First Commercial-Scale Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Approved for California
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 07.25.08
photo by Dan Klinge
You may have read how Verenium recently opened the first demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States. Well, that record may soon not mean as much: BlueFire Ethanol has announced that the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the U.S. has received permitting approval.
The facility will be built on 10 acres near Lancaster, California and is not expected to begin producing ethanol until late 2009, The location was chosen because of the abundant waste that already passes by the location: An estimated 170 tons of wood chips, grass cuttings, and organic waste each day. According to BlueFire it will be the nation’s first facility to convert biowaste into ethanol.
BlueFire brags that using its Concentrated Acid Hydrolysis Technology, it will be able to convert cellulosic waste into 3.2 million gallons of ethanol per year.
via :: Business Wire
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While this is certainly interesting technology, I wonder how well BlueFire's process will compete on a cost basis with the gasification technologies being advanced by the likes of Coskata and Fulcrum BioEnergy.
Using acid hydrolysis to prepare the feedstock seems cumbersome compared to plasma gasification, which bypasses costly pretreatment steps. The process then requires separation of the acids followed by fermentation and distillation, which are two of the biggest detractors to the efficiency of corn-based ethanol processes.
With Fulcrum BioEnergy planning a commercial-scale facility with 10.5 million gallon capacity in 2010 and Coskata close behind with commercial-scale deployment of 50-100 million gallons in 2011, I think BlueFire may already be behind the times.
If biofuels are going to be produced this is definitely the way to do it. Using agricultural products to make biofuel is proving to be a very bad idea. It competes with food, and even more problematic, results in practices that deplete the topsoil and overuse pesticides and fertilizers (See "The Great Biofuel Hoax of 2008": http://www.brightfuture.us/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=157&Itemid=71)
But this process uses waste from already existing biomass. This is the type of creative thinking we need to see more of. Our society already produces so much excess. Let's figure out how to utilize that waste before we start processes that create even more waste.
It is great to see progress like this being made. The willingness of industry and investors to put their money on their technologies is what grows industries.
I expect there will one day be a shake out of technologies in the cellulosic energy industry just as we are seeing today in corn based Ethanol. The older first generation technologies are re-inventing themselves, closing up or selling out to more aggressive companies willing to upgrade their plants.
larryhagedon
American Flex Fuel Experience.
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