World's First Cellulosic Ethanol Plant

Adapted from Celunol launches commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Japan by C. Scott Miller, BIOconversion Blog, Jan. 21, 2007

BioEthanol Japan, on January 16, became the world’s first company to produce cellulosic ethanol from wood construction waste on a commercial basis.

The plant in Osaka Prefecture has an annual capacity of 1.4 million liters (about 370,000 US gallons). In 2008, it plans to boost production to 4 million liters (1 million US gallons).

BioEthanol Japan was established in 2004 by five companies, including construction firm Taisei Corp., trading house Marubeni Corp., Daiei Inter Nature System, and beermaker Sapporo Breweries Ltd. Marubeni is supplying the process technology, which it has licensed from US-based Celunol, to BioEthanol Japan

Celunol's technology is based on the metabolic engineering of microorganisms, a set of genetically engineered strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that can ferment both C6 (hexose) and C5 (pentose) sugars present in cellulosic biomass into ethanol, which are essentially all of the sugars found in cellulosic biomass.

This plant is about one-fourth the size of the plant that Celunol is building in Jennings. It should provide some additional data that will help in the operation of the Jennings plant. I missed this announcement when it came out and am posting it because of its importance. This places the Celunol technology near the top of the technology heap, along with that of Iogen and Abengoa Biorefinery. Iogen just received some financing from the Canadian government to help in upgrading its demonstration plant. It will be a race to see if Celunol gets it US plant in operation before Abengoa Bioenergy gets its similar sized plant in operation in Spain. I have a feeling that the Celunol technology is a little better, beacause it can currently handle wood chips and the other two operate on straw.  That says nothing about the cost of the three processes.

Comments

[Henrik]

I read elseware that a commercial scale ethanol plant must be able to produce at least 10 million gallons per year. A state of the art facility produces 100 million gallons per year. I wish them good luck but I am non impressed or excited yet.

[karl (burning tires once again)]

Those who burn tires are threatend but using them for left in form for thick walled homes. The walls in such homes take up more space then the garage- even worse.

The question is this not going to make things much cheaper, but cheap enough to do what it will likely enable us continuing to do? And that answer is easy, of course not.

Leave the saw dust alone. Build log cabins instead. The bark stripped conceals the life lost. We are expected to live in high rises, while our cars spread out in sunny fertile fields. For profit not, greed at it's essence this is threatened.

Turning trash into speeding teens slaughtering babes in strollers or sitters living in there room is not a neat trick. The tire wasted much more energy then it took to make.

The cost of energy for transportation is such a threat why? Because it causes those who pay the bills to look at what they are buying. NEver have I seen the potential motives for tricking people into thinking they are not spending as much- in less land to actually live on etc.- for not having a transportation system but instead employing highschool dropouts that prey more coarsely on all our children then either Sam to garnish our wages, wives, lives, for porn of the worst kind only.

Using energy is rarely a good idea. That message is getting lost in efforts to mediate the cost. ALthough I emphasize how much the marketplace could help, I know let out a welp about how first you should look at the application, decide whether it is worth doing at any price, then and only then is it nice to think more then twice about just which slice from which your going to dice.

We saw this recently with whey. A bunch of fish got fed and 'only' Sam's pocket book got harmed. Landfills are warehouses. We are there lords. SOmeone threatens to divert the good stuff, and we applaud? Just because it's not used, or sold, does not make it waste. As a cost to wrongful technology it's a decent tariff. ALready the materials stores package foam on top of foam slabs that are not even recycled despite the inferior product stacked upon them costing a fortune at retail.

There is no finders keepers principle that is valid at work here. Only big deals, done in secret, likely against the public interest.

Our forests 'burned' recently. Now instead of the rescued lumber rotting it's getting turned to 'energy.' Far from view, without any public participation on the plan that's meaningful.

Our local governments charge us to take away our 'waste' water. When developers offer to use more of it in our yards- guess whathappens to those who 'earn' that charge? Who have to sign off on that occuring?

Sure, we can do better then farm sweet corn for Ugly Trucks. But can we grow more strawberries on beds of chipped wood best? I think so.

[mtburr]

I'm not sure what point "karl (burning tires once again)" is trying to make. But it looks like an off-topic post and I would recommend that Mr. Fraser delete it.

[karl (when in doubt delete)]

"Not Found

The requested URL /mtburr/www.mtburr.com was not found on this server." is unsure if the topic is off topic.

A local scientist is working on harvesting the methane in the ocean under the ice. She denies that this project might be consistent with the history of such slaughter given the potential to waste much to get some, to maximise initial profits, as familiarity with this form of 'yellow snow' insists upon realizing is almost certain.

Fast food purveyors everywhere are using the roads without even having to pay the joke of excise tax to delude the rest of us into thinking drivers pay the way at all to pave.

Even users of PV are getting a free ride when they use the grid on peak only, paying the average rate, ripping off the rest of us.

WHen reading about lawful bootlegging nothing could be more relevent then is this really competent legislative will manifesting? Or is it just Chaos rearing another head we've not yet understood just how it expects to be ultimately fed.

IN the biosphere II they gasped for air. We should be so lucky. What's true about global warming is that it's a sloap dam hard to climb back up. The money for conservation and efficiency is very limited. That spent developing new sources comes at it's expense.

IN some cases only malt liquor buyers might find there stills 'stolen.' But really, fermentation can only do so much. THe price signal is misunderstood when things are done that have no inherent value, and only serve to make it that much more difficult to do the right thing and cut the waste however awfully unambitious that might taste.

So I ended by saying give me sawdust and I'll turn sunlight and water into something to salivate for not just run your car hardy har.

History speaks to this as well. Under cars thieves now slide, turning them into far more impressive ride, confiscating there precious metal, as if, yeah, there owners won't settle to pollute and and groan "oh shoot"... until emissions testing at least, then maybe just borrow shortterm one of those catalytica ah beasts to incur the least.

The ethan project then games the system. It tries to slightly lessen consumption to force down the price, without charging the consumers of the 'extra' fuel it's actual cost, but rather just passing it to all even those who have answered the call and no longer roam needlessly if at all.

Because of this it's what lacks ambition. We already have optimal uses for water, and fruitful soil, to rescue the inner city from nutritional apartheid, to save there hide, not merely keep paving for idle ride and ever higher fuel tide.

So your snide. The topic is is price getting responded to pathalogically. Are we building at great expense against public interence and cosequently trust? Of this I say not we must. Fuss not hust, or we'll all suffer, soon enough, anotgher bust.

[karl (regretting the explication of the attackers consultancy)]

As most will realize perhaps it is a valid website he put in, one in which he solicits money to confidentially assert over public policy matters.

Perhaps though his attack served those interests well, as I don't expect this to post.

If not, perhaps he could learn to say nothing if he has nothing nice to say, or otherwise justify his need toprompt censorship, it is afer all he who spammed, not I, for financial motive, however arguably otherwise noble or not.

[Tomi Engel]

I just want to remind you that 4 million liters per year means approx 2,5 mio liters of oil equivalent which means roughly 16000 barrels of oil per year ... which means 44 barrels of oil per day.

It sure might be interesting technology ... but lets not forget about the scale of the "problem" we are trying to solve. And we yet have to see the energy balance for this production process.

[Roberrific]

Canada is desperate to grow more ethanol. We are all of us Canuks are waiting for the necessary scientific breakthroughs to bring the price down and for government legislation to raise the manditory fuel blend. I write about GreenField Ethanol in my blog www.roberrific.typepad.com/drunkenmoose
and I hope this green company becomes the ExxonMobile of bio fuel. Furthermore I pray that Royal Dutch Shell and Esso die horrible deaths as all of humanity wakes to the attrocities they have committed all over the world.