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Startup Plans Cellulosic Biorefinery Using Wood Waste as Feedstock
10 June 2008
Start-up Raven Biofuels International Corporation, formed in September 2007, plans to build a cellulosic biorefinery in Washington state. The plant, which will use a two-stage acid hydrolysis process for pre-treatment, will convert 500 tons per day of wood waste, such as construction and demolition wood or wood chips, and is planned to have a production capacity of almost 11 million gallon per year of ethanol and specialty chemicals (furfural and its derivatives).
The proprietary technology has been developed during the past 10 years and has its origins with the Tennessee Valley Authority. Pure Energy Corporation further developed the technology and protected key elements through patents. Raven and Pure Energy earlier this year announced their intention to merge.
The technology is based on simple and proven pulp and paper mill technology, used in the industry for many years successfully. This reduces the risk of commercial deployment and will facilitate a fast roll out of multiple sites in North America.
—John Sams, Raven COO
Raven anticipates investing $30 million in the plant. Construction is expected to take approximately 14 months. The biorefineries will be financed by equity infusion from Raven and its partners and project finance debt of $20 million per plant. Raven projects revenue fro the first plant to be $35 Million when in full production, with payback projected in just more than 3 years from the start of production.
June 10, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: Henrik | June 10, 2008 at 11:16 AM
Sure, ethanol from cellulose is fine. I won't knock it. Still, if we are going to continue to use sucrose-based feedstock, why not turn it in to butanol? At current gasoline prices, the added refinery cost should not be too bad.
China and India aren't going to stop being thirsty for oil any time soon...
Posted by: The Scoot | June 10, 2008 at 01:03 PM
Do they also use wood waste for process energy? What is their net carbon footprint?
Posted by: richard schumacher | June 11, 2008 at 07:00 AM
Net carbon footprint? An interesting concept? No one knows what the net carbon impact is of growing corn or cane for ethanol. Some studies suggest that just converting natural lands to croplands release more CO2 than can be saved from the use of ethanol. Much fossil fuel is used in the production of ethanol. There are not enough trees and plants in all the forests and fields of the US to supply the energy that is now optained from fossil fuels. To decrease the use of energy substantially requires a decrease in the human population. All of the US' civilization, industry, economy and food production relies on fossil fuels. Any cut backs in energy use will result in lost employment, lower wages and declining health. The babies that are killed with bad air are compensated for by the ones that live because they are fed adequatly. Higher world population shows that starvation kills better and faster than contaminated air. High oil prices, and those that cause them, are killing more babies, in the US alone, than all the soldiers killed in service. Oh yes, the high prices kill children and adults as well who can no longer afford as much medical attention and food. How many babies are you willing to let die so that the mercury or CO2 are reduced to a level that you consider safe for your child...HG...
Posted by: Henry Gibson | June 11, 2008 at 11:37 AM
HG: Who got out of bed the wrong side this morning? No seriously, while I am glad that people are finally waking up to all the implications of global warming and the impact of our greed this attitude does nothing to help us move forward.
Posted by: | June 20, 2008 at 01:19 AM
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This is interesting. It indicates that $130 per barrel of oil and rising is making old-fashioned 1st generation cellulosic ethanol profitable right now when produced at the right location. Note the location of the plant. It is far away from the Corn Belt where corn ethanol is plenty and logistic distribution problems currently prevent ethanol from being sold at more than $2.4 a gallon despite gas going at $4. In Washington State I believe gas is importantly more than $4 and they don’t have an ethanol glut preventing it from selling at more than $2.4 a gallon. Interesting, who would have expected this half a year ago?
Map of Corn Belt
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/objects/documents/1494/plantmap_janaury_24.pdf