Environmental Law

'Cellulosic' Ethanol Looks to be Growing Industry

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

While there remains a lot of controversy over the use of grain crops for ethanol, another form of the fuel, which generally uses as its raw material stuff like wood chips, agricultural wastes and similar biomass, appears to be gaining some ground.

Known as "cellulosic ethanol," there's so far been far less uproar about the product than other forms of ethanol, which in the United States often comes from corn. As readers of Climate Law Update saw recently, Massachusetts became what is believed to be the first state in the nation to give a tax incentive to cellulosic ethanol, exempting it from the state's gas tax. Additionally, as Climate Law Update reported last month, there appears to be trend toward converting coal-fired plants to those using biomass as a fuel.

Now comes indication that the cellolosic movement is taking on some momentum, with pilot plants, and even some commercial scale facilities, already built or under development in Montana, Tennessee, South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan, California and Nevada. The phenomenon was recently highlighted in a U.S. Department of Energy publication that reported on the "significant progress" that was being made by a number of companies in the industry.

Among them was a demonstration plant that was opened recently in Montana to employ "ambient temperature enzyme" technology. The company, AE Biofuels, has said its process results in lower capital costs, uses less water and consumes less energy, yet produces a higher alcohol concentration. The plant can use both plant materials, such as corn stalks, or more traditional ethanol sources, including corn and sugar cane, according to the energy department article. 

Among the other new projects on the drawing board: 

• A Tennessee facility that will use such materials as corn cobs and fiber left over from harvesting, as well as switchgrass, a non-food crop grown for ethanol, according to a statement from the project's developers, which include an arm of the University of Tennessee.
• A South Dakota pilot plant that is under construction using corn cobs as a raw material. It will eventually lead to a bigger, commercial-scale plant in Iowa. That Iowa facility is expected to produce 125 million gallons of ethanol a year, including 25 million gallons from fiber and cobs, according to a press release from the project's developer, POET LLC. 
• A commercial-sized plant in far northern Michigan that will produce ethanol from wood fiber. Progress on the project was announced in June by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the plant is under development by Mascoma Corp., which uses processes involving microbes and enzymes for producing ethanol.
• Another commercial plant, this time near Los Angeles, which is intended to use biological waste, such as wood chips and grass cuttings, according to a statement from the company, BlueFire Ethanol Fuels. The plant recently was given permits by county officials to start construction, according to the statement.
• A plant that its developers, Fulcrum Bioenergy, called "one of the first commercial-scale production facilities for converting municipal solid waste to ethanol." The project, to be located near Reno, Nevada, would use a process licensed from Integrated Environmental Technologies, or InEnTec, to gasify garbage and then use a catalytic process to for the converstion to ethanol, according to the statement and the energy department publication.

--Dennis Pfaff of  Thelen

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on September 12, 2008 (boomark / email).