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Feb 5, 2014

The 101 Hottest Biofuels Feedstocks : The Digest’s 5-Minute Guide : Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane | January 28, 2014
Tired of corn, corn, corn or cane, cane, cane? There are 101 feedstocks in the biofuels canon.

Here’s what’s up with each of them, and all of them.

In Florida, Biofuels Digest released its annual Guide to biofuels feedstocks, tracking 10,658 items published in the Digest in the past 48 months on 101 feedstocks for biofuels, biopower, renewable chemicals and biobased materials.
The top 10 feedstocks, in Digest coverage

Corn — 1796 items

Microalgae — 1614 items

Sugarcane — 687 items

Carbon dioxide — 584 items

Soybeans — 442 items

Jatropha — 419 items

Oil palm — 365 items

Wheat — 295 items

Switchgrass — 248 items

Bagasse — 234 items
The top 5 feedstocks in each category

Established Grains & Grasses

Corn — 1796 items

Sugarcane — 687 items

Wheat — 295 items

Rice — 224 items

Cassava — 105 items



Established oilseeds

Soybeans — 442 items

Oil palm — 365 items

Rapeseed — 115 items

Coconut — 50 items

Castor — 49 items



Woods

Poplar — 64 items

Eucalyptus — 41 items

Willow — 24 items

White pine — 15 items

Yellow pine — 12 items



Novel feedstocks

Jatropha — 419 items

Switchgrass — 248 items

Sweet sorghum — 154 items

Camelina — 153 items

Miscanthus — 121 items



Aquatic species

Microalgae — 1614 items

Cyanobacteria — 119 items

Macroalgae — 48 items

Lemna — 30 items

Salicornia — 12 items



Residues

Carbon dioxide — 584 items

Bagasse — 234 items

Stover — 227 items

Cobs — 207 items

Straw — 190 items

In total, there were 3345 items on established grains & grasses, 1204 items on established oilseeds, 194 items on woods, 1399 items on novel feedstocks, 1824 items on aquatic species, and 2688 items on residues.

In all, the Digest is tracking 6 aquatic species, 8 established grains & grasses, 14 established oilseeds, 15 types of wood, 23 novel feedstocks, and 35 types of residues.

“Articles about a feedstock don’t always translate into acres and tonnes,” noted Digest editor Jim Lane. “A number of feedstocks are important, especially the woods, even if they receive less attention in the form of news. Plus, it’s important to keep in mind that almost every feedstock defined as “novel” has generally been around for some time; what is novel is generally that they are being investigated for use at industrial scale.”
Takeaways

Residues are king — even though popular feedstocks like corn, cane and soy attract the most attention as individual feedstocks. The very diversity of residues — agricultural, animal, forest, industrial, and municipal – tends to disperse interest against a wide backdrop of materials. At the same time, groupings like “algae” put hundreds of strains into one category. Accordingly, popularity sometimes is driven by the way the category os drawn.

Woods? An under-considered source for biofuels — primarily because fermentation systems struggle with woods, which generally (though not exclusively) lend themselves to thermocatalytic systems, which have generally received less attention over the years.

The complete list – and guide to The Digest’s coverage of all 101 feedstocks

Grains
Barley
Cassava
Corn
Rice
sorghum
Sugarbeet
Sugarcane
Wheat

Oils

Aloe
Castor
Coconut
Cotton
Flax
palm
Rapeseed
Mustard
Peanut
Poppy
Pongamia
Safflower
Soybeans
Sunflower
Tobacco

Woods

Alder
Bamboo
Beech
Birch
Blackwood
Brazilwood
Cottonwood
Eucalyptus
Juiper
Laurel
Mesquite
Poplar
Yellow pine
Willow
White pine

Grasses

Arundo
Beauty Tree
Big bluestem grass
Camelina
Carinata
Crambe
Fungi
Giant King Grass
Guayule
Hemp
Indian grass
Jatropha
Jojoba
Mallee
Millenium
Miscanthus
Napiergrass
Panicum
Pennycress
Sweet_sorghum
Switchgrass

Aquatic species

Cyanobacteria
Lemna
Macroalgae
Microalgae
Salicornia
Wolffia

Residues

Alligator Fat
Bagasse
Black liquor
Brewery
Brown_Grease
Coffee waste
Corn cobs
Cotton
Empty_fruit_bunch
Fish oil
Forest slash/thinnings
Fruit waste
Industrial CO off-gas
Industrial CO2 off-gas
Kudzu
Lard
Manure
Methane
MSW
Oil palm fronds
Oil palm shells
Rice hulls
Sawdust
Shrimp oil
Sludge
Soybean husk, hull
Stover
Straw
Tallow
Vinasse
White grease
Woodchips
Yard waste
Yellow grease
Waste vegetable oil
Whey

The 101 Hottest Biofuels Feedstocks : The Digest’s 5-Minute Guide : Biofuels Digest

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