, and other market supporting activities.  The SLCP Reduction Strategy was approved in March 2017 with implementation beginning in January 2018.  The LCFS which has been in place since 2009 is designed to encourage the use of cleaner low-carbon fuels by creating market incentives for near-term GHG reductions, and has a goal of reducing the overall carbon intensity of fuel within the transportation sector 10 percent by 2020. With California’s transportation sector accounting for 37 percent of the State’s overall GHG emissions, achieving California’s climate goals will require significant technological and market changes within the transportation sector. To help transform California’s transportation market, the California Energy Commission administers the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP) which provides up to $100 million annually to develop and deploy a portfolio of alternative fuel and advanced vehicle technologies, including the production of biofuels. Biofuels including gasoline substitutes, diesel substitutes, and biomethane are anticipated to provide immediate and long-term opportunities to reduce both GHG emissions and petroleum use. Through the ARFVTP the Energy Commission has awarded $167 million to 59 biofuel projects, ranging from bench-scale to commercial production, with the goal of expanding the production of low-carbon, economically competitive biofuels from waste-based and renewable feedstocks in California.

Examples of funded projects:

CR&R: Anaerobic digestion of source separated municipal solid waste into biomethane that will be cleaned to pipeline quality and injected into the natural gas pipeline.

G4 Insights: Testing and refining an advanced thermochemical process capable of converting forest biomass to biomethane for transportation end uses. 

Pixley Biogas: Anaerobic digestion facility producing biomethane from dairy waste that replaces the natural gas used as a process fuel at a nearby ethanol production facility. 

CleanWorld: Anaerobic digestion of 40,000 tons of local food waste into biomethane displacing 700,000 gallons of diesel annually. 

Crimson Renewable Energy: Biodiesel production facility with annual output of 17 million gallons of low-carbon biodiesel sourced from waste feedstocks including used cooking oil, animal fats, and waste corn oil.

Figure: CleanWorld’s anaerobic digester biorefinery which processes 40,000 tons of food waste annually for the production of biomethane for transportation applications