Wyoming Ethanol
The gap between corn-based ethanol and cellulosic ethanol production became smaller when KL Process Design Group, a Rapid City, S.D.-based ethanol plant designer and marketing firm, brought the nation’s first demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol facility on line in Upton, Wyo., in January.
The 1.5 MMgy facility, called Western Biomass Energy LLC and located one mile south of Upton, began production Jan. 5, according to Tom Slunecka, KL Process Design vice president of business development. The plant is a culmination of development efforts between KL Process Design, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, the Wyoming Business Council, and the Wyoming Department of Forestry. It has the ability to operate intermittently, so while a feedstock is in the production cycle, the company can concurrently test different feedstocks in its research laboratory.
Ethanol from CRP land
“There is discussion about taking land out of CRP land and putting a portion into corn. Currently about 37 million acres are in CRP, but USDA/NRCS considers only about 7 million acres suitable for corn production.”
In the long-term, the United States will need much more than that to meet projected production of 32 million gallons of ethanol annually. “If we are to make ethanol from corn grain, we would need 68 million acres, which is 72 percent of the corn grown in the United States. I doubt very seriously that’s going to happen.”
Ethanol from Vinegar
To make ethanol, you want to make vinegar first, according to ZeaChem.
The biofuel start-up, which has moved from Colorado to Silicon Valley, says it has come up with a method of making cellulosic ethanol that results in close to 40 percent more fuel per ton of wood chips than competing processes. By 2010 or so, the company hopes to be producing ethanol commercially for 80 cents a gallon at wholesale. That could translate to anywhere from $1.10 to $1.50 at the pump, depending on a host of factors.
How does it work? Most cellulosic ethanol producers convert cellulose into ethanol in somewhat of a direct manner. Wood is separated into three principle ingredients–cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The cellulose and hemicellulose are then converted into alcohol through biological fermentation (for instance, microbes and enzymes) or thermochemical engineering, which can also be combined with biological fermentation.
