Next Generation Technologies

Corn ethanol has been around since Henry Ford dreamed of having American cars run on an American fuel and plays an integral part in extending our current fuel supply needs. It plays a vital role as a bridge to the next generation of biofuels. Cellulosic ethanol research is underway using citrus waste, wood waste, algae, switchgrass, landfill waste, corn stover, and more.

FACT: On average, every time oil prices go up 10 percent, 150,000 Americans lose their jobs. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and Federal Reserve Board

FOOD AND FUEL

There is no competition for food or fuel. The corn used in ethanol production is not the same corn used in food production; however, it is the same corn used as livestock feed. However, new technology now allows parts of corn kernels otherwise thrown away to also be turned into fuel.

• LifeLine Foods, Inc., based in St. Joseph, Mo., is the first plant in the country to use a propriety technology developed by ICM, Inc., to produce both food and fuel. The company's corn products, such as corn meal and snack meal, are used in breakfast cereals, tortillas and snack foods. In the past, the under-utilized portions of the kernel would have been turned into just livestock feed. However, with the dry fractionation technology, the corn kernel is separated into endosperm, germ and pericarp. After separation of these parts, the germ is processed and sold for its oil content and the pericarp and tip cap are burned to produce steam that reduces LifeLine Food's need for fossil fuels by almost 50 percent. They also utilize the endosperm of the corn kernel for food production, then send the remainder to its ethanol plant for processing. In addition to ethanol, this process also creates dried distillers grains (DDGs) and syrup for livestock consumption.

WOODCHIPS

Wood waste, including woodchips and other waste products, is fast becoming a popular feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production. When wood waste is not removed from the forest floor, problems can occur such as forest fires and disease. This process removes wood waste from forest floors, and grinds it for use in ethanol production. Using this feedstock also has its advantages because the remaining product, after the starch conversion, can be used to fuel the plant, reducing and even eliminating the need for a fossil fuel-based energy source.

• KL Design Group, based in Rapid City, S.D., was the first company to begin producing cellulosic ethanol from wood waste in their Upton, Wyo. plant, Western Biomass Energy. The technology was developed in conjunction with South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, the Wyoming Business Council and the Wyoming Department of Forestry. The plant uses chips and wood waste from the ponderosa pine found in the foothills of the Black Hills in eastern Wyoming.
• Mascoma Corporation, based in Boston, Mass., is focused on developing biofuels from non-food biomass wood, straws, fuel energy crops, paper pulp, and other agricultural waste products. Mascoma's research laboratories are now developing a new generation of microbes and processes for a more efficient and economical conversion of cellulosic feedstocks into ethanol. Its first plant, utilizing wood waste, is under construction in Rome, N.Y. and is expected to go into production in the fall of 2008. They are also working on a switchgrass facility to be located in Tennessee.

CORN COBS/STOVER

Have you ever wondered what happens to the corn cobs and stover after harvest? In the past, it was either tilled into the soil or left on the ground. But today, research is underway to convert corn stover and corn cobs into ethanol. As a renewable feedstock, there are several potential benefits to using these feedstocks including market expansion and additional economic opportunities for farmers and rural America.

• POET, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., is working to become one of the first plants producing cellulosic ethanol by transforming its Emmetsburg, Iowa facility into a plant that produces ethanol from corn cobs — known as Project LIBERTY. In February 2007, POET received an $80 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to expedite the development of the project. The Emmetsburg transformation is projected to be finished by 2011, and is projected to produce 125 million gallons of ethanol per year. The plant will produce grain-based ethanol as well as ethanol made from cellulose and biomass.

ALGAE

Algae has emerged as one of the lowest cost feedstocks for the biofuels industries. It is considered to be a promising source of renewable oil which can be processed and refined into a variety of transportation fuels. Algae can be refined to make biofuel, jet fuel, bio-gasoline, and cellulosic materials such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, plastics, and green packaging. Algae can be grown using waste carbon dioxide (CO₂) which is an important factor as ethanol plants look to ways to remove CO₂ from the production process. Several companies are currently conducting algae research:

• Solix Biofuels, based in Fort Collins, Colo., is using the exhaust gases produced from New Belgium Brewery to grow algae and produce biofuels. Algae production does not compete with agriculture, is closed and does not require soil for growth. It uses 99 percent less water than conventional agriculture, and can be located on non-agricultural land far from water. Since the whole organism converts sunlight into oil, algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two-car garage than an entire football field of soybeans. The carbohydrates remaining after the oil has been extracted from the algae can be used to make animal feed, ethanol and potentially sequester carbon.
• GreenFuel Technology Corp., based in Cambridge, Mass., utilizes high-yield algae farms to recycle CO₂ from flue gases to produce biofuels and feed, reducing net CO₂ production. Harvesting algae for biofuels enhances domestic fuel production while mitigating CO₂. GreenFuel uses a portfolio of technologies to profitably recycle CO₂ from smokestack, fermentation and geothermal gases via naturally occurring species of algae. Algae can be converted to transportation fuels and feed ingredients or recycled back to a combustion source as biomass for power generation.

BIOWASTE TO ENERGY

Research is under way to develop large scale anaerobic digestion facilities to utilize the methane produced from animal and organic waste. The resulting energy would be used to replace the natural gas that is traditionally used in ethanol facilities and providing another way to reduce the environmental footprint of biofuels production, as well as create an alternative to natural gas, a non-renewable fossil fuel.

Several companies are currently developing and testing technologies to convert waste to energy:

• POET, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., will be using methane generated from the Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill to provide energy for an ethanol production facility near Chancellor, S.D. Replacing a portion of the natural gas with methane from the landfill will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs for the POET Biorefining–Chancellor ethanol plant while generating revenue for the landfill. Displacement of natural gas will decrease CO₂ emissions at the plant by 26,445 tons in 2010, the first full year the system will be operational.
• Panda Ethanol, based in Hereford, Texas, is using manure to fuel the plant. Located in the Texas Panhandle, home of the largest cattle operations in the world, the facility, when completed, will be one of the most energy efficient ethanol refineries in the nation and the largest bio-mass fueled ethanol plant in the United States.
• ICM, Inc., based in Colwich, Kan., has partnered with BioGold Fuels Corporation to engineer and construct all of their future municipal solid waste to energy projects, that will both recycle energy and create biofuels. The majority of the waste will come from landfills, an advantage for states looking for ways to reduce and eliminate landfill waste. ICM also works in partnership with Phoenix Bio-Systems to design, build, and install Bio-Methanators which remove contaminants from process water and turn those contaminants into methane gas. The treated water is recycled through the ethanol production process, saving the plant money in the form of reduced water costs. The methane gas is captured and routed to the dryer burner system as a supplemental fuel source, reducing the plant's energy costs by tens of thousands of dollars per year.

WATER

Water is a precious commodity and the ethanol industry is looking for ways to reduce the water needed during the production process. Research varies widely but some studies are underway to develop water recycling systems and ways to use fungi to reduce the waste found in discharge water.

• The Biofuels Group, based in Shakopee, Minn., has developed a cost competitive zero-liquid, and for some plants, a zero-solids discharge technology. This innovative technology allows ethanol plants to recycle and reuse wastewater streams as an alternative to discharge, saving water and reducing a plant's environmental impact.
• Iowa State University, in Ames, Iowa, is working on a project to grow a fungus in some of the waste created during ethanol production. This process can save energy, recycle more water and improve the livestock feed that's a co-product of ethanol production. The Iowa State project is focused on using fungi to clean up and improve the dry-grind ethanol production process. A fungus, Rhizopus microsporus, is added to the thin stillage which then feeds and ultimately grows, removing about 80 percent of the organic material and all of the solids in the thin stillage. This allows the water and enzymes in the thin stillage to be recycled back into production, thus saving water.

ENZYMES

Enzymes are used in the ethanol production process to break down the feedstock into starch. The starch is then converted to sugar and then ethanol. This process takes time and energy. However, there are new technologies on the horizon that will enable more efficiencies during the conversation process saving time, energy and money.

• Novozymes, based in Denmark, produces a wide range of enzymes that optimize the conversion of grains such as corn, barley, wheat, and rye into fuel ethanol. They are the company who developed and provides the enzymes for the Western Biomass Energy wood waste facility and are working on enzymes for other types of cellulosic ethanol including the use of fungus to digest plant fibers into simple sugars.