Twitter headlines« Mitsubishi Motors to Make 2,000 i-MiEV EVs in 2009 | Main | UNEP Report Urges Global Energy Subsidy Reform, Including Cutting Fossil Fuel Subsidies; Reductions in GHG Emissions and Increase in Global GDP »
Lignol Confirms Site for its Cellulosic Ethanol Demo Plant
27 August 2008
 |
| Lignol’s biorefinery technology. Click to enlarge. |
Lignol Innovations Inc., the US subsidiary of Canada-based Lignol Energy Corp., will build its cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in Grand Junction, Colorado—an approved change from the originally proposed site adjacent to Suncor Energy (USA) Inc.’s refinery in Commerce City, Colorado.
In January 2008, the DOE approved Lignol’s funding application for a proposed cellulosic ethanol plant, including up to US$30 million in funding to construct the facility. Lignol continues to negotiate the final details of the DOE funding agreement and related party agreements. (Earlier post.)
Lignol uses a modified solvent based pre-treatment technology, originally developed by a former affiliate of General Electric, and then further developed and commercialized for wood-pulp applications by a subsidiary of Repap Enterprises Inc.
 |
| Fermentable sugar yields from Lignol process and steam-explosion pretreatment. Click to enlarge. |
Lignol acquired and modified the pretreatment process and is integrating proprietary process capabilities to convert cellulose to ethanol. The technology produces a clean pulp that converts feedstock rapidly into fermentable sugars with high yield and lower enzyme costs. The process also produces co-products with revenues that mitigate the costs of production and commodity risks.
The proposed facility will be designed to process hard and soft woods and agricultural residues such as straw and corn stover. Lignol expects the facility, once operational, will process about 100 tonnes of feedstock per day and produce approximately 10 million liters of ethanol per year.
Suncor will operate the facility, to be built next to Suncor’s products distribution terminal in Grand Junction. The Grand Junction location offers logistical advantages including access to feedstock and ethanol distribution efficiencies.
Resources
Lignol Energy presentation (April 2008)
August 27, 2008 in Cellulosic ethanol | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: Polly | August 27, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Hi polly;
Can you run your analysis using nuclear power from a micro reactor at $1000/kw installed cost that produces process heat, electricity and hydrogen at 10% of capacity? I have done this for coal to liquids and the production when up by 400%.
Posted by: Axil | August 30, 2008 at 09:56 PM
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef00e5548f74bd8834
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Lignol Confirms Site for its Cellulosic Ethanol Demo Plant:
Quotes:
1. Target.
"US Government target for 2022: 35 billion gallons per year
• Corn ethanol estimated to max out at between 12-20 billion g/yr
• +15 billion shortfall requires ethanol from cellulose"
2. Biomass resource (per ORNL).
• Forest residues 386 M T/yr
• Agricultural residues & prairie grasses 911 M T/yr
• Grain for biofuel only 87 M T/yr
3. One Lignol Bio-refinery (1000 tonnes/day)
• 100 million litres of ethanol per year
• ~$300 million investment
Construction: commercial demo plant 2010"
4. Co-product.
"High Purity Lignin (HP-L™)
• Market valued in excess of US$2 billion"
5. Economics.
Revenues:
Ethanol @$0.70/l $75 million
High Purity Lignin (HP-L™)@ $0.40 $29 million
Other biochemicals $7 million
Total Revenue $112 million
Total Operating Costs $60 million
EBITDA $52 million
Estimated Capital Costs $300 million
Unleveraged ROI 17%
Comment:
The target creates a potential market demand.
Note that the wood biomass from forestry residues is much larger than grain for biofuel.
Lignol's pretreated wood has 95% fermentable components which is much higher than acid or steam pretreated biomass.
Can the target be met from wood waste only?
365 T/yr of wood waste produces 25 M g/yr
386 T/yr / 0.365 M T/yr > 1000 bio-refineries
1000 x 25 M g/yr = 25000 M g/yr = 25 B g/yr
15/25 = 60% of wood waste supply.
The co-product Lignin is used in resin or carbon fibre, both useful for displacing steel made with fossil fuel.
The economics look very attractive so long as gasoline stays above 70 cents per litre, about $2.70 per US gallon wholesale before taxation.
The Lignol presentation is very interesting as it suggests that producing fuel and a valuable co-product from wood waste is feasible and would be profitable if crude oil prices stay high.
Let's hope they get their commercial scale bio-refinery built by 2010 and succeed in demonstrating that their technology can be scaled up from pilot to commercial scale.