World’s First Commercially Viable Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Online 2009
Range Fuels Inc. announced yesterday it has secured over $100 million in Series B funding, an investment that could make it the first company to seriously commercialize cellulosic ethanol. The first phase of construction will produce 20 million gallons of mixed alcohols per year by 2009, and has the potential to expand to up to 120 million gallons.
Range Fuels says their facility will break down any type of plant material (eg agricultural waste or wood chips) by a two-step thermochemical process. This differs from competing methods of producing cellulosic ethanol, which involve breakdown of plant material with heat and/or acid, and treating it with costly ($0.50/gallon) enzymes.
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Range Fuels skips the enzymatic part and uses a process similar to Coskata Inc.: biomass is broken down by extreme heat and pressure, which converts it into a mixture of gases (H2 and CO) called syngas. The syngas is fed through proprietary catalysts that converts it into a mixture of alcohols, and a bit more sorting and processing produces a renewable vehicle fuel. See Range Fuel’s interactive explanation (as depicted above).
The only difference between Range Fuels and the Coskata process seems to be that Coskata relies on proprietary microorganisms instead of chemical catalysts to convert the syngas into ethanol. In any case, the race is on. Coskata said earlier this year it would start building commercial facilities after a 40,000 gallon per year demo plant goes online in late 2008.
Highlights of the Range Fuels Process:
- Fuel production costs “significantly less” than either enzymatic cellulosic ethanol or corn-grain ethanol, the latter of which currently costs about $2/gallon.
- Higher fuel production rates for each ton of biomass than enzymatic and corn-grain ethanol, which decreases cost, biomass needed, and land use.
- Uses 75 percent less water than corn ethanol and 60% lower emissions than corn-grain ethanol
- Cost competitive with gasoline as long as oil stays above $50/barrel.
Related Posts:
First Algae Biodiesel Plant Goes Online: April 1, 2008
Switchgrass Could Displace 30% of US Petroleum Usage With 94% GHG Reduction
First Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Goes Online, Makes Fuel From Wood Waste
Study: Your Car Can Run On 20% Ethanol
GM Announces Biofuel Partnership: Cheap, Green Ethanol?
Source: Range Fuels (Apr. 1, 2008): Range Fuels Raises over $100 Million in Series B Financing
Photo Credit: Range Fuels Inc.
[...] containing cellulose—aka cellulosic ethanol—a process that is still being developed. The first major commercial cellulosic ethanol facility will go online in 2009. Some studies have shown that cellulosic ethanol has the potential to [...]
[...] In a flash…your trash could become a sought-after commodity for fuel production. [...]
A significant source of cellulose is newspapers, much of which ends up in landfills.
[...] World’s First Commercially Viable Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Online 2009 [...]
Good post Clayton.
Indeed lots of companies are breaking thru the production barriers now to commercialise cellulosic bio-technologies.
I was a bit amused at all the negative comments. They are much more indicative of the commentors lack of understanding of the processes involved than of any problems with those processes.
Some people seem rightly concerned as to where the energy comes from to drive the process. Well, I assume that it is as with the refinement of crude oil. It uses-up some of the product. You cannot expect a comlicated conversion process not to use a little. The question is, “roughly how much”. One can only assume that this is reflected in the price of the product.
I did email a “bio-diesel” company to ask if they powered their agricultural machinery on their product, but received no memorable reply. It certainly does make you wonder !
Regarding “Wind-energy” (My subject), you may be interested to know that the “Economy” of a wind-farm - i.e. how long it takes to supply the energy required to make another - is a necklace-shaped function of the (logarithm of) physical size - diameter - of the “TAD”s of which it is comprised.
(Logarithm - i.e. make each horizontal division on the “size” axis represent TIMES 2 (say) as opposed to PLUS two(say))
The shortest time ocurrs for sizes where the T(urbine) costs about the same as the A(lternator). This happens at around 1m diameter for a very effective design !