DuPont engages Fagen as construction contractor for planned cellulosic ethanol plant in Iowa
01 May 2012
DuPont Industrial Biosciences will contract with Fagen, Inc., to build one a commercial cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Nevada, Iowa. Fagen is a proven biofuels engineering, procurement and construction contractor that has built more ethanol plants in the United States than any other company.
During 2011, DuPont Industrial Biosciences purchased land adjacent to the existing Lincolnway Energy ethanol plant, which will enable potential synergies in energy and logistical management.
Fagen has constructed more than 85 ethanol plants and has recently entered into a collaboration with Butamax Advanced Biofuels, LLC, a joint venture between BP and DuPont, for a retrofit project to commercially produce biobutanol.
DuPont had already contracted KBR Inc. to execute the front-end engineering, procurement and detailed engineering design work for the project.
DuPont Industrial Biosciences continues to work with Iowa State University to complete large-scale stover supply chain testing. This collaboration establishes best practices for supplying the planned Nevada, Iowa, biorefinery sustainably and economically. The company has already been operating a fully-integrated cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in Vonore, Tenn., in collaboration with the University of Tennessee and Genera Energy.
Is ethanol the best choice for future bio-fuel. Wouldn't butanol with much higher energy density and ease of use with current fossil fuels be a much better choice?
Posted by: HarveyD | 02 May 2012 at 02:14 PM
n-Butanol is much better than methanol or ethanol as a replacement fuel for automobiles with spark ignition as it has higher energy density.
There is a bio process that feeds hydrogen and carbon oxide to organisms to produce ethanol perhaps an organism can be discovered or made to produce n-Butanol from the same.
Pruteen, an animal feed, was organisms that got energy from methanol to grow; the methanol was made from north sea gas. Quorn is cultured protean organisms that might be also able to be fed methanol or hydrogen and carbon oxide.
There is not enough land area for production of biofuels. Ethanol produced by any means is also a food. Many kinds of cellulose can be used as animal feed for food production or to just maintain soil fertility.
Bio-fuels are far too expensive to make and use to reduce CO2 release when cogeneration with natural gas in all sizes of buildings can do it far faster and cheaper and without subsidies or mandates in many cases. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 03 May 2012 at 02:55 AM