Domestic Fuel

An advanced biofuels project in Iowa is being offered support from the federal government for a plant to make fuel from waste material.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a conditional commitment for a $25 million guaranteed loan under the Biorefinery Assistance Program for Fiberight to build a biorefinery in Blairstown, Iowa.

The loan will be used to construct a 55,000 square foot facility that will produce cellulosic ethanol by converting municipal solid waste and other industrial pulps into advanced biofuels, as well as using conventional renewable biofuel derived from seed corn waste. When operational, the facility is expected to produce approximately 3.6 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year. The process will use a cellulosic microbe to produce up to 15 percent more ethanol than traditional fermentation technology, and reduce energy inputs in the fermentation and distillation process. Fiberight estimates the project will create 38 jobs and save 16 jobs.

”Advanced Biofuels are going commercial – and the innovation behind turning trash into biofuels demonstrates how our industry can create jobs and solve our nation’s energy needs,” says Adam Monroe, President of Novozymes North America. ”Novozymes is proud to be a partner to this project, supplying the enzymes to turn household and office waste into advanced biofuels. We applaud the federal government for its leadership in helping bring biofuels to market.”

Biotech company Novozymes is one of Fiberight’s partners in the project. ”Advanced Biofuels are going commercial – and the innovation behind turning trash into biofuels demonstrates how our industry can create jobs and solve our nation’s energy needs,” says Adam Monroe, President of Novozymes North America.

Under the conditional commitment, Fiberight must meet specified conditions before the loan guarantee can be completed. Other funding comes from the State of Iowa. Fiberight also received a $2.5 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund in 2010. The company will work with the Benton County landfill to supply a portion of the feedstock for the project. The total project cost is estimated at $59.5 million. Fiberight, LLC was incorporated in 2007 for the purpose of converting an existing ethanol facility into a cellulosic ethanol facility in Blairstown.

Vogelbusch USA has been awarded a contract to supply the ethanol distillation and dehydration equipment for the INEOS Bio waste-to-bioenergy facility near Vero Beach, Florida.

“We chose Vogelbusch’s distillation and dehydration systems for their proven capabilities, which are vital as we commercialize our advanced bioenergy technology,” said Mark Niederschulte, COO of INEOS Bio. “Our project is on schedule, and we look forward to working closely with Vogelbusch as we bring this advanced biorefinery online in 2012.”

The project will use INEOS Bio’s feedstock-flexible BioEnergy technology, which combines gasification and fermentation technologies, to turn different types of waste materials, including municipal solid waste, into advanced biofuels and renewable power. When completed, the BioEnergy Center will be the first commercial facility in the world to use this advanced technology with the capacity to manufacture eight million gallons of cellulosic ethanol and provide power for 1400 homes in the area.

The plant is scheduled to begin operations in the second quarter of 2012.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced $44.6 million in payments for 156 advanced biofuel producers across the country to support the production and expansion of advanced biofuels.

“This funding will help local producers increase the production and availability of renewable energy and thus help our nation begin to reduce its reliance on foreign oil,” Vilsack said. “Just as importantly, USDA’s support will help to further develop the nation’s growing biofuels industry and generate green jobs and economic growth.”

The funding is being provided through USDA’s Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels program, the same program that provided $80 million in payments last month. Under this program, payments are made to eligible producers based on the amount of biofuels a recipient produces from renewable biomass, other than corn kernel starch – including cellulose; crop residue; animal, food and yard waste material; biogas (landfill and sewage waste treatment gas); vegetable oil, and animal fat.

Eighteen companies will receive over $1 million, four of them are over $2 million – including Renewable Energy Group of Iowa with $3.7 million; White Energy in Kansas at $3.1 million; Louis Dreyfus in Indiana with $2.4 million and Ag Processing of Nebraska at almost $2.1 million. The majority of the highest payments are for Biodiesel Trans Esterification, with a good percentage for advanced ethanol production, biofuel from waste and anaerobic digesters.

See the full list of recipients here.

An innovative sustainable food production project in the Windy City has received a grant for a renewable energy system that uses waste materials.

The project called “The Plant” was recently awarded a total of $1.5 million in grant funds from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) to support a comprehensive renewable energy system that will accept up to 12,000 tons of food scraps annually. Most of the material will be spent grain from an onsite craft brewery, New Chicago Brewing Company, and from other breweries around Chicago – material that is currently sent to landfills.

By installing an anaerobic digester and combined heat and power system, The Plant will create about 380 kilowatts of electricity and 2.1 million BTU of heat – enough to meet the full energy needs of the 93,500 square-foot facility. The digester will allow The Plant to become independent of the grid and produce power and heat at between one-quarter and one-third of current utility costs to its tenants. In addition to the craft brewery, The Plant has plans for a bakery and aquaponics growing systems.

The total project costs are approximately $3 million and will be completed by June 2013.

ICM has announced that it has entered into a technological partnership to couple its gasification system with EISENMANN Corporation’s dual-field wet electrostatic precipitation (WESP) technology. This technology was proven successful at ICM’s commercial-scale demonstration gasifier located adjacent to the Harvey County municipal solid waste transfer and recycling facility in Newton, Kansas.

The gasifier underwent several performance tests with multiple feedstocks including but not limited to refused-derived fuel (RDF), tire derived fuel mixed with RDF, wood chips, wheat straw, switchgrass, and corn stover. Combined with ICM’s thermal oxidizer and heat sink, the WESP 2-F system cleans removes all particulate matter as well as acid gases from a variety of fuel sources and meets all levels of emission control requirements.

“We’re thrilled with the recent commercial deployment of our biomass gasifier technology, as it allows us to offer our waste-to-energy system on a global level,” said ICM CEO Dave Vander Griend.”Recognizing the strength of collaborative partnerships, ICM is pleased to work with EISENMANN and their WESP technology to enhance our biomass gasifier applications.”

Ten new government-funded research projects were announced today to help accelerate bioenergy feedstock production.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited a waste-to-energy bioprocessing facility under construction in Florida today to announce that the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) have awarded 10 grants totaling $12.2 million to spur research into improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of growing biofuel and bioenergy crops. The grants are part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to develop domestic renewable energy and advanced biofuels, providing a more secure future for America’s energy needs and creating new opportunities for the American farming industry.

“USDA is helping our nation develop the next generation of biofuels to grow jobs and generate energy from new, homegrown sources,” said Vilsack. “Combining DOE’s leadership in genome-scale technologies with USDA’s experience in crop improvement will accelerate the efficient production of biofuels.”

The 10 projects are located in California, Colorado, Illinois, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia.

Vilsack made the announcement at the INEOS New Planet BioEnergy facility in Vero Beach, Fla., which was granted a conditional USDA loan guarantee earlier this year to help build and operate a biorefinery capable of producing 8 million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol and 6 megawatts of electricity.

Today’s USDA and DOE joint announcement will also benefit Florida by providing grant funding to the University of Florida in Gainesville to improve energy production from cane biomass. The project will produce a range of foundational genetic resources and genetic makers for energy cane breeders to efficiently develop energy cane cultivars with increased biomass production and reduced input requirement.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is scheduled to pay a visit to a Florida advanced biofuel plant on Thursday afternoon.

Vilsack will tour the INEOS New Planet BioEnergy facility in Vero Beach. The company received a $75 million USDA loan guarantee earlier this year to help build and operate a biorefinery capable of producing eight million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol and six megawatts of electricity from waste. The plant broke ground in February and is expected to be complete by spring of 2012.

At INEOS, Vilsack will announce a series of joint USDA and Department of Energy grants to spur research into improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of growing biofuel and bioenergy crops.

Thorold, Ontario – based JBI has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Rock-Tenn Company to covert mill by-product waste into fuel. The process will feature JBI’s Plastic2Oil technology. As part of the agreement, JBI has an exclusive 10 year license with a renewal option to build and operate Plastic2Oil processors at RockTenn’s facilities. The plan is to convert waste plastic at paper mills and material recovery facilities to biofuels. In addition, JBI will mine and process plastic from RockTenn’s plastic-filled monofill sites.

RockTenn has been producing thousands of tons per day. For many years, the company has been storing the plastic in company-owned plastic-only landfills. Now, rather than disposing of the plastics, JBI will mine it for biofuels.

“We are honored that RockTenn has chosen JBI to be its long-term partner in this venture and believe this provides further validation that we have a viable commercial process to handle not only the critical issue of waste by-product but also rising energy costs,” said JBI’s Founder & CEO John Bordynuik. “RockTenn has the industrial relationship and feedstock to support hundreds of Plastic2Oil™ processors. We anticipate a mutually beneficial relationship for both parties and intend to expand as quickly as possible.

Bordynuik continued, “RockTenn currently has sites that can support clusters of processors. In preparation for this agreement, we have designed our processors to be modular ’plug and play’ to allow rapid deployment across RockTenn’s locations.”

This week, Waste Management (WM) commissioned its 1,000th natural gas truck. The company is the largest owner and operator of natural gas burning heavy duty trucks in North America. The truck was commissioned during a ceremony in Carson, California and on hand was Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster. The truck will be dedicated to picking up recyclable materials.

“This is a special milestone in our journey to develop the cleanest fleet of heavy duty trucks in our industry,” said Duane Woods, senior vice president at Waste Management. “We are pleased that we have so many natural gas trucks now in service, particularly in Southern California where clean air is such a critical issue.”

One third of WM’s fleet is now fueled by liquified natural gas (LNG) derived from the decomposition of organic waste delivered and processed at the Altamont Landfill located in Livermore, California. The plant began producing LNG in November 2009, and in this time has been generating up to 13,000 gallons of LNG per day.

WM says that LNG is a “virtually zero-carbon transportation fuel,” and with its current fleet, will displace nearly 8 million gallons of petroleum and 45,100 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.  In addition to its fleet, the company also has 17 compressed natural gas (CNG) and LNG fueling stations located at its facilities with more installations under development. The company also hopes to develop a new landfill-gas-to-LNG facility at its landfill located in Simi Valley, California, a facility that would be similar to its LNG facility at Altamont.

Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, added, “I’m pleased to celebrate the opening of this new facility that’s quite literally turning trash into fuel, and helping us reach our environmental goals by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and creating a healthier atmosphere for all Californians.”

A pilot scale waste-to-energy facility is now up and running in Edmonton, Canada. The $12.5 million Advanced Energy Research Facility is comprised of both the plant and a full-scale lab. The project is a partnership between Alberta Innovates – Energy and Environment Solutions (AI-EES), the City of Edmonton and Enerkem. The province of Alberta is well known as an oil producing region and now the city hopes this project will begin to establish the region as a leader in generating renewable fuels.

“Alberta may be known for our oil and gas, but projects like this one prove we are leaders in green energy development too,” said the Honourable Greg Weadick, Minister of Advanced Education and Technology. “Countries worldwide want greener energy and there’s no other place with our combination of research talent, one-of-a-kind infrastructure, and background in energy development to bring this kind of technology to the world.”

The waste-to-energy plant, being built by Enerkem Alberta Biofuels, will be able to produce biofuels and biochemicals from various waste products include non-hazardous waste from the oil and gas industry, ag and forestry waste and organic waste from the municipal sector. This project is just one part of a $132.5 million waste-to-energy project that also includes a municipal waste processing facility being built by the City of Edmonton.

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel said of the project, “Edmonton is a pioneer in waste management and this research centre helps us enter the next phase of our strategy, which is to recover value from waste that can’t be recycled or composted.This is a major component of the City’s plan to manage our waste in an efficient and environmentally responsible manner.”

The Advanced Energy Research Facility was supported in part by the Government of Alberta though a $29 million AI-EES grant as well as $3.35 million from Alberta Energy. In addition, the City of Edmonton contributed $43.5 million to the project.

Vincent Chornet, President and CEO of Enerkem added, “Enerkem is proud to take part in this innovative project, by providing its leading technology and expertise in the conversion of waste into biochemicals and clean fuels. This state-of-the-art facility will attract high calibre researchers from around the world, and will lead to the production of more sustainable products.”

Can fecal sludge be used for biofuels? Maybe believes Kartik Chandran an associated professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia Engineering. He has recently been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Gates Foundation to continue his research into a new model for water, sanitation and energy. And this is where fecal sludge, aka poop comes in.

This is not the first time poop has been studied to make fuel. Companies have tried to use the waste from large scale cattle farms and from zoo animals. But this project is a bit different. Chandran is working with Ashley Murray, founder and director of Waste Enterprisers, and Moses Mensah, a Chemical Engineering professor at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, to develop an innovative technology to transform fecal sludge into biodiesel and create the “Next-Generation Urban Sanitation Facility” in Accra, Ghana.

“We are delighted to be awarded this project,” Chandran says. “And we are especially pleased that the Gates Foundation has recognized the critical importance of sustainable sanitation by investing in our pioneering project. Thus far, sanitation approaches have been extremely resource- and energy-intensive and therefore out of reach for some of the world’s poorest but also most at-need populations. This project will allow us to move forward and develop practical technologies that will be of great value around the world.”

Chandran has been working in Ghana for two years as the faculty advisor for the Columbia University Engineers without Borders Ghana team. He and his team have a goal of developing a bioprocess technology to convert the organic compounds present in fecal sludge to biodiesel and methane. In essence, this would convert the waste-processing facility into a state-of-the art biorefinery.

Not only would this biorefinery produce economical fuel but would also minimize the discharge of fecal sludge into the water system contributing to better human health and sanitation. Chandran hopes that once the project is proven successful, it could be integrated into a social enterprise business model that would improve economics and health in areas around the world.

Chandran concluded, “This project also affords a new path in engineering education, both in the United States and Ghana. By training tomorrow’s engineers in sustainable approaches to ‘resource and energy recovery’ rather than ‘wastewater treatment,’ a sea-change can be achieved in the way we perceive of and manage human waste. In fact, the term ‘wastewater’ is already archaic. Wastewater is, after all, just water with a different chemical and biological composition.”

Waste Management (WM) has announced they have invested in Agnion Energy, a company developing gasification technology. WM joins other company investors including Kleiner Perkins, Caufield Byers, Munich Venture Partners, and Wellington Partners. Agnion’s allothermal gasification technology converts solid biomass feedstock into a hydrogen and carbon monoxide synthetic gas (syngas) with high heating value. The syngas can then be converted into liquids, hydrogen and methanol di-methyl-ether and or as a natural gas substitute using combined heat and power applications.

“Waste Management wants to maximize the value of the materials it manages,” said Tim Cesarek, managing director of Organic Growth at Waste Management. “Agnion’s technology complements Waste Management’s advancement of thermo-chemical conversion technology platforms and could enhance our suite of waste processing options.”

According to Agnion, their Heatpipe-Reformer design provides a flexible, small-scale on-site gasification technology solution with a relatively low upfront capital cost. The technology is ideal for schools/universities, warehouses/distribution centers, shopping malls, hotels, and hospitals.

“We view the fact that North America’s largest residential recycler and leading waste and environmental solutions provider has decided to invest in Agnion and our Heatpipe-Reformer technology as a tremendous honor and a vote of confidence,” said Agnion CEO, Dr. Stephan Mey. “Our first commercial biomass gasification plant is currently under construction in the Bavarian town of Grassau and we plan to build other plants in Europe and North America.”

In an effort to accelerate the commercialization of renewable fuels, the Biofuels Center of North Carolina has awarded $1.6 million to 15 different projects located within the state. The monies for the awards came from the 2011 Statewide Biofuels Development Grants Program. The center received 58 pre-proposals from 23 organizations with funding requests totaling more than $5.2 million.

“The juncture of new energy and new agriculture requires smart ideas and practical commercial outcomes,” said Steven Burke, CEO of the Biofuels Center. “The 15 awarded projects-encompassing rural communities and woody biomass, technology and municipal solid waste-verify the competence, scope, and remarkably rapid development of this new sector statewide.”

Within the Center’s legislative and policy mandate is the need to strengthen and fund projects leading to biofuels commercialization. These objectives also help the state meet its renewable energy goal of having 10 percent of its liquid transportation fuels by 2017 produced from locally grown biofuels feedstocks and produced in the state.

The program sought projects targeting three areas: county or regional analyses of assets available for site location of biofuels companies; needs analyses and plans for the conversion of municipal waste into biofuels; and the growing of energy grasses in the North Carolina Piedmont region. The awarded projects will impact 60 counties and will in various ways address biofuels ranging in variety from biogasoline and bioethanol to FT diesel, and biomass-derived jet fuel.

Click here for a full list of award recipients.

ICM has announced that it is beginning commercial deployment of its biomass gasification system after the successful completion of infrastructure development, research, testing, and an independent engineering review. The company began operating its commercial scale demonstration gasifer back in 2009. The technology has the capacity to covert 150 tons of biomass per day to a syngas that can then be used a a fuel for industrial power and heating applications.

“We’re extremely pleased to announce the commercialization of our gasifier technology. We believe that ICM’s past experience in delivering technology to the renewable energy sector, coupled with our favorable reputation with lenders, makes the ICM gasification technology an extremely valuable and rare option for clients seeking gasification technology solutions,” said Dave Vander Griend, President and CEO of ICM.

Since 2009, ICM has successfully tested more than 13 feedstocks, processed 7,000 tons of biomass, and amassed more than 2,100 hours of operation. The various feedstocks tested include refuse-derived fuel (RDF) generated from municipal solid waste (MSW), tire-derived fuel (TDF) mixed with RDF, wood chips, pine bark, wheat straw, corn stover, chicken litter, switchgrass, automobile shredded residue (ASR) mixed with RDF, and other biomass/energy crops.

“It was critically important for ICM to invest heavily in a commercial-scale demonstration unit to prove the feedstock-flexible capabilities of this robust technology, which dates back to 1975, as well as to give potential customers and lenders the comfort and reassurance they need to finance waste-to-energy and biomass-to-energy projects,” added Tom Ranallo, Vice President of Operations for ICM.

In addition to producing syngas, ICM’s biomass gasification platform also has the ability to co-produce biochar, a type of charcoal, that has the ability to store carbon dioxide in the soil for thousands of years when buried.

There is a lot of action in the “Beltway” these days surrounding biofuels. One such conversation is around the fate of the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program. A group of policy makers want to end the program, which right now is funded with Reinvestment and Recovery monies. However, energy companies, such as Pleasanton, California-based Fulcrum Bioenergy, would be dead in the water. CEO Jim Macias said if this program ends “it would be a tragedy.” Not only for his company, but for the entire alternative energy industry as a whole.

Fulcrum Bioenergy is in the process of building a waste-to-ethanol plant just outside of Reno, Nevada using ordinary household garbage and converting it to ethanol, electricity and biochemicals. The plant is fully permitted, engineered and equity financed and the company is in the final stages of documentation to close on a DOE Loan Guarantee that is the final piece for their financing. Once that piece is in place, Fulcrum will start construction and begin producing renewable ethanol at the end of 2012. It is important to note that Fulcrum has been working on the DOE loan for more than 2 years.

When the first plant in Reno is complete, it will produce 10 million gallons of ethanol per year and 16 megawatts of electricity. From there, Fulcrum plans to roll out 20 more sites, already selected, and Macias said the feedstock contracts are already in place. When these 20 sites are in production, they will produce 1 billion gallons of ethanol per year from garbage.

Yet if the DOE Loan Guarantee program gets axed not only would his project die, but any project that has been awarded DOE Loan Guarantees since 2009 would lose their funding.

“It’s very challenging for first-of-a-kind commercial plants to to get fully funded in normal economic times, and federal support for new technologies like this, loan guarantees play a very valuable role in closing the funding gap. We’ve raised all the equity capital to construct it including coverage for potential overruns, and the DOE loan guarantee provides a very important step to help these emerging technologies.”

Macias said its important for emerging technologies to receive government support during good economic times, but even more critical now due to the lack of capital fund and bank credit caused by the ongoing recession. He stressed that the loan guarantee program has played a critical role in helping these technologies that are ready for commercial demonstration to get there.

Macias concluded that if the DOE Loan Guarantee Program is rescinded, it would set back the industry. He also said it would be “devastating to breaking our [America's] dependence on imported oil and reducing the price of oil.”

You can listen to my full interview with Fulcrum Bioenergy CEO, Jim Macias here: Jim Macias Discusses DOE Loan Guarantee Program