Ethanol Biomass $285M Plant Proposed as Biofuel Production Rises

The ethanol biofuel industry as part of the overall domestic renewable energy strategy (wind, solar, geothermal etc) is showing signs of sustainable life as several promising industry deals are announced building on the pledge from the U.S. Department of Energy Recovery Act to invest $800 million to accelerate biofuel research and commercialization to stimulate economic growth creating jobs.

Recently, total U.S. ethanol production rose 70,000 bbl or 24,647 bpd to 20.822 million bbl or 694,067 bpd in as plants boosted run rates by 3% to 84% of operable capacity.

Power Energy of America, an advanced biofuels company based in Evansville, Indiana, announced today it hopes to build a $285 million waste-to-ethanol plant in Lake County, about 65 miles north of Bloomington. The state of Indiana is now developing more than 12 separate biomass ethanol plants.

The company has already confirmed it has a 20-year contract for the supply of municipal waste, which will be concerted to ethanol fuel. They have already received $40 million for the project, but are waiting for additional funding or a bond guarantee for $245 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's renewable grant program.

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Construction for the new Indiana plant should begin by April 2010 and is expected to completed within 18 months. A site for the 175 million gallons a year ethanol plant will be chosen from three options currently under consideration.

In New York, The Masada Resource Group announced it is awaiting a green light from the the city council of Middletown to proceed with a 10 Mgy waste-to-ethanol plant. The plant, which was originally proposed in 1996, has cost more than $40 million in its development phase, according to the Times-Record.

The plant is scheduled for completion in December but the relationship between New York city and Masada has deteriorated, with the city filing a lawsuit and Masada filing for arbitration.

In Canada, the city of Edmonton has proposed a gasification plant for the Clover Bar landfill that will convert trash into ethanol. The facility is expected to convert 100,000 tonnes of waste material into methanol, and to develop a process to convert methanol into ethanol for fuel markets. The proposed plant would open in 2010.

In New Jersey, a 10 Mgy corn and fruit waste ethanol plant has been proposed by New Jersey Ethanol. A $6 million facility would be constructed near Bridgeton with an initial capacity of 3 Mgy, and the company said they have completed permitting and will now proceed with construction.

BlueFire Ethanol Fuels (BFRE.OB) has secured additional financing to supplement a cellulosic ethanol grant from the U.S. Department of Energy received last year.

The company plans to erect a number of waste-to-ethanol plants near landfills, has a 16.6 Mgy plant on the drawing board that would be built near Corona. Bluefire holds the exclusive North American license to employ the Arkenol Process Technology, a patented system that transforms cellulosic waste into usable ethanol.

Finally, Dyadic International's visionary founder Mark Elmarfarb is back at the controls of the company showing new signs of life by recently signing a $10 million deal with Shell-Codexis (RDS.A) to utilize its patented strains of the fungal microorganism Chrysosporium lucknowense – or C1 – enzyme biotechnology that effectively accelerates the fermentation process of feedstock biomass to sugar for ethanol fuel production. These same enzymes are also used for agricultural and medical applications optimization.

Ethanol imports to the U.S. increased 198,000 bbl to 702,000 bbl, while product supplied to the market, a proxy for demand, fell 443,000 bbl or 14,290 bpd to 22.466 million bbl or 724,710 bpd, according to the U.S.Department of Energy.

On supply, the data shows total ethanol stockpiles in terminals, plants, pipeline and other storage facilities nationwide fell 96,000 bbl to 13.903 million bbl.

Disclosure: None

Comments

[Ferdinand E...:]

Excellent article and good news. Ethanol isn't going to be the whole show, but with a little luck it can be a part of it. Anything is better than standing around listening to foolishness about huge oil and gas supplies along the Canadian border, and the oil price falling to twenty dollars a barrel.

Aug 30 10:13 AM

[valuestocks...:]

As far as BFRE is concerned. I live here in Lancaster, the site location. They already obtained the air permit approx. 1 year ago. The author of this article is way behind on his info. BFRE has been unable to obtain financing, for what reason i do not know.

Aug 30 10:44 AM

[Tom Caracciolo:]

I e-mailed Mr. Chu who runs our U.S. Dept. of Energy, our Washington State Senator Cantwell, President Obama and Vice President Biden months ago, and explained that BFRE has had all permits in place, design and sources of hardware supply is all complete, the project is "Shovel Ready" and asked, "What in heaven's name is holding up the financing garauntees that was promised BFRE well over a year ago?" I never received an answer from any one of them. I'm smelling the same rotten smell today that I used to experience emanating from Washington DC for the 8 years prior to Obama's swearing into office. The only way you can get anything accomplished in a timely manner in our three branches of government is by giving massive amounts of cash to lobbyists to payoff our elected officials. When I say massive amounts of cash what I'm talking about enough to compete with Exxon Mobile and others like them. We the people do not stand a chance in hell! One thing is for sure....you are not going to get any meaningful answer from the author of this article. Tom Caracciolo


On Aug 30 10:44 AM valuestocksonly wrote:

> As far as BFRE is concerned. I live here in Lancaster, the site location.
> They already obtained the air permit approx. 1 year ago. The author
> of this article is way behind on his info. BFRE has been unable to
> obtain financing, for what reason i do not know.

Aug 30 07:19 PM

[fishluvrain:]

VRNM has also just partnered with BP and is in the running for DOE grants. An up and running concern making cellulose based fuel and derivatives mainly from cane sugar.

Sep 01 05:13 AM