2005 OBP Bi-Annual Peer Review Summary of Feed Processing & Handling Effort John Jechura, NREL Thermochemical Platform November 14, 2005

Overview Budget (K) NREL PNNL Partners Work Objective: Evaluate feedstock variability and resulting unit operation requirements required to concentrate, consolidate, & convey feedstock into the front-end of the Thermochemical process Relevant Pathways: Agricultural Residues, Energy Crops, Forest Products, Pulp and Paper, Corn Mill Improvements

3.0 Thermochemical Platform R&D 3.1 Feed Processing and Handling 3.2 TC Processing 3.3 Cleanup and Conditioning 3.5 TC Platform Analysis Feed Improvement Biomass Gasification Pyrolysis and BioOils Black Liquor Gasification Innovative Gasification Cleanup and Conditioning Core R&D Cleanup and Conditioning Partnerships TC Platform Analysis BLG for Fuels/ Chemical in at Kraft Mills Thermochemical Platform

Addressing technical barriers: Feed handling – this work will look at both the technical and costs barriers Technical Barrier Areas

Strategy and Pathways – Intermediate to Long Term

Technical Barriers Addressed Obtain feedstocks for the Thermochemical PDU gasification runs Corn stover Lignin-rich residues Determine hardware requirements to use lignin-rich fermentation residues from NREL’s Biochemical PDU Analyze feedstock property variations for corn stover and biorefinery residues – composition & physical properties

Initial Feedstock Property Comparison

Stage Placement & Portfolio Alignment Review DOE Office of the Biomass Program FY05 Thermochemical Portfolio Alignment Review June 7-8, 2005 “Stage placement” of all new and existing projects (16) in the Thermochemical Platform. Evaluations based on: Program Relevance, Approach, Progress, Success Factors, and Future Plans 7 core R&D projects (NREL, PNNL) primarily focused on developing biomass gasification and gas clean-up technology that can applied many different biomass feedstocks. 9 subcontracted industrial/cost-shared R&D projects selected by competitive solicitations or directed by Congress to develop/commercialize gas cleanup technology, black liquor gasification, and other thermochemical processes. Reviewers Professor Robert Brown, Iowa State University Professor Esteban Chornet, Université de Sherbrooke Viorel Duma, Abengoa Bioenergy R&D, Inc. John Scahill, DOE Golden Field Office David Turpin, MeadWestvaco Research

Stage Placement & Portfolio Alignment Review General Comments on Thermochemical Program Thermochemical Program has clear goals which support the overall program Technical barriers are clearly identified R&D is good fit with the program and there is good balance Funding may be inadequate to meet program goals Specific Reviewer Comments on Feed Processing & Handling : Pelletization issues: cost; necessary to regularly feed gasifiers? Lignin-rich residue’s moisture may be an index to monitor Be cognizant of property differences between wet & dry lignin-rich biomass residues DOE responses: One year project to generate data on characteristics of feedstocks & their TC conversion. TEA-type data to be used for Integrated Biorefinery analysis. Will change SOW to examine & tabulate physical properties & link to operational difficulties

Summary and Future Work Complete reports “Preliminary design for system for feeding Biorefinery residues into a Thermochemical process ” “Preliminary specification of a system for pumping wet Biorefinery residues into a Hydrothermal process” No new funding as an individual task in FY06 Work incorporated within other tasks