The Energy Blog

FYI: Benefits of Combined Heat and Power in Corn Ethanol Plants

To date, CHP and ethanol industry stakeholders have recognized that the efficiencies of CHP could further improve energy use patterns of dry mill ethanol plants, but the levels of impact have been unclear.

This paper by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Combined Heat and Power Partnership summarizes an analysis of state-of-the-art natural gas-, coal-, and biomass-fueled dry mill ethanol plants—comparing energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the ethanol production process with and without CHP systems.  . . .

The analysis shows that the use of CHP can result in reductions in total energy use of almost 55 percent over state-of-the-art dry mill ethanol plants that purchase central station power rather than use CHP. With certain CHP configurations, CO2 emission reductions from using CHP to displace central station power even exceed the CO2 emissions from the CHP system and ethanol plant, resulting in negative net CO2 emissions for the plant compared with base case conditions. . . . more

I had thought that plants employing CHP were more common than indicated in this report.  . . . No wonder power consumption is such a big concern.  Of course lower power comes at the price of higher capital costs, but after all these plants are part of the energy industry that should be aware of these costs.  And when are these plants going to start using part of their product to generate their power requirements?  Get with the program!

Ethanol Blends can Provide Better Fuel Economy than Gasoline

Recent research findings show that mid-range ethanol blends - fuel mixtures most likely between E20 and E30 - can in some cases provide better fuel economy than regular unleaded gasoline, even in standard, non-flex-fuel vehicles.

Previous assumptions held that ethanol's lower energy content directly correlates with lower fuel economy for drivers. Those assumptions were found to be incorrect. E20 and E30 ethanol blends outperformed unleaded gasoline in fuel economy tests for certain autos. The tests were conducted using four 2007 model vehicles: a Toyota Camry, a Ford Fusion, and two Chevrolet Impalas, one flex-fuel and one non-flex-fuel. Contrary to Btu-based estimates of fuel economy for ethanol blends, three of the four vehicles tested achieved their highest fuel efficiency not on gasoline, but on an ethanol blend. Mid-level blends of ethanol E20 (20% ethanol, 80% gasoline) and E30 (30% ethanol, 70% gasoline) offered the best fuel economy in these tests.

• E30 offered better fuel economy than gasoline (a 1% increase) in both the Toyota and the Ford.
• E20 offered better fuel economy than gasoline (a 15% increase) in the flex-fuel Chevrolet.
• The non-flex-fuel Chevrolet more closely followed the Btu-calculated trend for fuel economy, but did experience a significant improvement over the trend line with E40 (40% ethanol, 60% gasoline), indicating that this may be the “optimal” ethanol blend level for this vehicle.

Vapema, Developer of Membranes for Ethanol/Vapor Separation Receives Can$21.5 Million in Funding

Vaperma Inc., Quebec City, QC, provider of advanced gas separation solutions aimed at reducing energy costs and carbon footprint, has received Can$ 21.5 million in a second financing round.

The company will use proceeds from this financing to commercialize its Siftek(TM) membrane-based ethanol/alcohol dewatering system, to expand all corporate operations and to accelerate the growth of its membrane business.

Vaperma has developed a lower cost solution to remove water from ethanol blends by entirely replacing rectification column and/or dehydration unit such as molecular sieve and extractive distillation with a membrane separation system. Conventional ethanol/alcohol distilleries are known to consume huge amounts of steam. Vaperma's Siftek(TM) system has been tested successfully for over a year in an operating corn-based ethanol plant in Canada.

Vaperma Siftek™ hollow-fiber polymeric membrane enables the dewatering of a 40:60 ethanol to water vapor mixture into a 99+% w/w fuel-grade ethanol product. There is no need to rectify the ethanol/water blend after evaporation. By replacing the rectifier and the molecular sieve used in a conventional ethanol plant, energy savings as high as 40 % are possible with the innovative membrane permeation process developed by Vaperma. This is equivalent to a cost reduction of 6.4 ¢/Gal (1.7¢/L).

Vaperma has teamed up with Canada's largest producer of ethanol, Greenfield Ethanol (GFE- previously Commercial Alcohols Inc.), to prove its Siftek™ membrane technology prior to its industrial scale commercialization, projected for 2008.

Ethanol from Biodiesel Byproduct

Biotech reports that scientists have found a way to convert glycerin, a byproduct of biodiesel production into ethanol.

Ramon Gonzalez and Syed Shams Yazdani have identified the metabolic processes and conditions that allow a known strain of Escherichia coli to convert glycerin into ethanol through an anaerobic fermentation process.

Gonzalez found that ethanol from glycerol is 39 cents cheaper to produce than ethanol from corn. Feedstock costs per gallon were 53 cents for corn, versus 30 cents for glycerol. Per gallon operating costs were 52 cents for corn and just 36 cents for glycerol. . . . more

I would think this technology would only be applicable to larger biodiesel plants, of which there are not too many in the U.S., but probably more in Germany.

Maize for Biofuels: The Ultimate Energy Crop

According to research conducted by Fred Below at the University of Illinois (U of I), maize may prove to be the ultimate U.S. biofuels crop. This comes at somewhat of a surprise, because U of I has been studying and advocating Miscanthus for some time.

The chief advantage of maize, when grown in the Midwest, is that it requires much less nitrogen fertilizer input than corn because it does not produce any ears.  The sugar is in the stalks, not in the ears and is in the form of sucrose, fructose and glucose.

This differs from conventional corn and other crops being grown for biofuels in that the starch found in corn grain and the cellulose in switchgrass, corn stover and other biofuel crops must be treated with enzymes to convert them into sugars that can be then fermented into alcohols such as ethanol.

It also is easier for farmers to integrate into their current operations than some other dedicated energy crops because it can be easily rotated with corn or soybeans, and can be planted, cultivated and harvested with the same equipment U.S. farmers already have. Finally, tropical maize stalks are believed to require less processing than corn grain, corn stover, switchgrass, Miscanthus giganteus and the scores of other plants now being studied for biofuel production.

VeraSun Energy Suspends Construction of Refinery

VeraSun Energy Corporation (NYSE: VSE) announced on October 2 that it was suspending construction of a 110 million-gallon-per-year ethanol biorefinery due to current market conditions. The company expects that construction will be resumed in 2008 if market conditions improve. The company had only completed site grading and preparation work on he effected plant.

"We believe it's important to be mindful of the current market conditions and manage our business accordingly," said Danny Herron, VeraSun Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President. "Given the abrupt change in market conditions that have seen ethanol prices drop nearly 50 cents per gallon in the last 60 days, it is prudent for us to adjust our current pace of expansion. Due to Reynold's early stage of development, we believe it is wise to suspend investment until the market provides an acceptable return."

"We have a large business that we are growing rapidly with four facilities continuing under construction," said Don Endres, VeraSun Chairman and CEO. "We remain confident in the outlook for our industry and believe that with ethanol currently priced at a dollar less than gasoline, it provides a great value as a high-octane, clean-burning renewable fuel that will drive additional blending throughout the nation."

Priced at a dollar less than gasoline, blending ethanol with gasoline now reduces the price of gasoline, but does not provide as great a profit margin for producers as it previously did. This is evidence that market forces are at work and the out of control expansion of corn ethanol producers will be moderated. Although I support the development of the ethanol market, it is time that subsidies on corn ethanol be reduced so that cost reduction improvements to biorefineries will be implemented. See the previous post on Poet to see what cost reduction practices are being planned by one producer.

Update: Loan guarantees for improvements to reduce cost would be OK for corn ethanol. Full subsidies for cellulosic ethanol would be OK until processes are more developed and costs are under control.

Poet Becomes Largest Ethanol Producer in World, May be first to Produce Cellulosic Ethanol

On September 14 POET Biorefining, formerly the Broin Companies, opened their 21st ethanol production facility, a 65 million gallon per year plant that brings Poet's total capacity to 1.1 billion gallons per year of corn ethanol, making POET the largest producer of ethanol in the world.

The facility, the 27th (including administrative facilites) constructed by POET since they were founded 20 years ago, is equipped with technology that decreases its environmental footprint. That technology includes POET’s patent-pending BPX™ process that eliminates the need for heat in the cooking process of producing ethanol, reducing energy usage by 8-15 percent in comparison with conventional plants. It will also be outfitted with a regenerative thermal oxidizer that eliminates up to 99.9 percent of air emissions.

The BPX process is a patent-pending raw starch hydrolysis process that converts starch to sugar, which then ferments to ethanol without heat. The process not only reduces energy costs, but also releases additional starch content for conversion to ethanol, increases protein content and quality of co-products, increases co-product flowability, potentially increases plant throughput and significantly decreases plant emissions.

POET Biorefining - Portland, IN will utilize 22 million bushels of corn from the area to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of Dakota Gold Enhanced Nutrition Distillers Products™ per year. The $105 million facility will provide around 40 jobs with an annual payroll of about $2 million.

Growth in Biofuels Production Remains Strong

Growth in the biofuel industry remains strong for both ethanol and biodiesel, according to a presss release for the Soyatech's Biofuels Index, newly updated for Q2 2007. However, the data also shows signs that the corn-based ethanol build out may be leveling off.

Soyatech's Biofuels Index, which tracks planned and actual build-out of biofuels production capacity, reports dramatic growth in planned capacity for ethanol plants over the past year, from 6.761 billion gallons per year (BGY) as of July 1, 2006, to 13.03 BGY as of July 1, 2007 - an increase of 93%. During this same period, growth in ethanol capacity under construction increased 199%, from 2.417 BGY to 7.226 BGY.

During Q2 2007, total online capacity for ethanol increased by 564 million gallons per year (MGY), or 10.7%, from 5.289 BGY to 5.853 BGY. Capacity in planning rose by approximately 6% during the quarter.

However, the Index also points to a slight leveling off in construction of ethanol plants during Q2 2007 - the first time since the Index began tracking these numbers. According to the Index, capacity under construction decreased slightly by 1.7%.

"While the percent change is too small and the time frame too short to identify this as a definitive trend, we understand from industry sources that it is more difficult to secure debt financing for new refineries due largely to increased equity requirements on the part of banks providing this funding. We suspect that an additional cause may be constraints on the amount of corn available as a feedstock to produce ethanol," said Jacob Golbitz, director of research for Soyatech and its parent company, HighQuest Partners.

E3 Biofuels' Efficient Closed-Loop Ethanol Plant in Operation

E³ BioFuels inaugurated the world's first closed-loop ethanol plant fueled largely by biogas from animal waste instead of coal or natural gas on June 28. The energy-efficient, low-cost Genesis Plant, located in Mead, Neb., began commercial operation in April 2007, doesn't contribute to global warming and actually reduces air and water pollution.

E³ BioFuels' patented technology brings together three proven components into a single, closed-loop system:

1. A large cattle feedlot or dairy that produces large quantities of cow manure needing treatment.
2. An anaerobic digester that transforms the cow manure into biogas.
3. An ethanol plant that runs on the biogas instead of natural gas or coal, and whose leftover wet grain is fed back to the cattle.

At the Genesis plant the patented closed-loop ethanol system produces energy by combining manure, collected from an adjacent 28,000-head cattle feedlot, with thin stillage, a cellulosic byproduct of ethanol refining. The hot liquid mixture is decomposed inside an anaerobic digester, where bacteria extract methane-rich biogas that is used to fire the plant's ethanol boilers. Traditional ethanol refineries are fueled by coal or natural gas.

Important Lower Cost Technology Demonstrated for Ethanol Production

GreenField Ethanol and Vaperma, announced they have completed a successful trial demonstration of new technology to save 40% of the energy costs of the ethanol production processs by using Verpanas new membranes to seperate water from an alcohol-water mixture producing a 99 per cent fuel-grade ethanol product that will dramatically improve the ethanol production process. The Vaperma process allows for significant energy savings because the membrane eliminates distillation and molecular sieve units.

GreenField Ethanol, Canada’s largest ethanol producer while Vaperma is an emerging developer, manufacturer, and supplier of advanced hollow polymer fiber membrane gas separation systems.

Vaperma’s process is unique to the industry and has the potential to revolutionize the alcohol production process. Their Siftek™ polymeric membrane system allows high selective separation of water from various gas mixtures and organic vapors. Vaperma membranes are heat and solvent resistant. Membrane based technology offers an alternative to conventional processes for the “dewatering” of ethanol and natural gas and the removal of CO2.

Vaperma Siftek™ membrane enables the dewatering of a 40:60 ethanol to water vapor mixture into a 99+% w/w fuel-grade ethanol product. There is no need to distill (rectify) the ethanol/water blend after evaporation. By replacing the distallation column and the molecular sieve used in a conventional ethanol plant, energy savings as high as 40 % are possible with the innovative membrane permeation process developed by Vaperma. This is equivalent to a cost reduction of 6.4 ¢/Gal (1,7¢/L).