The Energy Blog

Xethanol Announces 50 MGY Cellulosic Ethanol Plant (updated 4:09 PM July 20)

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX:XNL), announced today that it will construct a 50 million gallon per year cellulosic ethanol plant, scheduled for operation by mid 2007, on the site it previously announced that it is acquiring from Pfizer pharmaceutical in Augusta, Georgia.

It is being designed to run on a variety of feedstocks and they have begun securing the necessary feedstock streams from the forest products industry so that they can run at capacity when they begin production by mid-2007. By combining Xethanol's proprietary technologies with those of PRAJ, they believe that they have achieved their goal of being a low-cost producer of fuel ethanol from cellulosic materials.

The Pfizer site has has millions of dollars in equipment and infrastructure in place and ready to use for ethanol production. This enables the company to save significant time and money in bringing their facilities on line. The Pfizer, 40 acre site includes: an 89,100 square foot manufacturing facility, a 25,000 square foot warehouse facility, 7,300 square feet of laboratory space, and 16,000 square feet of offices and conference rooms. This biomass-to-ethanol facility will be the first of its kind in the region. In addition, CoastalXethanol may produce biodiesel in this facility under Xethanol's sublicense from H2Diesel, Inc.

About BlueFire Ethanol

Perhaps the best kept secret in the ethanol industry is BlueFire Ethanol Inc. an ethanol development company, that has begun trading under the Symbol BFRE.PK. They use the this process for the conversion of municipal solid waste (MSW), rice and wheat straws, wood waste and other agricultural residues to ethanol. Their use of the Arkenol Technology positions it as the only cellulose-to-ethanol company worldwide with demonstrated production of ethanol from these materials. They have an exclusive, North American license of the technology for use in the production of ethanol for the transportation fuel market.

Since 2003, the technology has been successfully used in the IZUMI pilot plant operated by JGC, the licensee of Arkenol for Japan and SE Asia, to produce ethanol for the Japanese transportation fuel market. Over the last 10 years, the initial testing on a vast array of potential feedstock has been completed both in the U.S. and at various locations throughout the world. BlueFire has completed the arrangement of the major commitments necessary to proceed with final development of its first commercial facility which will be sited in California.

Arkenol has developed significant proprietary improvements to a well known conversion technology known as concentrated acid hydrolysis such that the process is ready for commercial implementation. Some of the most important innovations are:

• Flash fermentation
• Membrane distillation
• Chromatographic separation of the acid from the sugars

Roadmap for Development of Cellulosic Ethanol Production

The U.S. DOE recently released a report detailing a roadmap for the development of cellulosic ethanol production.  The report is based on the Biomass to Biofuels Workshop held December 7–9, 2005, in Rockville, Maryland, where more than 50 scientists representing a wide range of expertise convened to define barriers and challenges to the biofuel industry. This report is a roadmap, based on that workshop, for accelerating cellulosic ethanol research, helping make biofuels practical and cost-competitive by 2012 ($1.07/gal ethanol) and offering the potential to displace up to 30% of the nation’s current gasoline use by 2030. While other blogs and news articles have reported on the release of the report, no one has attempted to articulate the roadmap. The following are some brief excerpts from the report.

Fuels derived from cellulosic biomass—the fibrous, woody, and generally inedible portions of plant matter—offer an alternative to conventional energy sources that supports national economic growth, national energy security, and environmental goals. Cellulosic biomass is an attractive energy feedstock because supplies are abundant domestically and globally. It is a renewable source of liquid transportation fuels that can be used readily by current-generation vehicles and distributed through the existing transportation- fuel infrastructure. Ethanol from corn grain is an increasingly important additive fuel source, but it has limited growth potential as a primary transportation fuel.

Achieving the ambitious goal of displacing 30% of the 2004 gasoline demand with biofuels by 2030 will require a rapid expansion of the fuel ethanol industry. Annual U.S. production will need to increase from about 4 billion gallons of corn grain ethanol to about 60 billion gallons per year from a variety of plant materials. 

An annual supply of roughly a billion dry tons of biomass will be needed to support this level of ethanol production. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and DOE finds potential to sustainably harvest more than 1.3 billion metric tons of biomass from U.S. forest and agricultural lands by mid-21st Century (previous post).

The report found that only 6% of the 1.36 billion metric tons would come from grain, and since only about a billion tons are required, none of the feedstock need come at the expense of food producing acreage.

Ethanol from Citrus Peels

With the recent attention on using cellulosic feedstock for producing ethanol, the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Subtropical Products Laboratory in 2004 resumed research on producing ethanol from citrus waste. Citrus waste materials are rich in pectin, cellulose, and hemicellulosic polysaccharides, which can be hydrolyzed into sugars and fermented into alcohol. In Florida alone, citrus processing yields about 5 million tons of wet waste annually, or 1.2 million tons of dry waste. Most dried peel residue is marketed as low-value cattle feed. Up to 80 million gallons of ethanol per year could be produced from Florida's citrus wastes.

The research, which began in 1992, had been discontinued due to the low prices of gasoline and the high prices of enzymes needed in the process.  But an economic flip-flop occurred over the past decade, thanks to a rise in gas prices and more economical production of the enzymes.

In 2004 the process was modified to cut the amount of enzyme required to convert citrus-waste carbohydrates to sugars and ethanol. Then it was scaled up to where the process shows economic promise for large-volume production.

New Ethanol from Syngas Process

A press release from NetCo (OTCBB: NIVS.OB), a Washington State Company with headquarters in Vancouver, Canada announced that it has signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire all the assets, including patents of Syntec Biofuel Inc. ("Syntec"), a Canadian, scientific research company, located in British Columbia, who has developed and patented a catalyst to convert syngas into ethanol.  According to the press release:

Currently over 90% of Ethanol production in the USA comes from traditional grain fermentation processes using corn, wheat or barley. Syntec technology focuses on an entirely different Ethanol production process by using a Gasification-Catalytic Synthesis, which is a thermo-chemical process that converts Syngas into Ethanol. Unlike the current fermentation processes, Syntec's catalysts will produce Ethanol from unlimited sources of feedstock using waste gas, such as biogas from landfills, sewage, manure, wood waste, and producer gas (thermal gasification of biomass or other carbonaceous material such as municipal solid waste). This process will also create far greater green house gas (GHG) reductions and carbon credits than the fermentation process.

Turning corn fiber into ethanol

Iowa State University researchers have used mold to convert corn fiber into ethanol. The discovery could turn byproducts of corn milling into another source of fuel. Researchers have demonstrated they have a process that can convert corn fiber -- a byproduct of the wet milling process that produces corn syrup -- into fuel-grade ethanol on a very small scale. The mold produces enzymes that break down corn fiber into the simple sugars that are fermented into ethanol.

"I believe this is a breakthrough," said van Leeuwen, an Iowa State professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering and the leader of the research project. "But I also want to caution that we need to do a lot more research."

This is another project that deserves watching to see if we can squeeze more ethanol out of a corn plant.

Turning corn fiber into ethanol, Iowa State University press release, May 31, 2006

BioEnergy International Promises Lignocellulosic Technology

Lignocellulosic technology for ethanol production, which is absolutely necessary for a meaningful ethanol industry, is starting to get some traction. Another company has made an announcement that they are going to give this technology a try.  Abengoa Bioenergy, Farmacule BioIndustries, Iogen and Xethanol Corporation are other companies that have announced plans to build commercial facilities.

BioEnergy International, LLC ("BioEnergy"), a company developing proprietary technologies to produce ethanol and specialty chemicals from traditional feedstocks as well as lignocellulosics, announced that it has begun site work on its first biorefinery, a 108 million gallon per year ethanol plant located ...in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana. ... The plant ... is expected to commence full-scale construction early in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Initially the plant will produce ethanol from corn using conventional technology. ... BioEnergy intends to rapidly introduce its proprietary technology to produce fuels and specialty chemicals using organic wastes such as bagasse, rice hulls and wood in addition to corn. BioEnergy has a pipeline of projects in various stages of development representing over 400 million gallons of annual ethanol production. Separately, BioEnergy has obtained exclusive licenses for novel biocatalysts and has initiated research to support commercial development of specialty chemicals utilizing these biocatalysts for introduction into the Lake Providence facility in the next several years; thus achieving its goal of becoming a world-scale biorefinery. In addition, BioEnergy has secured an exclusive research agreement with the University of Florida and Dr. Lonnie Ingram to develop proprietary technologies to produce biobased specialty chemicals (other than ethanol) from starch and cellulose derived sugars.

BioEnergy International, LLC, headquartered in Norwell, Massachusetts, is a privately held, biotechnology company focused on developing biorefineries and proprietary technologies to produce specialty chemicals and renewable fuels from both traditional feedstocks and cellulose. BioEnergy currently has two 108 million gallon per year ethanol plants under development which, over time, will utilize its proprietary technologies to produce high value specialty chemicals and renewable fuels.

BRI Announces Plans for Two Ethanol Plants

BRI Energy has announced tentative plans to build one or two ethanol-producing facilities at Oak Ridge, which within five years might employ 500.  One plant would convert western coal to ethanol, while the other would convert burnable municipal waste (paper, plastic, garbage, leather) to ethanol.

William Bruce, BRI's president, said he hopes for federal loan guarantees provided for in last years energy bill for both projects. The coal gasification facility would cost $25 million, and they would be looking for a $20-million federal loan guarantee, while the municipal waste facility would require $62.5 million in private investment and a $250-million federal loan guarantee.

The coal-gasification process would remain competitive with gasoline as long as oil remains at or above about $30 a barrel.  The waste-conversion process would help many communities that are running out of landfill space.

BRI, previous post, has been developing a synthesis gas fermentation process that converts biomass to synthesis gas via a high temperature gasification process. Anaerobic bacteria are then used to convert the synthesis gas into ethanol.

Thanks to Marshall Brain in Alt Energy for the tip.

Resource: Company plans big ethanol plant in Oak Ridge, Knoxnews, May 1, 2006

Goldman Sachs Invests $30 Million in Iogen

Iogen Corporation announced May 1st that Goldman Sachs & Co. has invested $30 Million (CDN), ($27 million US) in its renewable cellulose ethanol technology. Iogen operates the worlds largest pilot/demonstration plant that makes cellulosic ethanol. 

Goldman Sachs' investment gives it a minority stake in Iogen, the only company to be operating a demonstration facility that converts agriculture materials like straw, corn stalks, and switchgrass to ethanol. Goldman Sachs joins the Royal Dutch/Shell Group as a major investor. The funds will be used to accelerate Iogen's commercialization program.

Iogen owns and operates a 10-acre, fully integrated enzyme and cellulose ethanol manufacturing facility located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. This complex houses research and development, engineering, manufacturing and quality control. At full capacity Iogen's demonstration plant is designed to process about 40 tonnes per day of feedstock, and to produce 3 to 4 million liters of ethanol per year. The plant uses wheat, oat, and barley straw as raw materials. 

Ethanol From Tires Via Plasma Converter Plus Fischer Tropsch

Future Fuels, Inc. (FFI) and Startech Environmental Corporation (OTC BB: STHK.OB) have signed a global strategic alliance to obtain contracts for waste-to-ethanol facilities and also for FFI's own $84 million waste-to-energy facility to be constructed in Toms River, New Jersey. FFI has issued a letter of intent to Startech for purchase and installation of a 100 ton-per-day Startech Plasma Converter System (PCS) for installation at Toms River, scheduled to go on line in late 2007.  Plans also call for the Toms River Facility expansion to include a series of additional Startech 100 ton-per-day PCSs.

The Toms River Facility will produce 52 million gallons per year of ethanol from used tires.  The PCS, using a plasma that reaches 30,000 degrees Centigrade, will first completely destroy the tires, producing a synthesis gas called Plasma Converted Gas (PCG). For each unit of electrical energy the Converter uses it will produce between four and ten units of energy residing in the PCG. The PCG, a mixture of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen is the input for FFI's catalytic ethanol synthesis process, a modified Fischer-Tropsch process.  The process applies heat and pressure in the presence of a catalyst to chemically transform the PCG into ethanol. 

Switchgrass

The president raised the point that switchgrass might be in our future as a source for cellulosic ethanol.  There were also some questions raised on my previous fortuitous post "New Ethanol Study". Most of this post is a combination of direct quotes from the two resources listed at the end.

Switchgrass is a native of North America where it occurs naturally from 55º N latitude to deep into Mexico, mostly as a prairie grass. In North America it has long been used for soil conservation and as a fodder crop. Both in America and Europe it can be found as an ornamental plant. The grass is also found in South America and Africa where it is used as a forage crop. Switchgrass is a perennial C4 grass propagated by seed that can be established at low cost and risk and requires very low inputs while giving high biomass yields even on marginal soils. Since the early 1990s the crop has been developed as a model herbaceous energy crop for ethanol and electricity production in the USA and in Canada and it is also being considered as a paper pulp production feedstock.

First, a distinction: switchgrass and your suburban lawn grasses—bluegrass and zoysia grass— are about as similar as a shopping-mall ficus and an old-growth redwood. Switchgrass is big and it's tough—after a good growing season, it can stand 10 feet high, with stems as thick and strong as hardwood pencils.

But what makes switchgrass bad for barefoot lawns makes it ideal for energy crops: It grows fast, capturing lots of solar energy and turning it into lots of chemical energy— cellulose—that can be liquified, gasified, or burned directly. It also reaches deep into the soil for water, and uses the water it finds very efficiently. And because it spent millions of years evolving to thrive in climates and growing conditions spanning much of the nation, switchgrass is remarkably adaptable.

BRI Synthesis Gas Fermentation Process Update

Bioengineering Resources, Inc. (BRI) has been developing a synthesis gas fermentation process whereby biomass can be converted to synthesis gas (consisting primarily of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen) via a high temperature gasification process. Anaerobic bacteria are then used to convert the synthesis gas into ethanol. The BRI process can be used to produce ethanol from cellulosic wastes with high yields and rates.  This is made possible because BRI has developed bioreactor systems for fermentation that results in retention times of only a few minutes at atmospheric pressure and less than a minute at elevated pressure. These retention times result in very economical equipment costs.

New developments from a previous post on this process have been:

• Awarding a new $2.4 million contract, the Corn Stover Project, by DOE
• Completion of process design and costing of a standard plant
• Completion of a Technical Evaluation report by Parsons
• Completion of an Emissions Testing Report that is needed for permitting and construction of their first plant.
• At least one plant is expected to begin commercial operations before the end of 2006.

Shiitake Mushroom Gene Secret to Xylanase Enzyme

From Agricultural Research Service news release:

The Shiitake mushroom thrive on downed wood on the forest floors, turning it into sugars that they use for food.  The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is studying a Shiitake gene that's key to the mushrooms ability to dissolve wood.  Called Xyn11A, the gene carries the instructions that the mushroom uses to make an enzyme known as xylanase. The researchers want to see if a ramped-up version of the gene could be put to work digesting rice hulls or other harvest leftovers.

Xethanol, Forest Products Laboratory to Develop Xylitol Process

Xethanol Corporation (OTCBB:XTHN - News) goal is to be the leader in the emerging biomass-to-ethanol industry by optimizing the use of biomass in the renewable energy field and convert biomass that is currently being abandoned or land filled into ethanol and other valuable co-products, especially xylitol.  Xethanol's strategy is to deploy proprietary biotechnologies that will extract and ferment the sugars trapped in these biomass waste concentrations.  Today they announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Xylose Technologies, Inc. (XTI), has finalized a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.

This CRADA is a cooperative research and development program for the purpose of genetically engineering proprietary yeast strains for the efficient production of xylitol, a low calorie natural sweetener. The feedstock for this process is derived from cellulosic biomass, such as wood chips and corn stalks.  XTI will have the right to commercialize technology developed under the CRADA. XTI currently holds a license for a patented fermentation process to convert xylose into ethanol and xylitol, a technology previously developed by Dr. Jeffries of the FPL. Their existing portfolio of technologies, along with the work being developed under this joint effort with USDA Forest Service, will position XTI to become a low cost, high volume producer of this valuable sweetener.  Although it has been used in this country since the 1960's, demand has been curtailed by high cost and limited, unreliable supply.

Micanthus: Perennial Grass for Fuel

Micanthus x giganteus, sometimes referred to as elephant grass, is a promising energy crop, originally imported from Asia, that the University of Illinois is investigating as an energy crop. It is a perennial grass known for its ornamental forms.  The type being investigated for an energy crop is a stronger-stemmed highly productive hybrid that grows to a height of 8 to 12 feet. The U of I team calculates that over a ten year period, with no subsidies to either crop, it would be more profitable than corn or soybeans.

Illinois researchers found that the grass has a higher yield than in Europe where  earlier work has been conducted to evaluate it as an energy crop.  It yields 10 to 30 tons dry mass per hectare (2.47 acres) in Europe and results in Illinois have been twice that.  Using a computer simulator, Heaton predicted that if just 10 percent of Illinois land mass was devoted to Miscanthus, it could provide 50 percent of Illinois electricity needs. It is burned and fired with coal, in mixtures of up to 50% Micanthus.

It is a sterile cross, which means that it is not invasive as some varieties are, and it is propagated from rhizomes, similarly to irises.  After planting, Micanthus takes three years to mature for harvesting.  It is left standing in the field to dry and is harvested from November to February with the same machinery that is used to harvest corn.  It is very low in sulfur and carbon neutral so it has strong environmental benefits.  The grass is one of the most efficient crops for growing in cold weather and is very drought resistant. Energy input to growing it is much lower than row crops since it is only planted once every 10 to 20 years.  It improves soil by adding large amounts of organic matter to it.  It requires little or no herbicides or fertilizer and no cultivation once it is established. 

"Hybrid grass may be valuable fuel source", PHYSORG.COM, 9/27/05
"Biomass Crops as a Source of Renewable Energy: European Experience with Miscanthus and projections for Illinois",  Emily Heaton et al, U of Illinois, 2003 (pdf)
<"Miscanthus, a Promising Energy Crop for Illinois", U of Illinois Environmental Almanac, 2/24/05

Technocrati tags: biomass, biofuels, energy, renewable, alternative energy

New Enzyme Development

Novozymes, the worlds leading biotech-based enzyme company, based in Denmark; and NREL announced on April 14 that they had achieved a 30:1 reduction in the cost of an enzyme to U.S. $0.10-0.18 per gallon of ethanol.  This means that enzymes are no longer the main economic barrier in producing ethanol from biomass.  This enzyme makes possible using biomass, specifically corn stover (the whole corn plant), rather than just the corn kernels, in producing ethanol.  This combined with NREL improvements in the pretreatment process will make commercial ethanol plants able to produce ethanol at significantly lower costs than now possible.  The enzyme will be tested on a pilot plant scale in 2006.  Much work remains to develop commercial production of the enzyme, to develop a collection and processing system for the corn stover and to optimize yeast organisms to ferment cellulose based feedstocks.