WORKSHOP ON

Properties Needs for Biofuels and Blends:
Production, Distribution, and End Use

Boulder, Colorado

July 10 - 11, 2008

* * * ATTENDANCE TO THIS WORKSHOP IS BY INVITATION ONLY * * *

About the Workshop
In this Workshop, we solicit input from industry and other government agencies on how best we can serve the needs of the biofuels community. Invited speakers will discuss property needs from the perspectives of chemical process design, engine performance, and infrastructure issues. We will present the initial NIST work on the properties of biofuels and earlier, related work on other fuels. Break-out groups will then consider priorities for fuels and needed property data, and consider how best to disseminate these data to the relevant stakeholders.

Objective
To prioritize and coordinate the measurement, metrological, and evaluated data needs for the properties of biofuels and fuel blends.

Background
A National Biofuels Action Plan report provides an interagency perspective on the barriers and strategies to achieving an effective implementation of our National biofuels goals. The Plan addressed issues in the areas of feedstock and feedstock infrastructure; biochemical conversion; thermochemical conversion; technology integration; deployment; permitting; biofuels infrastructure; and communication, education, and outreach. A common thread through many of these areas is a need for validated consensus information on the properties of the fluids—precursors, intermediates, waste streams, components, blends, and additives—encountered in a biofuels economy. Such information was seen as a requirement for making efficient decisions in the design and operation of the process units involved in production, distribution, and end use.

Related issues of biofuels specifications and standards are being addressed in several other venues. For instance, the White Paper on Internationally Compatible Biofuels Standards examines differences relevant to such fuels in Brazil, the U.S., and the EU. The more general properties issues of interest in this Workshop are geared to producing and blending fuels in compliance with relevant specifications. Indeed, the blending strategies of individual vendors will affect the emissions profiles, engine performance, and fuel efficiency of the ultimate user. This Workshop is being convened to work towards addressing the pre-competitive properties needs from producer to user communities.

 

Agenda*
[Arrive at NIST Visitor Center no later than 8:10 for security check-in]
Coffee, tea, juice, bagels, etc. available in registration area
Day 1, Thursday, July 10
	8:30	Welcome
			Willie, May, Director, NIST Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory
		Objectives for the workshop - Charge to the participants
			Dan Friend, Chief, NIST Physical and Chemical Properties Division
	9:00	Overview of biofuels
			Al Weimer, Professor, University of Colorado and Executive Director, Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels
	9:30	Property needs for chemical process design
			Suphat Watanasiri, Senior Director for Technology, Aspen Technology, Inc.
	10:00	Property needs for blending and distribution
			Fred Cornforth, Leader, Fuels Development and Technical Support Group, ConocoPhillips
	10:30	break (Coffee, tea)
	10:45	Property needs for engine design and performance evaluation
			Charles Mueller, Senior Technical Staff, Combustion Research Facility, Sandia National Laboratories
	Elements of NIST work on properties of fuels:
	11:15	Overview of NIST activities
			Dan Friend, NIST
	11:30	Lessons from previous NIST programs targeted to specific industries:
			API 44 project on hydrocarbons, Michael Frenkel, NIST
			Replacements for the CFC refrigerants, Mark McLinden, NIST
	12:00	Advanced distillation curve and chemical characterization
			Tom Bruno, NIST
	12:20	lunch (NIST Cafeteria)
	1:30	Measurement strategies: From gold-plated numbers to rapid characterization
			Arno Laesecke, NIST
	1:50	Modeling:  equations of state and surrogate mixtures
			Eric Lemmon, NIST
	2:10	SRD Databases:
			REFPROP, Eric Lemmon, NIST
			Thermo Data Engine (TDE), Rob Chirico, NIST
			Chemical Kinetics, Don Burgess, NIST
	2:55	break (coffee, soft drinks, cookies, brownies)
	3:10	Panel Discussion
			Invited panelists and all participants will consider properties challenges with biofuels Jim Olson, Dow Chemical Company, moderator
	4:50	Logistics for Friday
			—Breakout session objectives & questions to be discussed, assignment of participants to sessions
	5:00	Adjourn for the day
Day 2, Friday, July 11
	Coffee, tea, juice, bagels, etc. available in registration area
	8:30	Breakout sessions: [discussion led by NIST staff]
			Participants will divide into three groups with assigned questions to discuss. There will also be time for open discussion of topics raised by participants.
	10:15	break (coffee, tea)
	10:30	Resume breakout sessions
	11:30	lunch (NIST Cafeteria)
	12:30	Summary discussion:
			What are the challenges?
			Recommendations and priorities from breakout sessions
			Plan for future efforts
			Opportunities for collaboration
			General discussion
			Form committee to prepare summary report
	2:00	Lab tours
	3:00	Close

National Biofuels Action Plan Workshop Summary Report, (May, 2007), www.biofuelspostureplan.govtools.us/documents/NationalBiofuelsActionPlanWorkshopSummaryReportFinal-5-30-07.pdf

White Paper on Internationally Compatible Biofuels Standards, (Dec., 2007),
www.nist.gov/public_affairs/biofuels_report.pdf

* revised 19 June, 2008

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