This week Range Fuels was awarded a construction permit from the state of Georgia to build the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States. Ground breaking will take place this summer in Treutlen County, Georgia for a 100-million-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant that will use wood waste from Georgia's forests as its feedstock. Phase 1 of the plant is scheduled to complete construction in 2008 with a production capacity of 20 million gallons a year. The company estimates that this plant – combined with others to follow – will have the capacity to produce over 1 billion gallons of ethanol per year.
The company's technology completely eliminates enzymes which have been an expensive component of cellulosic ethanol production. The process is self-sustaining, produces virtually no waste products, emits very low levels of greenhouse gases, and produces high yields of ethanol. The thermo-chemical conversion process, the K2 system, uses a two step process to convert the biomass to synthesis gas, and then the syngas is passed over a catalyst and transformed into alcohols. The process accommodates a wide range of organic feedstocks of various types, sizes, and moisture contents. See previous post for details on the company.
The new process does not rely on enzymes, but instead converts wood wastes to synthesis gas. I would anticipate that the project may be criticized in some quarters as requiring more energy (from fossil fuels) than it yields in renewables.
Since this reaction is predictable, I wish our reporter had be able to get information about energy input versus energy yield.
Posted by: Walter Esler | July 08, 2007 at 12:21 AM
Sounds like the right way to go. BTL (biomass to liquid).
But the fact that they need gov grants to do BTL shows its not cost effective (?)
Posted by: Beek | July 08, 2007 at 12:24 AM
According to an article on the Green Car Congress site:
"The Range system is based on a gasifier and ethanol reactor developed by Robert (Bud) Klepper....
In earlier evaluations, the Klepper PSRG with STRP system was found to generate syngas from coal, coal slurry, coal fines and other biomass feedstocks with energy content in the range of 400–600 BTU/ft3 at an average thermal energy conversion efficiency of 75%."
US Patent# 6,863,878: Method and apparatus for producing synthesis gas from carbonaceous materials
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/02/range_fuels_to_.html
Posted by: averagejoe | July 08, 2007 at 01:18 AM