SunOpta To Build Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Based On Wood Chip Feedstock
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 12.23.06
Via:- Renewable Energy Access, “SunOpta Inc. signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with GreenField Ethanol Inc. to develop and implement commercial scale processes to produce cellulosic ethanol from wood chips…One or more commercial-scale plants using the new process are planned”. That’s an impressive announcement on it's own; but, in looking for background we came across a far more interesting bit of information on the SunOpta website. Turn off the music, and take a quiet moment to read this carefully.
We'll use the handy synonym for "Cellulosic Ethanol": CeEtOH, which is said, and colloquially written, as “Ceetoh.”
Now then: having seen a technically oriented slide presentation by a SunOpta rep (source of both images), this writer is convinced that hardwood chips will initially come to dominate ag waste or grasses in importance as feedstock for making transportation fuel “Ceetoh". If so, fast growng pioneer species of trees such as aspen and popple will likely be a preferred Ceetoh feedstock in North America. In following decades, so called "energy crops" may equal or surpass wood chips in importance.
In the assumed scenario , here are the predetermined outcomes:1. Forest product companies that sold their land holdings off to holding companies are going to be kicking their own behinds.
2. New owners of forest lands will be gloating, especially if they also are able underwrite the Ceetoh process development and, thus, have a say in plant ‘siting’.
3. Land values in "God's Country" will shoot up.
4. National forests will be trashed unless sustainable harvest rules are developed and enforced. Outdoorsmen will be a powerful voice on this issue.
5. Rural employment will benefit.
6. Lumber and Pulp operations will have to compete on price for hardwood (if they use it).
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So, forgive the pessimism; would this not encourage energy "producers" to exploit local lands and people rather than exploiting lands and people far away? Instead of cutting into the earth in the Middle East for oil, we would just chop our energy down from "rural" land.
Unless this process is specifically used to recover energy from materials that would otherwise be wasted, I can't see a tremendous improvement. I would be wary of "harvest rules" that do not encourage local oversight of forested lands. (We [the US] have a nation of absentee farms and are discovering the consequences; what happens if we do the same thing with energy and forests become just another consumable fuel?)
(I realise, ideally, this could be done in a carefully managed way that would promote sustainability, but it would have to be small-scale, locally determined, and also locally "consumed" to avoid abuse.)
While it might raise the specter or clear cutting the nations forests, it more likely that wood chip prices would rise with the new demand, and ethanol from this process would be come too expensive to compete.
Sounds like it might not be a bad pilot project, but for longer term, and larger production, they will need to factor in raising costs of their raw materials. That is where farm waste and energy crops would hopefully come in.
Its not going to happen overnight, so hopefully they will work the kinks out of using other feedstocks before entire forests are felled or it gets too expensive and they have to close down.
They also seem to discredit the idea of producing ethanol for local use. If ethanol could be produced from farm waste and then used locally, it would cut down on transportation costs of the fuel, allowing more to be spend on transporting the low energy density raw materials. Say, each county in an agricultural region could have small scale ethanol refining, and sell its fuel locally or to nearby urban areas, cutting transport costs.