Page 360 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

Ener gy Pr oduction Industries 335

as forestry and agricultural wastes, into biofuels, such as ethanol
and renewable diesel. The first project initiated under the alliance
involves bio-oil reforming, a process by which bio-oils derived from
the decomposition of biological feedstocks are then converted into
hydrogen and biofuels.
In 2007, Chevron and NREL announced a second collaborative
project—investigating technology to produce liquid transportation
fuels using algae. This initiative seeks to identify and develop algae
strains that can be economically harvested and processed into fin-
ished transportation fuels such as jet fuel. Algae are considered a
promising potential feedstock for next-generation biofuels because
certain species contain high amounts of oil, which could be extracted,
processed, and refined into transportation fuels using currently
available technology. Other benefits of algae as a potential feedstock
are their abundance and fast growth rates. Key technical challenges
include identifying the strains with the highest oil content and
growth rates and developing cost-effective growing and harvesting
methods.

References
1. Energy consumption data are provided by the Energy Information Administration,
U.S. Department of Energy.
2. Per capita energy consumption data are provided by the WRI Earthtrends data-
base, earthtrends.wri.org.
3. Personal communication from Mike Long, President, Resource100, Columbus,
Ohio.
4. P. Enkvist, T. Nauclér, and J. M. Oppenheim, “Business strategies for climate
change,” McKinsey Quarterly, April 2008.
5. M. W. Chupka, R. Earle, P. Fox-Penner, and R. Hledik, “Transforming America’s
Power Industry: The Investment Challenge 2010–2030,” prepared by The Brattle
Group for the Edison Foundation, Nov. 2008.
6. AEP’s sustainability report is at www.aep.com/citizenship/crreport/.
7. More information is available at Chevron’s website, www.chevron.com.