Replacing Oil

Cellulosic Ethanol Plants Will Be Able To Use These Corn Cobs As Feedstock Not Only The Kernel

America’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant will begin prodiction soon.  The Abengoa Bioenergy Plant in Hugoton, Kan.; POET Energy’s Project Liberty Plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa; and Great River Energy’s plant, Dakota Spirit Ag Energy, in Spiritwood, N.D. all reported at the Biomass ’10 conference in Grand Forks North Dakota. Although the plants are in various stages of development they are all expected to begin producing cellulosic ethanol in 2013-14. The race is on to see which one will be first.

Those of you unfamiliar with ethanol might be wondering why this is such a big deal. Most ethanol in the United States is produced from corn. Unfortunately, corn is a horribly inefficient way to produce ethanol. Per acre there simply isn’t enough sugar from corn kernels to ferment. Cellulosic ethanol refers to the use of enzymes similar to those in a cow’s stomach to break down the cellulose into simpler sugars, which makes it available for yeast to ferment.This makes nearly all of the corn cobs, leaves, and stalks of the corn plant feedstock for fuel production, not just the tiny fraction of easily digestible sugar in the kernels.

Two of the upcoming cellulosic ethanol plants will use wheat straw and the other will use corn cobs as a main feedstock in its operation, and each will use some form of the crop residue feedstock to help fire up the plant, thus reducing its dependence on natural gas. An outline of the three upcoming plants can be found in this press release.