The company is collaborating on its commercial strategy with Enagra, a biofuel trading company, on the development of its technology. The two companies are owned by the same investors and managed by executives with extensive experience in biofuels. Over the past ten years, Enagra has conducted more than $1 billion in biofuel transactions and will achieve revenues of approximately $150 million in 2013.

Edible palm oil has surpassed soybean to become the largest source of cooking oil in the world, accounting for more than 50 million tons of oil annually. While plantation owners have managed to increase the productivity of their land by 15-times since the late 1980s, the growth of the industry has created a corresponding residue problem.

Approximately 4.4 to 6 metric tons of agricultural waste is generated for each metric ton of oil. There are more than 1,000 crude palm oil (CPO) mills in Southeast Asia and a single (60 tons per hour) mill can generate 135,000 tons of agricultural residue a year.

NextFuels uses a hydrothermal bio-liquefaction that efficiently transforms agricultural biomass to green energy. Biomass is placed into the plant mixed with water. The mixture is then heated to 330 °Celsius while pressure is increased to 220 bar.

When cooled, the hydrocarbons form a putty-like substance called GreenCrude. Roughly 25% of the GreenCrude can be burned as a solid fuel in industrial boilers. The remaining 75% can be converted into a liquid-fuel equivalent to petroleum that is compatible with existing pipelines and vehicles. The equipment required to convert GreenCrude into liquid fuels, in a process called hydrodeoxygenation, is already installed at most refineries and can accept GreenCrude with minor refinements.

Unlike many other biofuels processes, NextFuels does not need to dry biomass before processing. The process is uniquely and specifically designed to work with wet biomass. As a result, the energy balance achieved by NextFuels process is approximately 65 to 70%—i.e., 65 to 70% of the energy put into the system becomes useable energy. By contrast, processes like Fischer-Tropsch achieve energy balances of 40% or less, according to the company.

NextFuels is currently raising funds to rebuild a bio-liquefaction demonstration plant originally created by Shell in 2005. The system ran for more than 1,000 hours and is capable of producing 5 to 8 barrels of oil a day. Enagra and others will finance the cost of reassembling it and demonstrating production over the next 18 months.

Within two to three years, NextFuels anticipates it will start to build its first commercial scale modules capable of producing 250 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Four modules capable of producing 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day will be the typical size of a NextFuels plant. Commercial scale modules will initially cost approximately $20 million and decline in price over time.

NextFuels will partner with plantation owners and others on various projects. NextFuels estimates that transforming residue into fuel could raise the value of plantation real estate by 30% or more per hectare.

Dr. Ralph Overend, NextFuels Chief Scientist, has spent more than 30 years at major research organizations, including the National Renewables Energy Laboratory. Dr. Overend will work with Dr. Jaap Naber and Dr. Frans Goudriaan co-developers of the bio-liquefaction technology, starting the process as Shell research scientists in the 1970s.

There is no such thing as waste. The biofuel industry has been hampered by technological and economic challenges. We believe our system helps overcome many of these problems and we look forward to demonstrating it over the next few years.

—Dr. Overend

Resources

• F. Goudriaan and J.E. Naber (2008) HTU Diesel From Wet Waste Stream (presentation at Symposium New Biofuels, Berlin)

• F. Goudriaan, J.E. Naber, E. van den Berg Conversion Of Biomass Residues To Transportation Fuels With The HTU Process