Cellulosic ethanol is moving closer to reality

JAMESTOWN, N.D. - Cellulosic ethanol has been in the “talking stage” for several years, but the first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant is set to go on line and as the cellulosic ethanol industry becomes more widespread, the country's acceptance of ethanol will grow, according to an industry spokesman.

Doug Berven, director of corporate affairs for POET LLC, the leading ethanol producer in the United States, recently addressed a group of farmers in James-town on the future of the ethanol industry in the U.S.

“We know how important ethanol is to agriculture and America,” Berven said. “But people on the East and West coasts and in the South are not thinking agriculture and ethanol- they don't understand it. They are the people we have to convince that it's very important. Once they see a ‘50-state solution,' that they can make ethanol in their state, they will feel the direct impact of it and will then realize the importance of ethanol for the country.”

The key to getting the entire nation involved in ethanol is cellulosic ethanol and POET is ready to start producing ethanol on a commercial scale from corn cobs at their plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. Known as Project LIBERTY, this is a $200 million collaboration with the Department of Energy, the state of Iowa, all of the major equipment manufacturers and farmers in the area.


However, for cellulosic ethanol to be successful, it needs to have access to the market, a market that is already almost filled to capacity with corn-based ethanol production. The solution is to raise the mandated level of ethanol to 15 percent instead of the current 10 percent, Berven said, adding he expects to see the E-15 regulation in place by the middle of this year.

“We have to have more market access for ethanol or it makes no sense to do cellulosic ethanol,” he said. “If we want to cap ethanol at 10 percent then we have a problem.”


The cellulosic facility at the Emmetsburg plant will be bolted on to an already existing corn ethanol facility, but will utilize a totally different system for digesting the corn cobs into a product that will be refined into ethanol using the existing infrastructure.

Farmers will bring in two different feedstocks to the same plant - corn for the grain producing side and corn cobs for the cellulosic part of the plant.

Since the plant is located in corn country, the plant will focus on corn cobs as the feedstock, but once the cellulosic process is developed, Berven figures it can easily be modified to other feedstocks such as grasses, corn stover or small grain straw.

“Once we have the cellulosic technology developed, we can bolt that on to all 26 of our ethanol plants very quickly,” he said, “and there are 185 other ethanol plants out there that can use the licensed cellulosic technology and bolt on to their own.”

Another reason they went to processing corn cobs is due to the fact that there is a higher ethanol yield out of the cob than there is from corn stalks, plus POET figures the farmers will be more willing to collect and sell the cobs compared to the stover, since there is less nutrient content in the cobs, and the stalks and stover can be incorporated back into the soil.

“Cobs in the U.S. represent an additional $3 billion in income to farmers and the cobs have the potential of producing 5 billion gallons of ethanol,” Berven said. “This plant and the Project LIBERTY represent the first step in the second generation of ethanol technology.”

In referring to a map of the United States that indicated where bio-mass material is located, he noted there is a heavy density of bio-mass in North Dakota and much of Minnesota. “Farmers in this area could profit on bio-mass, whether it's delivering bio-mass to an ethanol facility or delivering it to a power plant where it can be mixed in with coal.” He noted that the concentration of bio-mass coincides with the concentration of ethanol plants.

“We want to take advantage of the feedstock we are currently using and other feedstocks and utilize the infrastructure that we have already built to bring in bio-mass and export ethanol and distillers grain throughout the country,” Berven said. In 2009 20,000 acres of corn cobs were harvested in the area around Emmetsburg and there were 16 different ag equipment companies involved in that process, according to Berven. POET had a LIBERTY field day where they brought out all of the equipment that has been developed for the harvesting of bio-mass. Many farmers turned out to see the progress that is being made in this area.

The plans are to contract with 100 farmers in 2010 to collect bio-mass for the plant. There is a crop assistance program in place with USDA that will match up to $45 per ton, for bio-mass delivered to an energy facility, it doesn't have to be an ethanol plant.

There will be three ways to deliver cobs to the Emmetsburg plant: clean cobs, which will pay $65 per ton; clean cobs in square bales $60 per ton; and second pass bales at $45 per ton.

The enzyme technology associated with cellulosic ethanol has also improved in recent years at the POET plant.

Berven said that in June of 2009 POET realized a five-fold reduction in enzyme costs, which was about a dollar over the cost of producing ethanol from grain.

“We can now make ethanol from corn cobs for about a dollar more than we can make it from corn grain,” he said. “That doesn't sound real great right now, but consider when we started back in 2006 when it cost $6 per gallon to make ethanol from cellulosic feed stocks. Just a year ago we were in the $4 range or higher, now we are at $2.35.

“When we go commercial with this we have every indication that we will be under $2 in cost,” he added. “Cellulosic ethanol isn't 20 years away anymoreŠit's a market share away for us.”

source: farmandranchguide