The U.S. has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050; however, it is estimated that 80% cars in the U.S. will still require liquid transportation fuels at that time. Thus, while electric vehicles will account for 20% of vehicles, a complementary solution is needed.

A team including Purdue EEE graduate students recently proposed such a solution in a project titled, “Fossil Energy and Carbon Management: Carbonbusters.” For this project, the team were named Technology Bonus Prize Semifinalists for the Great Lakes Region in the EnergyTech University Prize.

Sponsored by the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) at the U.S. Department of Energy, the EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) is a collegiate competition challenging multidisciplinary student teams to develop and present a business plan that identifies an energy technology, assesses its market potential, and proposes a strategy for commercialization.

The interdisciplinary Purdue team included graduate students Sharon Hughes (ESE/EEE), Kayla Gurganus (ESE/Political Science), Neha Shakelly (ESE/EEE), and Ejike Ken-Opurum (Civil), as well as Purdue alumnus Dr. Zhe Sun and professor of civil and environmental and ecological engineering in the Purdue College of Engineering, Dr. Zhi Zhou.

Reversing climate change with feedstocks

One solution to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is net-zero emissions liquid biofuels, which could potentially replace petroleum-based liquid transportation fuels. However, the problem for U.S. biofuels producers is that there is a lack of carbon-negative, low-cost feedstocks available to achieve this net-zero goal. In response, the Carbonbusters project proposed a carbon-negative biorefinery using sugarcane and algae as its feedstocks.  The biorefinery will produce carbon-negative, low-cost feedstocks (sugarcane co-products, ethanol, and algae oil) to sell to U.S. biofuels producers.

Algae can be used for Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS), capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it for long periods of time. Carbonbuster's carbon-negative biorefinery would not only capture carbon via algae, but also transform it into revenue-generating feedstock that can be used to create net-zero liquid biofuels. While most carbon-capture projects cost money per ton of carbon reduced; this project would generate money for every ton of carbon reduced. Carbonbuster’s algae oil feedstock captures the most carbon and generates the most after-tax profit of any known BiCRS project.

“We were honored to be regional finalists,” says Sharon Hughes. “We look forward to furthering our research and competing in more contests.

The EnergyTech University Prize is designed in partnership with American-Made Challenges, which aims to incentivize the nation's entrepreneurs to reenergize innovation and reassert American leadership in the energy marketplace.