BOB
Made from petroleum, blendstock for oxygenate blending (BOB) is typically blended with ethanol to make gasoline, often with 10% ethanol and 90% BOB (DOE, 2019).
Detailed information about BOB is presented next.
Emissions estimates use the Argonne National Laboratory's Research & Development Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (R&D GREET) model (Wang et al., 2023). The underlying source for a value in the table can be seen by placing your mouse cursor over that value. The data sources are also cited—with linked references—in the Key Assumptions section next.
Note: These results are highly context dependent and may not represent the optimal values for each fuel pathway. We recommend caution, and review of other sources, before making comparisons between the cases reported in the table above.
Key Assumptions
The data and estimates presented here are based on the following key assumptions:
- Fuel Price: The fuel price (e.g., Lowest Cost, Lowest Emissions) is associated with a single year. Because we do not provide a time-series trajectory, here we show fuel price at a frozen level for all years so we can offer a range of fuel price values. In the levelized cost of driving (LCOD) and emissions charts, this approach clearly distinguishes effects of fuels from those of vehicle technologies because fuels remain constant whereas vehicle technologies change over time.
- Plant Gate Fuel Prices: The plant gate fuel prices shown here are meant to reflect minimum fuel selling prices (and do not include distribution costs or taxes).
- Wholesale Fuel Prices: BOB prices are estimated to allow final fuel price calculations at different blending levels. The fuel prices shown here are meant to reflect wholesale fuel prices (and do not include distribution costs or taxes).
- BOB Price Estimates: The BOB prices are estimated from 2022 average retail conventional and reformulated gasoline prices across all grades from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA, 2024) and from the 2022 wholesale ethanol prices and 2020 Components of Selected Petroleum Product Prices from the Reference case in the Annual Energy Outlook 2023 (EIA, 2023). We estimate the wholesale gasoline price by subtracting the 2020 distribution and taxes ($0.28/gal for distribution and $0.57/gal for taxes and fees) for motor gasoline from the Annual Energy Outlook 2021 from the retail gasoline price, which results in a $1.29/gal wholesale price for conventional gasoline and a $1.63/gal wholesale price for reformulated gasoline. The BOB price is calculated assuming gasoline is blended with 10% starch ethanol by volume (at a wholesale price of $1.39/gal) using the following equation:
$$ BOB Price = \frac{Gasoline Price - 0.1 \times Ethanol Price}{0.9} $$
- The pathway Biofuel Blendstock Ex situ Fast Pyrolysis (Gasoline) from Forest Residue and Clean Pine with Chemical Coproducts and Refinery Co-hydroprocessing estimate is based on Dutta et al. (Dutta et al., 2023); the pathway Biofuel Blendstock HTL (Gasoline) from Algae is based on Zhu et al. (Zhu et al., 2020).
- Price Conversion: Prices are converted to dollars per gasoline gallon equivalent using the Lower Heating Values from the R&D GREET model (Wang et al., 2023).
- Emissions Intensities: The emissions intensities are from the R&D GREET model and are estimated from gasoline pathways assuming no ethanol is used for blending. Conventional BOB corresponds to "gasoline blendstock," and the reformulated BOB corresponds to "CA gasoline blendstock" in the R&D GREET model. California blendstock may differ from that sold in other states.
The data downloads include additional details of assumptions and calculations for each metric.
To see additional information, place your mouse cursor over a value in the table.
Definitions
For detailed definitions, see:
Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending (BOB)
References
The following references are specific to this page; for all references in this ATB, see References.