by Jim Lane (BioInvest Digest) The technologies out there are five in number. They are all in commercial deployment now, though some are at the capacity-construction stage. Some of them vary the feedstock, some vary the products produced. What they share is an ability to be co-located, bolted-on, or retrofitted into existing ethanol plants.
The upside varies in character. In some cases, there are cost reductions. In others, higher volumes. Some offer higher-priced product opportunities. Some allow access to higher-value renewable fuel credits (called RINs) that are used under the Renewable Fuel Standard to encourage the development of advanced, non-food biofuels.
…1. Feedstock switching. Sorghum as the new corn?
What it is: Switching from corn and natural gas to grain sorghum and biogas. …
…2. Advanced extraction and yield technologies.
What it is: Pacific Ethanol is installing Edeniq technology at Pacific Ethanol’s Stockton, California ethanol plant. Pacific Ethanol will install Edeniq’s proprietary Cellunators™ to boost ethanol yields, and will also deploy Edeniq’s patented OilPlus™ corn oil extraction process to increase corn oil recovery.
…3. Advanced enzymes.
What it is: Our 2012 Biofuels Digest Yield Improvement Award went to Mascoma and Lallemand’s TransFerm enzymes. It’s a bioengineered drop-in substitute for conventional fermenting yeast that lowers costs for corn ethanol producers by alleviating the need to purchase a significant amount of the expensive enzymes currently used in corn ethanol production.
…4. Enzymes in corn.
What it is: In October, we reported that Syngenta and Plymouth Energy signed an agreement to use Enogen trait technology starting in fall 2013. Syngenta states that when using Enogen trait technology there is no need to use liquid alpha amylase enzyme for dry grind ethanol production.
…5. Algae co-location and production.
What it is: Our 2012 Industrial Symbiosis Award went to Green Plains Renewable Energy and BioProcess Algae — for the BioProcess Algae project as it advances from a small pilot system to a 5-acre demonstration including all components systems that lead from CO2 capture through algae growth, harvest, and extraction.
…6. Switchover to biobutanol.
What it is: Take the same corn ethanol feedstock stream, add a relatively low-impact unit for biobutanol production, and produce a $4 molecule instead of a $2 molecule.
…7. Cellulosic Ethanol add-on
What it is: Take a 100 million gallon traditional ethanol plant in Emmetsburg. Start bringing in the corn stover as well as the corn kernels – add-on some highly cool enzymatic hydrolysis technologies and – voila – you have 25 million gallons of bolt-on production, same grower base, same location.
…8. Cut-over to cellulosic sugars.
What it is: A hub-and-spoke process to convert locally available cellulosic, non-food biomass, such as crop residues, energy crops, and woody biomass into highly fermentable sugar, which an ethanol producer will ferment into ethanol. READ MORE