Waste to Fuel

The head of a team of renewable fuel scientists says he is concerned that “current party manifestos clearly demonstrate politicians’ lack of understanding of true fuel emissions and engine effciency”.

Devin Walker, chief technical offcer of London-based Renovare Fuels, says that the information being provided to UK policymakers is often limited in scope. Walker is a developer in new technology used to convert biogas from organic waste into petrol, diesel and even jet fuel, tested and approved to ASTM standards.

“Natural gas and petrol do produce less nitrogen oxide (NOx) but relying on these forms of fuel would be at the expense of vehicle engine power and fuel effciencies,” argues Walker.

“In comparison to petrol engines, diesel vehicles can operate up to 30% more effciently. Petrol engines produce less NOx, but because around 30% more fuel is needed to generate the same amount of energy, this ultimately leads to a higher accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere

“For accuracy, we should not be simply measuring emissions from vehicles but also emissions from processing and distribution of fuel

“New NG fuelling stations would cost around £1.4m each to construct, while new diesel stations would cost around £116,000 each. Upgrading a bus feet to NG would cost between £23,000 and £77,000 more per bus, compared to diesel feets

“Recent research has shown that in trials, well-to-wheel annual GHG emissions increased up to 13.3 tons of CO2 equivalents per NG bus, compared to a diesel bus

“We should not focus on scrapping diesel vehicles but continue to develop exhaust treatment systems which break down nitrogen and oxygen into their individual components; allowing the retroft of current diesel engines at a fraction of the proposed scrappage cost

“Continued development of clean diesel technologies which convert biomass and waste to diesel fuel would also offer zero net carbon emission, in line with the government’s plan for all vehicles to be zero emission by 2050

“The two strategies together would offer billions of pounds in fuel infrastructure savings, continued effciency gains and reductions of not just NOx emissions but total GHG life-cycle emissions from well-to-wheel.”

Renovare Fuels has developed and trialled the world’s frst technological process which enables biogas produced from organic waste in UK anaerobic digestion facilities, UK landflls and industry to be processed directly into liquid fuel in the form of petrol and diesel through a carbon neutral process. According to Renovare Fuels, the technology, which is scheduled to become commercially available later this year, produces fuel in a ready-touse form without the need for any engine modifcations

A UK sustaiable energy company, Renovare Fuels, has successfully converted landfill gas info usable diesel fuel with no fossil fuel additives in recent US trials - a world first.

The renewable diesel fuel produced by the new process resembled commercial diesel both physically and chemically, and could therefore be used as a droup-in fuel in diesel engines without the need for engine modification.

The company's patented technology has been developed from NASA-funded research for Fischer developed by chemical engineers at the University of South Florida. Renovare uses these new catalyst technologies to first convert the landfill gas to syngas using a tri-reforming catalyst and then produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels using a Fischer- Tropsch Synthesis catalyst, specifically tailored to produce large fractions of middle distillate fuel. By integrating this technology into gas capturing systems at landfills, munipal solid waste facilties are able to convert naturally produced landfill gases into liquid transportation fuel(diesel).

During the trials, landfill gas from Sarasota County Municipal Solid Waste Facility in Florida was converted into diesel which met the specifications of all American Society for Tesing and Materials (ASTM International) Standards testing.