U.S. energy production and manufacturing, to a large extent, are based on petroleum utilization. According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. consumes approximately 20 million barrels of petroleum a day primarily as fuels. With that said, non-fuel uses for the production of chemicals, plastics, medicines, building materials, etc. are huge with approximately 750 million barrels of oil utilized per year in the U.S. alone. Thus, the market is in need of the displacement of petroleum for non-fuel applications, ideally with low-cost, sustainable alternate feedstocks. These feedstocks can take numerous forms, varying from agricultural wastes, such as straw and corn stover, to wastes from the food industry, such as used cooking oils, to domestic or industrial waste waters.
INL is involved in some of these applications and either is working on or recently has worked on a number of projects directed towards the conversion of low cost feedstocks and wastes to value-added products including fuels and chemicals. Examples of INL projects include an ongoing effort to develop advanced processes for the collection and pretreatment of agricultural feedstocks for production of fuels and chemicals, the production of biodiesel from waste cooking oils, production of plastic monomer precursors from waste hemicellulose, and the use of wastes from pulp and paper plants and domestic wastewater treatment plants for the production of thermoplastic polyesters for use in wood fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites.
- Contacts:
- Bill Apel, (208) 526-1783, Send E-mail