by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) … A week before the FEW, Enerkem Inc. celebrated the inauguration of its 10 MMgy facility in Edmonton, Alberta. Commissioning is nearly completed, reported Tim Cesarek, senior vice president of business development. The thermochemical process gasifies heterogeneous streams of municipal solid waste, cleans the biogas to syngas, then uses a catalyst to form methanol and a second catalyst for ethanol. …
Also based in Canada, Iogen Corp. has a 10 MMgy plant under construction in Brazil that is on schedule to begin fiber conversion in the fourth quarter. The plant is a partnership with Raizen, the country’s largest sugarcane processor with 24 sugar/ethanol mills. … One of the latest advancements is the integration of biogas production from process residuals that can be cleaned to pipeline standards and used as renewable hydrogen content (RHC), displacing fossil-based hydrogen in refinery processes. The added RHC coproduct increases the renewable fuel yield for the overall process to closer to 150 gallons per metric ton at a capital expense of less than $5 per gallon … . Iogen is also developing a cellulosic ethanol and biogas project in central Kansas, Foody (Pat Foody, executive vice president of commercial development) reported.
In Germany, specialty chemical company, Clariant, continues to work on its Sunliquid process. … Sunliquid process includes a proprietary yeast capable of simultaneous, one-pot fermentation of C5 and C6 sugars. A 1,000 ton-per-year demonstration plant began operation in 2012 utilizing wheat straw initially. Last year the process was validated using corn stover and sugarcane bagasse. …
In Denmark, the country’s major power company Dong Energy has a goal of cutting its carbon footprint by 69 percent. Its Inbicon division has focused on cellulosic ethanol production from agricultural residues, with the lignin coproduct being used for power production. … The company is now partnering with the National Bio Energy Group and looking at two projects in China, and with Odebrecht in Brazil. Dong also has partnerships with Neste Oil to develop a process converting cellulosic sugars to biodiesel or jet fuels and with Maersk to develop a renewable substitute for bunker fuel. …
While GranBio Investimentos SA is not developing its own process technology, it is working to become a producer of biofuels and biochemicals, explained Vonnie Estes, managing director USA, in her presentation. The family-held GranBio is currently commissioning a 22 MMgy plant in Alagoas, Brazil. Bioflex 1 is co-located with a first generation plant operated by Grupo Carlos Lyra, using process technology from Beta Renewables, enzymes from Novozymes and yeast from DSM. Breaking ground in January 2013, the plant is in final commissioning, she said. “We started the boiler last week and we’re hoping to being producing ethanol next month.”
In other development work, GranBio acquired 25 percent ownership of American Process Inc., and a partnership with Rhodia to develop n-butanol for paints and solvents, Estes reported. The company is also actively working on energy cane development and evaluating other energy crops such as sorghum and elephant grass. READ MORE