Category Archives: Cellulosic

Sweetwater and Ace to Produce Cellulosic Ethanol

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A cellulosic sugar producer in New York has signed a deal with an ethanol plant in Wisconsin to begin commercial production of cellulosic ethanol.

Sweetwater Energy signed a long-term commercial agreement with Ace Ethanol to generate cellulosic ethanol at the ACE corn ethanol facility for up to 16 years.

sweetwaterAccording to Sweetwater officials, the company’s “patented, decentralized process will convert locally available cellulosic, non-food biomass, such as crop residues, energy crops, and woody biomass into highly fermentable sugar, which Ace will ferment into ethanol. The entire contract has a total potential value in excess of $100 million, and requires a minimal capital outlay by Ace Ethanol while stabilizing Ace’s feedstock cost over the life of the agreement.”

“Ace Ethanol has been bench testing Sweetwater’s cellulosic material for some time and we’re confident that this project will be commercially profitable,” says Neal Kemmet, President of Ace Ethanol. “With Sweetwater, we’ll move from 100% corn to a combination of corn starch and 7% cellulosic sugar as our feedstocks.”

“This is a very exciting time for the industry, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have aligned Sweetwater with Ace,” says Jack Baron, President and COO of Sweetwater. “Our patented, decentralized sugar-production model is designed to let us work in tandem with a refiner’s existing infrastructure, which fosters strong collaboration on both sides. Furthermore, our refined sugars can be used for biochemical or bioplastics production, giving Ace diversification options in the future. Ace is a progressive industry leader located near affordable biomass; they are financially successful and constantly incorporating proven new technologies to maintain their leadership position.”

Sweetwater also announced today that they have been issued a patent for the “manufacture and deployment of distributed pretreatment units designed for the extraction of sugars from any cellulosic feedstock for the production of ethanol.” Officials say the process allows Sweetwater to deploy its cellulosic sugar conversion facilities in a “hub and spoke” fashion, providing broad scale diversity for cellulosic ethanol production that takes full advantage of economic and capacity constraints surrounding cellulosic biomass. “This patent is a major breakthrough for the future of cellulosic ethanol,” says Arunas Chesonis, Chairman and CEO of Sweetwater. “The patent protects the first technology to support a viable economic model for scaling the conversion of cellulosic biomass into highly fermentable sugar and subsequently, ethanol. It will mean a great deal to the US corn ethanol industry, and the profitable future of biofuel production worldwide.”

Cellulosic Biofuels Progress Report

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RFA AECThe Advanced Ethanol Council has just released a detailed look at the progress made towards the commercial deployment of advanced cellulosic biofuels.

The Cellulosic Biofuels Industry Progress Report profiles production facilities and projects across the country and producing nations around the world. According to the report, all countries that were profiled are working toward developing production capacity in the U.S. to meet the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

The new data includes each facility’s path to commercial deployment, capacity, feedstock and more, demonstrating that notwithstanding the global recession, the cellulosic biofuel industry is coming on line.

“It was just five years ago that Congress called for the aggressive deployment of cellulosic biofuels to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. We are pleased to report that the industry is breaking through at commercial scale, and is well on its way to becoming a major player in the American fuel mix,” said Brooke Coleman, Executive Director of the Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC). “This rapid progress is due to the Renewable Fuel Standard and to Secretary Vilsack’s and the Obama Administration’s leadership on the issue, ensuring the policy has remained stable and allowing investors to feel confident about committing the capital necessary to take the industry to scale.”

“Much has been made about the slow development of cellulosic ethanol,” added Bill Brady, CEO of Mascoma Corporation and Chairman of the AEC. “This report should put all that to rest. This is the cleanest, most innovative liquid fuel in the world, and the United States is poised to lead the development of this game-changing industry.”

The report points to the industry’s enormous potential. According to the Sandia National Lab, the U.S. could produce 75 billion gallons per year of cellulosic biofuels without displacing food and feed crops, or more than half of the 134 billion gallons of gasoline consumed by the U.S. in 2011. Continue reading →

EIA Releases 2013 Annual Energy Outlook Forecast

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The Energy Information Agency (EIA) has released its 2013 Annual Energy Outlook forecast summary. While the report looks at all forms of energy with estimates going as far as 2040, there were two areas pertinent to biofuels. The summary forecast stated that renewable fuel use will grow at a much faster rate than fossil fuel use, and the share of generation from renewables will grow from 13 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2040.

The summary forecasts that while total liquid fuels consumption will fall, consumption of produced  biofuels increases significantly, from 1.3 quadrillion Btu in 2011 to 2.1 Btu in 2040, and its share of total U.S. liquid fuels consumption will grow from 3.5 percent in 2011 to 5.8 percent in 2040.

“The increases are much smaller than those in AEO2012, however, as a result of diminished FFV penetration, a
smaller motor gasoline pool for blending ethanol, and reduced production of cellulosic biofuels, which to date has been well under the targets set by the EISA. (EPA issued waivers that substantially reduced the cellulosic biofuels obligation under the RFS for 2010, 2011, and 2012.) In addition, the production tax credit for cellulosic biofuels is scheduled to expire at the end of 2012.”

At first glance the outlook for biofuels looks good, but the ethanol industry doesn’t want the take-away being all is good, but rather cautions that this news is not an invitation to curbing or eliminating the RFS.

“Doing so would only prove their lack of understanding of EIA’s report and, more importantly, show their ignorance of the purpose of the RFS,” said ACE Executive Vice President Brian Jennings. “Congress designed the RFS as a flexible and forward-looking policy to serve as a catalyst for biofuel use, and by design, the RFS is built to help break through the blend wall.”

“EIA, on the other hand, makes its projections based on market conditions and known technology. Ten years ago, the EIA Outlook said we could only make 3.4 billion gallons of ethanol in the U.S. by 2020. Congress deemed that unacceptable, and passed the RFS to encourage alternatives to oil, and they were right. The RFS works. Our industry produced almost four times that much ethanol two years ago – ten years ahead of schedule.”

The blend wall is one that is not very high and we’re already at the top but now we can’t get over and down the other side. Scaling the blend wall and increased market access is key, explained Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy.

“Currently the blend wall is preventing additional use of biofuels. While grain-based biofuels, such as corn ethanol have not only met, but exceeded the goals, the blend wall has prevented full saturation into the commercial marketplace and has discouraged investments in next generation biofuels.”

Buis added that Growth Energy and the biofuels industry will continue to work with retailers and consumers to educate them on higher blends, such as E15 and continue to garner the support necessary to break through the blend wall.

So if there is one takeaway its this – biofuels are growing and will continue to grow but only if the RFS stays in place and communities across the country work together to bring choice to Americans at the pump.

ICM Completes 1,000 Hour Run

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ICM has completed a 1,000 hour run of its Generation 1.5 Integrated Fiber to Cellulosic Ethanol Technology at its pilot plant in St. Joseph, Missouri. The technology allows existing grain ethanol plants to produce cellulosic ethanol and the company says the successful test proves it can be done with substantial operating and capital expense cost savings over the traditional approach of cellulosic ethanol production.

The completion of the 1,000 hours of continuous production was achieved through the sequential completion of twenty-four 15,000 gallon pilot fermenters and five 585,000 gallon commercial scale reactors. The run also demonstrated that the dried distillers grains (DDGs) co-product of ICM’s integrated fiber cellulosic process have a significant concentration of protein-fat amounts.

The continuous run demonstrated several technological advantages: a 7-10 percent increase in ethanol yield per bushel with an approximate 3.1 gallons per bushel equivalent; greater than 90 percent conversion of C6 sugars and greater than 80 percent conversion of C5 sugars; fermentation yields of greater than 90 percent; co-product market diversification capabilities by delivering substantially higher oil recovery rates and protein concentration; reduced energy usage; ability to co-distill utilizing existing distillation capabilities; and the same quantity of ethanol can be produced with 10 percent less bushels.

“We are grateful for the tremendous efforts that our ICM employees performed to make the 1,000-hour run a remarkable success. We could not have achieved this major milestone without the collaboration of various personnel functions including outstanding efforts made by our research associates, scientists, pilot plant personnel, product development, construction management, engineering, automation, supply chain, accounting and many others,” said ICM Principal Scientist Jeremy Javers, Ph.D.

Corn fiber yields greater than 100 gallons per ton were performed up to the 585,000 gallon fermentation scale with all inputs – enzymes, chemicals, organisms – utilized at an economically-feasible range. Other feedstocks that have been tested include corn stover, corn fiber, wheat fiber, barley fiber, switchgrass, energy sorghum, and bagasse. The successful continuous run now enables ICM to qualify for federal loan guarantees.

DuPont Breaks Ground On Cellulosic Biorefinery

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DuPont has officially broken ground on its $200 million cellulosic biorefinery. When complete in mid-2014, it is expected to be one of the first and largest commercial-scale cellulosic biorefineries in the world. Once fully operational, the facility will produce 30 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year from corn stover residues. The company is also adapting its technology for use with other feedstocks such as switchgrass. Using data derived from its pilot facility in Tennessee has allowed DuPont to further minimize process and maximize technology. Once refined, its fully integrated end-to-end production system will be available to license globally.

The cellulosic biorefinery is situated adjacent to Lincolnway Energy in Nevada, Iowa. Joining James C. Collins, president of DuPont Industrial Biosciences, were representatives of the ethanol plant as well as Iowa Governor Terry Branstad.

“During my previous terms as governor, we were excited to bring ethanol production to the state. After many hard years of work by Iowa growers and technology companies like DuPont, Iowa now leads the country in renewable fuel production,” said Governor Branstad. This site in Nevada is the next critical step in our cellulosic ethanol journey. We look forward to bringing these advanced technologies online, creating local jobs and helping to deliver clean, sustainable energy.”

DuPont will contract with more than 500 local farmers to gather, store and deliver over 375,000 dry tons of stover per year into the Nevada facility. In addition to the estimated 60 full-time plant operations jobs, there will be over 150 individuals involved in the collection, stacking, transportation and storage of the stover feedstock seasonally during each harvest. The stover will be collected from an approximate 30 mile radius around the new facility and harvested off of 190,000 acres. Continue reading →

DoShort Review – Sustainable Transport Fuels

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What do you do when you’ve got a frustrating case of insomnia? You read books about energy. Okay, maybe not something you would do but it always keeps me good and entertained. Last night I read the DoShort, “Sustainable Transport Fuels Business Brief,” by David Thorpe in less than two hours. That is part of the sell – learn about a topic in 90 minutes or less. This is a brillant concept lads.

So what did I learn? I got a briefing on research, development and deployment of sustainable fuels around the world. The DoShort kicked off with a brief overview of the history of transportation fuels, relevant legislation, and the role of emissions reduction in determining the sustainable viability of a future fuel.

Next were a series of briefs on various types of fuels beginning with biofuels. The discussion included current technologies and technologies to watch, feedstocks, infrastructure, partnerships, pros and cons and opportunities and challenges. This same type of format was used in the brief sections about electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, fuel cells, and a fuel I’d never heard of called hydrazine hydrate. There is even a concept car developed by Daihatsu. Who knew?

Much of the brief was focused on biofuels, since today they are the primary source of alternative fuels for the transportation sector (when specifically discussing fleets, the leading fuel is propane autogas). Here was an interesting tidbit I picked up: according to the IEA Bioenergy Implementing Agreement there are at least 67 local, regional or global initiatives to develop sustainability criteria and standards for biofuels.  (And if you’ve been reading this blog for the past six years you notice that biofuels, and currently the Renewable Fuels Standard, are constantly under attack). The most significant initiatives are: The Global Bioenergy Partnership, The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, International Organization for Standardization, and the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification System.

While I have encyclopedic volumes of energy info stuck in my head, I got most of it reading many good, but dense books that took hours. What I’ve also known is that most people don’t have the time, nor interest, in reading all of these books. That’s why I do it for you and why I now consider these DoShorts such a winner – the reader of “Sustainable Transport Fuels Business Brief ” can sit down at a meeting and can impress the boss with a working knowledge of transportation fuels, in 90 minutes or less.

Edeniq Expands Into Brazil

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Edeniq, with its partner Usina Vale, a Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer, has begun to engineer and construct a bagasse to sugars demonstration-scale plant. The biorefinery will produce cellulosic sugars from sugarcane bagasse and then convert it into ethanol. The plant will handle up to 20 tons per day of bagasse and will be co-located at Usina Vale’s ethanol and sugar production site in São Paulo State, Brazil. One goal of the project is to demonstrate how sugarcane mills can economically increase ethanol production with Edeniq’s bolt-on technologies.

After a feasibility study was completed, Usina Vale signed a collaboration agreement with Edeniq under which they are jointly funding the bagasse to sugar demonstration-scale plant, believed to be the first of its kind in the region. Co-locating the demo plant at Usina Vale’s commercial site will accelerate the technology scale-up from demo to full-scale, and the technology will then be deployed at affiliated ethanol plants.

“Brazil has a large and growing demand for ethanol,” said Pedro Augusto Menezes de Toledo Florencio, CEO of Usina Vale. “We believe Edeniq’s technology will allow us to increase ethanol production in a very economical way, allowing us to meet the growing demand of our customers and our country.”

According to Edeniq, their technologies efficiently break down biomass to liberate cellulosic sugars that can be converted into ethanol and other products. Edeniq owns and operates a fully integrated two ton per day pilot plant in Visalia, California, in partnership with Logos Technologies, using its proprietary Cellunator, which mechanically pre-treats biomass so that it can be more easily converted to sugars, increasing sugar yield and thus driving an increase in ethanol yield. The Brazil plant will also include this technology.

“Through this partnership with Usina Vale, we are further demonstrating our model of increasing the efficiency, scalability and sustainability of biofuels through low capital and operating cost technologies that can be integrated directly into existing ethanol production sites,” added Brian Thome, President and CEO of Edeniq. “Edeniq is developing the lowest cost route to cellulosic sugars, which will lead to low cost ethanol production for our partners like Usina Vale.”

Using White Rot Fungus for Corn Stover Ethanol

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There’s new scientific evidence that a certain fungus could help speed up the production of ethanol from corn stover.

A study on using the fungus to break down the tough cellulose and related material in this so-called “corn stover” to free up sugars for ethanol fermentation appears in the journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research

“Treating corn stover with the white rot fungus for one month enabled us to extract up to 30 percent more sugar from the leaves and 50 percent more from the stalks and cobs,” said lead author Yebo Li, Ph.D., from Ohio State University. “Because corn leaves are useful for controlling soil erosion when left in the field, harvesting only the cobs and stalks for ethanol production may make the most sense in terms of sustainable agriculture.”

Previous studies indicated that the microbe Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, known as a white rot fungus, showed promise for breaking down the tough lignin prior to treatment with enzymes to release the sugars. To advance that knowledge, Li and colleagues evaluated how well the fungus broke down the different parts of corn stover and improved the sugar yield.

Listen to the American Chemical Society podcast on the research here: ACS Podcast

Virgin Islands Go “Giant” with Biomass Energy Crop

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Giant King(TM) Grass is now growing in the Virgin Islands and could help the U.S. territory meet its goal of 22 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025. California-based Viaspace, Inc. sent the first shipment to St. Croix, and Tibbar Energy USVI LLC has planted it with hopes that it will become a key part of that company’s 6 MW biomass energy project on the 1,000-acre Giant King Grass plantation.

The Giant King Grass will be used as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion, generating biogas which will be used to produce electricity. No grass is burned in this process. Anaerobic digestion is a biological process.

The benefits of this project to the island are not only in the energy production. Additional benefits include:

– The branding of St. Croix as a renewable energy producer
— Helping to meet the Virgin Islands renewable energy goal of 22% by 2025
— Provides organic fertilizer for local farmers, agricultural scholarships and new agricultural activity
— Developing co-operative growing agreements with local famers
— Creates high quality permanent jobs.
— Converts 800 acres of underutilized land to agricultural use
— Invests millions of dollars into the island”

This is part of Tibbar’s 20-year project, expected to be fully online early in 2014.

Besides growing Giant King Grass, Viaspace is also growing its social media presence. You can also follow the company on its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/viaspaceinc, and through Twitter @viaspace.

Generation 1.5 Ethanol

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According to a new Issue Brief: Generation 1.5 Ethanol: The Bridge to Cellulosic Biofuels,” the shortfall of cellulosic biofuel production in the U.S. is threatening the existence of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2). Authored by Philip W. Madson, P.E., president of KATZEN International for Ethanol Across America, the growth of the biofuels industry will be facilitated by modifying RFS2 to shift away from the singular focus on cellulosic biofuels by implementing policies to promote a wider range of advanced biofuels.

Today, there are only two pathways approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brazilian ethanol produced from sugarcane and grain sorghum to ethanol produced at plants using biogas in combinate with heat and power (CHP) technology. The paper argues that developing additional advanced biofuels, or Generation 1.5 ethanol, will be the bridge to Generation 2.0 biofuels, or cellulosic biofuels.

“Unfortunately, RFS has been implemented in a manner that has led the biofuels industry to its current no-growth predicament,” Madson writes in the Issue Brief. He also notes that requiring 16 billion gallons of biofuels to be “cellulosic” and thus reduce greenhouse gas emission by 60 percent, ignores the benefits that could be realized from “non-cellulosic” advanced biofuels.

Madson continues, “By mandating growth to principally cellulosic biofuels, the RFS2 effectively handcuffs the biofuels industry and forces it to put its limited resources into the development of Gen 2 biofuels, which simply cannot be commercially deployed on the prescribed schedule.”

Generation 1.5 Ethanol offers several steps to be taken to encourage the development of advanced biofuels. First, solidify market demand; mandates and requirements alone are not going to be enough. This can be done through increased production of flex fuel vehicles and more choice of higher biofuel blends at the pump. Second, current RFS programs could be amended to allow any feedstock that can demonstrate compliance with the true intent of the RFS to quality as an Advanced Biofuel and essentially do away with the narrowly focused cellulosic requirement.

Ultimately, the paper argues, while working within the framework of RFS2, all the benefits can be realized by simply removing the requirements for cellulosic biofuels and removing the cap on advanced biofuels from other feedstocks.

Click here to download Generation 1.5 Ethanol.

Praj Industries Scales Up Demo Plant

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Praj Industries, who has been working on developing second generation technologies for the production of biofuels, is scaling up its demonstration research and development plant program, “Lignocellulose to Ethanol”. For the past four years, the company has been operating a pilot plant to produce ethanol from feedstocks such as bagasse, corn stover and more and is now ready to move closer to commercial scale production.

“The successful demonstration of various parameters at the demo-commercial plant will put Praj at the forefront of the biobased economy and in the race for commercial scale second generation biofuels,” said Pramod Chaudhari, Praj’s Executive Chairman during a welcome address at the recent FO Licht, World Ethanol Conference at Munich. “While this plant size is appropriate for emerging markets, with our past experience of quick scale up, it will be well within Praj’s capability to scale the capacity even up to 10 times. I am pleased to say that Praj will be the first Company in the tropics to set up such an integrated facility.”

Praj is taking steps to set up a 10 million litre demonstration commercial plant in India. This plant will seek to demonstrate technical and commercial viability as well optimization of water and energy integration and develop other areas of the value chain including feed products. To date, the company’s engineering package is ready for deployment and they are seeking investors and partners.

The demonstration plant is expected to be operational in early 2013 and cost around $25 to $30 million U.S. dollars to complete.

Driving Forward Agenda Announced

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Next year’s 18th Annual National Ethanol Conference (NEC): Driving Forward, sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) will help the ethanol industry continue to lead the nation to a stronger, more energy independent America. With an agenda supporting this goal, the event will highlight many regulatory, marketing and policy issues including:

  • Perspectives on the Future of the RFS
  • Expanding Renewable Fuels Globally
  • Washington Legislative Roundtable
  • The Reality of Distributing and Dispensing 36 BG of Renewable Fuels
  • Future Fuels and Higher Octane
  • Dispelling the Myth of the Phantom Fuel
  • E15: Measuring Success

The event will kick off on February 5, 2013 and on the 6th, RFA President Bob Dinneen will deliver that State of the Industry address. Other sessions include: Perspectives on the Future of the RFS; Expanding Renewable Fuels Globally; Washington Legislative Roundtable; Panel Discussion: The Reality of Distributing and Dispensing 36 BG of Renewable Fuels; and more.

To see the full agenda and register, visit the Driving Forward website.

Calculator Gives Growers Energy Crop ROI

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University of Illinois agricultural economists have been calculating the costs for farmers to produce biomass energy crops, and as a result have created a feedstock cost and profitability calculator for farmers to make their own assessments using their individual agribusiness parameters.

Illinois Ag Economist Madhu Khanna says farmers can customize the costs based on their current farming operation, current returns on the land they are considering converting and determine what it would cost to put the land in production to grow an energy crop. Using these calculations, a grower can then determine the minimum price they would need to be paid in order to make a profit.

Khanna recommends farmers gather information about their current operating expenditures before using the calculator, such as the discount rate. She says if farmers are thinking of growing energy crops purely as an investment decision, then they should be interested in getting the same return from their investment in an energy crop over time as they would get if they put the money in the bank. That is the discount rate they should use, she says, so if the bank would give them four percent then they should at least get a four percent return on growing an energy crop instead.

INEOS BioEnergy Plant Begins Production

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The INEOS New Planet BioEnergy (INPB) biorefinery is now producing renewable power using its bioenergy technology. The electricity produced is being used to power the facility and the excess power is being added to the grid. At full production, the Center is expected to produce 8 million gallons of advanced cellulosic bioethanol and six megawatts (gross) of renewable power using renewable biomass.

Here is how the process works. Biomass feedstock, including yard, vegetative and agricultural, waste goes through a gasification process, and syngas is created. Heat is then recovered from the hot syngas and fed into a steam turbine and used to generate electricity. The electricity then powers the Center and the excess does onto the grid to help power homes in the local Vero Beach, Florida community.

“The production of renewable power is a significant benefit of our technology. The power generated improves the energy efficiency and greenhouse gas savings of the facility while contributing to the base load of renewable electricity for the local community,” said Peter Williams, CEO of INEOS Bio and Chairman of INPB. “We look forward to rapidly rolling out this technology globally to provide the benefits of bioethanol and renewable power from waste to local communities.”

INPB’s facility was the first large-scale project in the U.S. to receive registration from the EPA using vegetative waste materials as the primary feedstock.

ZeaChem Completes Cellulosic Biorefinery

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ZeaChem Inc. has announced the completion of its 250,000 gallons per year (GPY) cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Boardman, Oregon. According the the company, the project was completed on budget and is expected to begin production of cellulosic ethanol by the end of 2012. Earlier this year, the company’s core process was commissioned and the fermentation of sugar feedstocks has been replicated in 40,000 gallon tanks exceeding the company’s targets.

The next step in ZeaChem’s phased development and start-up approach is to begin operations of the integrated facility for cellulosic ethanol production. With the support of a $25 million investment from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Integrated Biorefinery program, ZeaChem has added process components to the core facility enabling the utilization of locally-sourced biomass, including wood and wheat straw, to be fermented and converted into intermediate chemicals and ethanol.

“With construction completed, ZeaChem looks forward to starting integrated operations and the production of cellulosic ethanol this year,” said Jim Imbler, president and chief executive officer of ZeaChem. “We are executing a phased start-up approach to limit risk, stabilize and optimize operations, and ensure safety. ZeaChem is focused on successfully demonstrating integrated operations and commercializing its highly efficient, economical and sustainable biorefining process.”

ZeaChem also announced it has closed its Series C financing totaling $25 million in new equity to advance its business strategy and commercial deployment. Imbler said of the financial support, “We are pleased to expand our investor support to new partners in Asia and Australia, which demonstrates ZeaChem’s global potential for biofuels and bio-based chemicals. ITOCHU and Macquarie have established track records in co-developing energy projects worldwide and the ZeaChem platform is uniquely qualified for this due to our feedstock flexibility and diverse product portfolios. These new international partners provide us with a foundation to expand the company’s operations globally.”