Country’s Need: reduced greenhouse emissions, dependency on foreign oil, and the consumption of fossil fuels

To develop a fuel that is consistent with the products on the marketplace but can be produced sustainably on a domestic level. The team’s approach was to design a process for converting cellulosic material into a usable fuel on a large scale and then verify the technological and economic feasibility of implementing such a process in the United States.

Miscanthus Giganteus (MxG)

Benefits:

The resulting facility is capable of producing 125.7 million gallons (10,930 Bbl/day) of gasoline components annually, using 17 square miles of cropland. The plant could produce about 0.09% of the 134 billion gallons of gasoline consumed in the United States. After performing a cash flow analysis, we calculated an internal rate of return of 11.72% with a payback period of 6 years when our gasoline is sold at $3.67/gallon, comparable to premium gas prices. Accounting for feedstock costs, utilities, sulfur credit, and transportation costs, variable costs total to $1.86/gallon of gasoline while operating costs total to $1.38/gallon of gasoline. Thus, the plant is economically feasible given today’s economic forecasts.