Dennis N. Stamires, Stephen K. Ritter

Toward Success in Biomass Conversion to Affordable Clean Energy (eBook, ePUB)

The Story of KiOR and the Merits and Perils of Developing Economically and Environmentally Sustainable Biofuels to Chase Down Global Warming and Limit Destructive Climate Change

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Toward Success in Biomass Conversion to Affordable Clean Energy highlights the history of KiOR, a startup bioenergy company that sought to become a commercial success ... but failed.

Starting in 2007, until declaring bankruptcy in 2014, KiOR spent close to $1 billion to prove that single-reactor thermocatalytic conversion of organic materials such as wood chips, grasses, and even waste plastics to transportation fuels using conventional oil-refinery catalyst processing is not scalable to commercial-size plants, and in fact is not economically feasible using current technology.

This case study provides historical perspective and insights on government oversight of transportation fuels, development of refinery catalyst technology, and criteria for developing sustainable commercial-scale biomass-to-fuels technologies. Along the way, the authors, who are experts in catalyst and refinery processes as well as environmental sustainability and natural resource management, propose feasible solutions to help alleviate catalyst and other technology limitations in biomass conversion.

Their intent is to help science and engineering researchers, business leaders, investors, government officials, and the general public negotiate the challenges of using biomass crops, waste wood and other plant materials, and waste plastics to create a sustainable supply of clean and affordable energy, transportation and heating fuels, and specialty chemicals on a global scale while helping protect the environment.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Archway Publishing
• Seitenzahl: 190
• Erscheinungstermin: 25. Juli 2023
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781665743228
• Artikelnr.: 69300809

Autorenporträt

Dennis Stamires (born in Greece, 1932) is an American scientist and expert in heterogeneous catalysis, solid-gas interface interactions, and electron transfer. He received a B.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Leeds in 1953, an M.S. in physical chemistry at Canisius College in 1958, and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Princeton University in 1962 working in the research group of Professor John Turkevitch. Dr. Stamires began his independent career at Union Carbide's Linde Division, working on the electrical properties of metal-ion-exchanged synthetic zeolites (molecular sieves) and preparation of zeolitic solid-state electronic devices, including humidity sensors and dry-cell high-temperature batteries. Key to this work was showing experimentally that X-type wide-pore faujasite zeolites are relatively unstable and lose their crystallinity when exposed to hydrothermal treatments, a problem solved by replacing zeolite X with its isomorph zeolite Y containing a higher silica-to-alumina ratio. This work led to the discovery with his colleagues of metal-ion-exchanged Y and ultrastable Y faujasite zeolites incorporated in Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) and hydrocracking catalysts. These substantive advances in commercial refining catalysts helped increase the volume and availability of petroleum-derived gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel at lower costs.

In 1965, Dr. Stamires joined the new Douglas Advanced Research Laboratory (formed by Douglas Aircraft Corp., later McDonnell Douglass and then Boeing Co.) in Huntington Beach, California. Among other projects, he worked with Nobel Laureate Willard Libby on experimental assessment of automobile and supersonic aircraft exhaust to understand pollution effects on stratospheric ozone using electron spin resonance spectroscopy. He also worked on the construction of a high-resolution Electron Nuclear Double Resonance (ENDOR) spectrometer for improving the accuracy and resolution of regular ESR spectrometry for examining electron-nuclear interactions in single crystal and in polycrystalline materials. This development aided the government decision to not allow SST aircraft to fly over the continental U.S.

Stamires joined Filtrol/Kaiser Aluminum & Chemicals Corp. in Los Angeles in 1972, becoming Filtrol's vice president of R&D in 1979 overseeing development and production of low-cost synthetic faujasite-type zeolites and FCC specialty catalysts for producing low-sulfur and low-nitrogen fuels. In 1982, Stamires was offered a consulting position at AkzoNobel in the Netherlands to assist the catalyst division in reviving its global business, leading to development of next-generation FCC and hydroprocessing catalysts. Subsequently, AkzoNobel bought Filtrol in 1989 and then sold its catalyst business to Albemarle in 2004, where Stamires remained as a full-time consultant until 2006 working on petroleum refining catalysts and new fire-retardant products.

Through connections at Albemarle, Stamires together with Paul O'Connor and Armand Rosheuvel founded BIOeCON, a new bioenergy company based in the Netherlands formed to develop biomass catalytic cracking (BCC) technology. Subsequently, he moved to Houston-based KiOR in 2007 as a full-time consultant with the position of Senior Science Fellow and member of the Science Advisory Board, remaining at KiOR until late 2013 working on biomass conversion catalysts and process development.

Throughout his career, Dr. Stamires has collaborated with global leading scientists and engineers in developing catalysts currently used in refinery operations and clean-energy processes aimed at reducing and improving the environmental carbon footprint of fuels and chemicals production that are described in 630 patents and patent applications and 126 publications. He is a member of the New York Academy of Science and member of The Circle of Hellenic Academics in Boston, and he has been a member of the American Physical Society and the American Chemical Society.

Stephen K. Ritter (born in North Carolina, USA, in 1963) received a B.S. in industrial chemistry (1986), B.A. in technical writing and editing (1989), and M.S. in nuclear chemistry with a focus on radon assessment (1990), all from Western Carolina University. Following military service in the U.S. Marine Corps, he received a Ph.D. degree in inorganic chemistry at Wake Forest University in 1993 and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Idaho, focusing on main-group fluorine chemistry applied to development of new polymeric materials. Dr. Ritter started his career at the American Chemical Society in 1994 as an assistant editor at Chemical & Engineering News. Over the years his roles evolved as an expert on topics of inorganic chemistry, energy, and environmental science, with broad coverage of green chemistry, biomass conversion, natural resource management, and sustainability science, rising to become Senior Editor with more than 1,400 published articles to his credit. In January 2018, Dr. Ritter joined ACS Global Journals Development as Managing Editor for the core ACS inorganic and organic journals.