VZCZCXRO7061
RR RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD
DE RUEHFR #0033/01 0081631
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081631Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1627
INFO RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC
RUEAEPA/EPA WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR WASHDC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHMRE/AMCONSUL MARSEILLE 1939
RUEHSR/AMCONSUL STRASBOURG 0519
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 000033 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR CEQ, STATE FOR OES/INTERIOR PLEASE PASS TO USGS, DOE 
FOR OFFICE OF SCIENCE 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SENV ENRG TRGY FR
SUBJECT: FRENCH PETROLEUM INSTITUTE - RESEARCHING SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 
AND SEEKING NEW COLLABORATORS 
 
 
PARIS 00000033  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY. ESTH officers visited the French Petroleum Institute 
(Institut Francais du Petrole or 'IFP'), a public research center 
focused on industrial R&D research in energy and transportation. 
The visit's purposes were to assess IFP's strategic priorities, 
obtain an understanding of its research strengths, and determine 
opportunities for new collaborative partnerships.  Technical 
discussions centered on IFP's preparations for energy 
transformation, and its role researching new energy systems, such as 
biofuels and hydrogen, and CO2 capture and storage.  IFP's biofuels 
and carbon sequestration research which we summarize below is 
impressive.  U.S. agencies interested in collaboration in these 
fields might wish to consider IFP a potential research partner.  IFP 
also seeks to increase doctoral and post-doctoral researchers to its 
research centers.  End summary. 
 
The IFP Strategy 
---------------- 
 
¶2. IFP's activities cover oil, gas, and substitutes including: 
exploration, production, refining, petrochemicals, engines and 
petroleum products use. IFP seeks to expand the boundaries for oil 
and gas exploration and production and is inventing new technologies 
to exploit untapped reserves.  To strengthen know-how in clean 
refining processes and petrochemicals, IFP is developing 
technologies to enhance production of environmentally-friendly 
fuels.  IFP is also transforming biomass, gas, and coal into fuels 
for tomorrow.  It is also engaged in hydrogen research.  As the bulk 
of the CO2 emissions result from energy use, efforts to reduce them 
must be combined with efforts to capture CO2 wherever possible.  IFP 
is France's leading researcher in CO2 capture, transport and 
underground storage with more than 12,500 active patents, 301.5 
million Euro budget including 241 million Euros for R&D and some 
1735 employees. 
 
 
New energy systems for tomorrow, and beyond 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. IFP leverages twenty years of expertise in both biofuels 
production processes and the production of synfuels from natural 
gas, coal, and biomass.  Research includes enhancing fuels derived 
from vegetable feedstock to improve existing processes for ethanol 
fuel, ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE), methyl esters of vegetable 
oil (VOME) and new processes to synthesize fuels from cellulosic 
biomass to include wood, grain, forest residues, and organic wastes. 
 
 
¶4. Ethanol derived fuels. IFP is researching and developing a 
production process for acetone butanol and ethanol from 
lignocellulosic biomass such as cereal straw, corn stalks, wood 
residues and even organic waste, such as water treatment plant 
sludge.  IFP seeks to overcome remaining technological barriers to 
enhance enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic matter and, 
secondly, the ethanolic fermentation of pentoses produced by the 
hemicellulose fraction. This research, drawing mainly on IFP's 
expertise in molecular biology, microbiology and microbial genetics, 
is being conducted in collaboration with INRA (Institut national de 
recherche agronomique/National Agronomic Research Institute) and the 
CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/National Center 
for Scientific Research). IFP is developing a process for producing 
ETBE, whose main advantage is a lower vapor pressure than ethanol in 
order to bring specifications closer to gasoline. This research has 
resulted in the construction of 3 TOTAL ETBE manufacturing units in 
France (global production 200,000 t/year). 
¶5. Biodiesel. Esterfip-H is a new biodiesel technology in the 
production of VOMEs developed by IFP which built a plant in Sete 
(Herault department).  Esterfip-H represents a major biofuels 
advancement, as it ensures the production of biodiesel meeting 
European specification EN 14214, and at the same time produces 
glycerin of high purity in the process.  According to IFP 
presenters, the glycerin by-product is key to overall production 
economics.  The use of biodiesel presents advantages, not only 
environmental, but also technical. In fact, a study conducted by IFP 
demonstrates that use of VOME in petroleum-based fuels leads to a 
significant improvement of the diesel fuel lubricity in engines. 
¶6. Synfuels: BTL or "Biomass to Liquid," biofuels are made by first 
transforming biomass (grain and forest residues, organic wastes, 
etc.) into gas by high-temperature gasification, then reducing the 
gas into gas oil by the "Fischer-Tropsch" process. IFP research 
efforts, notably in partnership with the CEA (Commissariat a 
l'energie atomique/French Atomic Energy Commission), are designed to 
improve gasification yields, gas purification and optimization of 
 
PARIS 00000033  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
the integration of the biomass conversion process and liquid fuel 
production processes.  Also, biomass gasification could pave the way 
for hydrogen and energy production, according to IFP researchers. 
¶7. Hydrogen: For several years, IFP has been developing clean 
hydrogen production processes to transform hydrocarbonated matter 
into elemental hydrogen. The two principal sources under study are 
hydrocarbons and biomass: the OPALE project, based on the 
gasification by partial oxidation with oxygen from liquid 
hydrocarbons and the BIOPAC project, that consists in producing 
hydrogen by steam reforming from "green" ethanol to power a fuel 
cell, where the ethanol used is obtained from beet or wheat 
biomass. 
¶8. Ultimately, in order to produce hydrogen without releasing CO2, 
IFP considers it would be necessary to centralize this production 
into large units, and to capture the CO2 emitted and store it 
underground.  IFP is developing the HyGenSys process designed to 
produce hydrogen and electricity from natural gas and simultaneously 
capture CO2 at low costs. IFP is also involved in suggesting 
solutions to the problem of hydrogen transportation. One of the 
solutions may consist in using the network of existing gas 
pipelines, mixing hydrogen with natural gas. These options are being 
researched within the framework of a European project, named 
"Naturalhy," in which IFP also participates. 
 
 
CO2 capture, transport, and storage 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶9. IFP is engaged in researching all aspects of capturing CO2, 
transporting it, and injecting it underground for storage. It is 
also studying issues associated with long term monitoring of CO2 
stored underground. 
 
¶10. Capture.  IFP is investigating the capture of CO2 in flue gases, 
in particular the optimization of solvents and the way they are 
used; IFP is researching new methods to implement oxycombustion, in 
order to obtain flue gases in which CO2 is concentrated and easier 
to capture. New options which are being considered involve the 
direct transfer of oxygen from air by using solid phases undergoing 
an oxidation-reduction cycle.  Finally, IFP is committed to 
searching for new energy production processes that produce synthesis 
gas and hydrogen and incorporate the capture of CO2. 
 
¶11. Transport. IFP is studying transport modes and developing 
methods and tools needed to make this transport safe and reliable. 
After the capture phase, the CO2 must be conveyed, sometimes over 
long distances, to a place of storage, such as a saline aquifer. In 
the current petroleum sector, CO2 is transported in gas pipelines. 
However, in the supercritical state compression and injection 
facilities would be required. IFP is developing an alternative 
solution in which the CO2 is transported and injected underground in 
the liquid state, at a temperature that remains close to the ambient 
temperature. According to IFP, transporting and injecting CO2 in 
liquid form could substantially reduce investment costs in contrast 
to other methods of CO2 capture currently under research. 
 
¶12. Storage. IFP is also developing modeling tools and laboratory 
analysis methods to predict the flow of CO2 in the subsoil in the 
vicinity of the injection well, where the gradients of CO2 
concentration, pressure, and temperature are high.  Three geological 
storage modes are being considered: storage in depleted oil and gas 
fields, in deep saline aquifers, and in un-minable coal seams. IFP's 
work concerns the analysis, understanding, and modeling of 
interactions between the injected CO2 and the rocks and fluids of 
the subsoil. Post-injection geochemical and geophysical monitoring 
methods are also under study in IFP, in particular seismic and 
micro-seismic methods, which make it possible to monitor the 
propagation and evolution of the stored gas and integrity of the 
overburden of the storage facility. 
 
 
What kind of collaborator is IFP? 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶13. IFP, through its own research or in partnership with 
universities, research centers, and industries concerned, is a major 
player in the field of new energy systems and CO2 capture, 
transport, and storage.  At the national level, IFP works alongside 
other French research establishments on a number of projects.  These 
include ANR (Agence nationale de la recherche - National Research 
Agency) and ADEME (Agence de l'environnement et de la maitrise de 
l'energie - Agency for the Environment and Energy Management).  IFP 
 
PARIS 00000033  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
is also a leader in the European Union and is committed to advancing 
European research projects, e.g. European CASTOR project(CO2 from 
CApture to STORage) and European Platform for Zero Emission Power 
Plants (ZEP).  Internationally, IFP has taken part in the Weyburn 
project, a Canadian CO2 storage project associated with an enhanced 
oil recovery operation, the scientific accompaniment of which has 
been coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA).  IFP is 
also a leader with China in the COACH project (Cooperation Action 
With CO2 Capture and Storage China-EU). 
 
¶14.  IFP highlighted that it seeks greater climate change-related 
research collaboration-not only between France and the U.S., but 
also in EU-U.S. partnerships. Officials underscored that European 
research funding leaves the door open to American partners. This may 
prove to be good timing for enhanced EU/U.S. dialogue on energy, 
sustainable development, and environment as France prepares to 
assume the EU presidency with environmental issues high on the 
agenda. At the technical international level, IFP collaborates 
closely with the U.S., e.g. the DOE-led Carbon Sequestration 
Leadership Forum (CSLF).  IFP was the designated body to organize 
the 2007 CSLF plenary meeting which took place in Paris. 
 
¶15. IFP clarified its legal status to facilitate future 
collaboration. IFP senior officials highlighted existing substantial 
collaboration with the U.S. private sector at the industrial level, 
and in education/training, particularly graduate training program 
for engineers (500 students/year, half foreigners, in partnership 
with the Colorado School of Mines and several U.S. universities). 
Senior IFP officials consider the recent evolution of IFP's status 
to that of a state-owned public scientific establishment under the 
French EPIC classification (Etablissement Public a caractere 
Industriel et Commercial/Public Establishment with an Industrial and 
Commercial Purpose) puts IFP in a position to undertake additional 
collaboration with U.S. scientific agencies. 
 
¶16. COMMENT: ESTH officers had expected IFP to resemble the American 
Petroleum Institute.  It had not expected a body so committed to 
research of new fuels and CO2 capture and storage.  IFP's executive 
director is especially keen to collaborate with U.S. scientific 
agencies such as DOE on fuels for the future and carbon capture and 
sequestration research.  Embassy ESTH officers would be pleased to 
introduce U.S. agencies to IFP. END COMMENT. 
 
STAPLETON