Oil industry fighting new ethanol sources
Source: DANIEL LOOKER Agriculture.com • Posted: Wednesday, June 12, 2013
By Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels | June 11, 2013
Project Liberty is expected to begin operations early next year.
Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels
Construction of Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels’ first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant is on schedule to start up in early 2014, Poet-DSM executives said at the 2013 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop today in St. Louis, Mo.
Poet-DSM’s Project Liberty will use bales of corn cobs, leaves, husks and some stalk to produce 20 million gallons of cellulosic bio-ethanol annually, later ramping up to 25 million gallons. The plant is under construction in Emmetsburg, Iowa. Wade Robey, Poet-DSM board member, and Steve Hartig, general manager of licensing for Poet-DSM, outlined progress in panel discussions today at FEW.
To date, the biomass receiving and grinding building, which will process an average of 770 tons of biomass per day of operation, is nearly complete and workers are finishing concrete work inside. Fermentation and saccharification tank foundations are complete and the tanks continue to be erected. Additional completed work to date includes the facility’s warehouse building, scale and the 22-acre biomass stackyard.
The next steps in construction include the continued erection of tanks, concrete, plumbing, and underground electrical as well as installation of equipment.
“Despite the wet spring, we have been able to continue to stay on schedule with construction,” Robey said. “It’s been exciting to see the tanks and buildings rise as the external structure of the plant takes shape. Equipment is coming in, and we’re now able to start getting into the process side of things.”
“With Project Liberty well on its way to full operation, Poet-DSM is now reaching out to other grain ethanol producers to start laying the groundwork for future commercial cellulosic ethanol sites,” Hartig said. “This technology is going to add a new dimension to what producers are doing today.”
Farmers in the area are still signing up to deliver an expected 120,000 tons of biomass bales to the Project Liberty stackyard this fall. While previous harvests have primarily been used to streamline the collection and handling process at the site, biomass collected this year will be used by Project Liberty to produce commercial cellulosic ethanol.
– See more at: http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/9937/project-liberty-construction-on-target-for-early-2014-startup#sthash.GEyOSuSZ.dpuf
Lobbyists told ethanol producers at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis Tuesday that their industry is at war with the petroleum industry, which doesn’t want to give up market share, especially as cellulosic ethanol is on the verge of commercial scale production.
“We’re on the cusp of commercialization and new technologies and feedstocks, and they can’t let that happen,” said Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association.
If the ethanol industry is allowed to expand, “now they’re losing a third of a barrel, and they can’t let that happen,” he said, referring to the amount of market share the oil industry could lose.
Tom Buis, CEO of another trade group, Growth Energy, agreed that the oil industry’s concern is the main reason ethanol is under attack in Congress, the media, and elsewhere. The lobbyists said the oil industry aims to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandates blending of ethanol with gasoline.
“It’s over market share,” Buis said. “”We’re going to win this fight. It’s not going to be easy. Oil has got a lot of money, and their interests have a lot of money.”
Buis, Dineen, and Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, urged ethanol producers and anyone connected with ethanol — farmers, bankers, and others — to contact members of Congress to urge continued support for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
“The oil companies seem to forget that the RFS wasn’t enacted to make their life comfortable,” said Jennings. “It’s working, and that’s why they’re coming after us.”
The ethanol industry’s capacity to make ethanol from corn and other grains is nearing the RFS mandate of 15 billion gallons. But the 2007 energy law’s mandate ultimately aims to have the nation use 36 billion gallons of biofuels by the year 2022. Part of that will come from ethanol made from cellulose, an abundant plant material found in corn stover, grasses, and plant and wood wastes.
Representatives of the first commercial makers of cellulosic ethanol shared their companies’ plans for production.
Abengoa Bioenergy, part of a Spanish construction and biofuels company, is completing construction of a 25 million-gallon commercial cellulosic ethanol plant near Hugoton, Kansas, said Chris Standlee, the fuel-maker’s executive vice president.
“It is scheduled to come online at the end of this year, 2013,” Standlee said.
The plant is able to make fuel from wheat straw, corn stover, prairie grasses, and grain sorghum, he said. “We’ve been able to contract for our needs by taking less than 20% of feedsock in a 50-mile area.”
Dupont is starting construction of a 30 million-gallon cellulosic ethanol plant near Nevada, Iowa, said Steve Mirshak, global business director for cellulosic ethanol.
“We have completed all of the site preparation. We begin pouring the foundation next week. This project will go up very fast,” Mirshak said.
DuPont will collect stover from 190,000 acres of land in a 30-mile radius, he said. “This will be the world’s largest cellulosic ethanol plant.”
Near Emmetsburg, Iowa, a plant that will produce between 20 million and 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol is under construction for POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels, said Wade Robey, chief technology officer for the joint venture.
Construction began in the fall of 2011 and “hopefully we’ll be making alcohol early in 2014,” Robey said. The plant will draw corn stover from a 30-mile radius.
Most of the companies making cellulosic ethanol already have pilot plants that have been running for several years, and they plan to license their technology to existing grain ethanol plants.