Biofuels dream: A rendering of a cellulosic ethanol plant being built by ZeaChem is superimposed on an aerial photograph of the construction site in Boardman, OR.
ZeaChem
ZeaChem starts construction in Oregon, but plans elsewhere have stalled or been scaled back.
ZeaChem, based in Lakewood, CO, has begun construction of a 250,000-gallon-per-year demonstration plant in Boardman, OR, that will produce chemicals from sugar and eventually ethanol from wood and other cellulosic materials.
Initially, the ZeaChem plant will convert sugar into ethyl acetate, a solvent used in making paints and in decaffeinating coffee. Its technology uses organisms that convert sugars into acetic acid, which can then be made into ethyl acetate. Within a year, ZeaChem plans to add equipment to this process that will allow the production of cellulosic ethanol. This includes a thermochemical process that breaks down wood, converting cellulose into sugars which can then be fed to the ethyl acetate-producing organisms. The process of breaking down the wood leaves behind a residue of lignin, which ZeaChem gasifies to make hydrogen. The hydrogen is then used to convert ethyl acetate into ethanol.
The plant is scheduled to begin producing both ethyl acetate and ethanol by next year. ZeaChem hopes to start construction on a 25 to 50 million gallon per year commercial cellulosic ethanol plant by 2012, says CEO Jim Imbler, but only after starting up a commercial ethyl-acetate plant.
ZeaChem's plans to put off making biofuels reflect the economic challenges that have kept large-scale commercial cellulosic ethanol production from proceeding as fast as many expected. A renewable fuel standard signed into law in late 2007 requires the use of 100 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol in the United States this year and will ramp up to 16 billion gallons by 2022. But so far no commercial plants are operating, according to the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), a leading trade group representing biofuel companies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in February that it was scaling back the mandates to just 6.5 million gallons, which could be supplied by existing small-scale demonstration plants and new plants expected to open this year. That's up from approximately 3.5 million gallons produced in 2009. The renewable fuel standard requires 250 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol to be used next year, but BIO estimates that about 30 million gallons will be produced at planned plants. The EPA plans to announce any revisions to next year's requirement by November.
The influential biofuels startup failed because its technology proved too expensive.
Startups say reduced mandates for oil companies make it difficult to finance biorefineries.
Are you glad about the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico? Are you happy to pay for fuel that comes from non-friendly sources when we could be creating domestic fuel and creating American jobs? Are you glad to be dependent on a non-renewable fuel that pollutes our air and contributes to global warming and global instability?
Danger to engines? What do you even mean by that? Sure, if you burn ethanol in a non flex-fuel vehicle, that could be detrimental to the engine. Much like it would be detrimental for a person to drink washer fluid. That's why auto makers are producing flex-fuel vehicles that are designed to run on ethanol or, for people like you, gasoline.
Ethanol isn't perfect. But I'll take its imperfections any day over oil. And, funny thing about technology, the more it matures the better and cheaper it becomes. But if we don't allow the technology to get off the ground in the first place, that will never happen.
It's time we embrace alternative fuel technologies now rather than wait for that pie in the sky technology that's always right around the corner, while in the meantime relying on that old status quo friend of ours, oil.
Ethanol for internal combustion should be put on hold. It's just a political game. An Ethanol fuel cell for electric transportation makes far more sense.
Which version of Electric Transportation?
Individual Electricified transportation like the modified SEGWAY (P.U.M.A) from GM, E-Bikes from a variety of manufacturers or Electic battery and hybrid cars?
OR
Mass transportation like light rail?
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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mfolbe
48 Comments
ethanol
I'm glad these start ups are failing. The complications of ethanol, from its cost, its difficulty in transport, its danger to engines, just don't add up. Petroleum has so many uses. There has to be some intermediary product of the cellulose to ethanol pathway that makes something more useful than the finished product. Government wasting money on these projects drives me crazy.
http://news.carjunky.com/alternative_fuel_vehicles/boat-engines-ethanol-cde100268.shtml
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/cooke/2007/0202.html
http://www.enewsbuilder.net/aopl/e_article000570935.cfm
Reply
mkogrady
423 Comments
Re: ethanol
MFolbe - "You're glad these start ups are failing"????
Sorry you feel that way. Consider this - It may be of interest to you and others who lack foresight and oppose change. Keep in mind that the current BP oil accident and last months coal mine disaster means that the US will be less inclined to drill offshore or use coal.
Barrels of Oil consumed by the US in 2008 7,100,000,000
Percent of Oil consumed by US which came from Middle East (UAE) 12%
Barrels of Oil from Middle East Sources 852,000,000
One barrel of oil is 42 US gallons and can be refined into 19.6 gallons of gasoline
US Gallons of gasoline derived from Middle Eastern Sources 16,699,200,000
October 2009 costs (Congressional Budget Office) for deploying 1 US Soldier $1,000,000.00
US Soldiers Deployed in Middle East Region (1 year billet) 250,000
Cost of US Military Personell Securing Middle East Region $250,000,000,000.00 per year, and growing. We have deployed more in Afghanistan too. I think 30,000 more in 2010.
Hidden Cost of a US Gallon of Gas (Military Security Cost / Foreign Sourced Gallons of Gas) $14.97
Retail cost of Gasoline (Gasbuddy.com) $2.60
True cost of a gallon of gas? $17.57
Reply
tomgarven
43 Comments
Re: ethanol
Excellent analysis mkogrady:
And you didn't even mention that we are going to be running low on oil soon. I seem to remember reading somewhere that peak oil will occur between 2013-2020.
Tom G.
Reply
jneill91
1 Comment
Re: ethanol
Hey Car Junky if I had 200 proof ethanol in my tank i could get 400 streetable HP from a 2 liter and not screw the earth!
Reply
R Sweeney
67 Comments
Re: ethanol
If you put 100% ethanol in the tank of ANY car not designed for it (think virtually all the cars on the road) and you will not be driving long before every aluminum part and a lot of polymers in contact with the fuel are gone.
Ethanol is not a nice fuel.
It likes water far too much.
Reply
smithsomian
182 Comments
Re: ethanol
I hate to see an American business fail, but I will agree that alcohol is a poor fuel with far too much downside to be subsidized by Uncle Sugar as much as it is. we need to get past this fad and look for actual solutions.
Reply
NickRow
4 Comments
Re: ethanol
MFolbe,
Good boy, you're doing a great job of promoting our cause for us.
Sincerely,
The Oil Industry
Reply