Cool Planet breaks ground on its first biomass-to-renewable gasoline plant
27 February 2014
Cool Planet Energy Systems, a technology company producing green fuels and biochar products, broke ground on the company’s first commercial facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, dubbed Project Genesis. Permits have been received to begin earthwork and grading, with construction to immediately follow. The facility is designed to produce 10 million gallons per year of high-octane, renewable gasoline blendstocks, as well as biochar, all made from sustainable wood residues. (Earlier post.)
The facility will be located at the Port of Alexandria, on the Red River Waterway in Central Louisiana. The site was chosen because of its excellent wood biomass availability, interstate and rail access, and direct barge access to more than nine refineries.
Cool Planet’s technology turns biomass into green fuels and biochar and has the capability to be carbon negative. The company’s green fuels are able to be blended directly into the current fuel supply to reduce greenhouse gases from the air without sacrificing performance or increasing prices at the pump. The biochar product sequesters carbon and delivers transformative benefits to industries as diverse as agriculture, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. As a soil amendment, field trials of the company’s Cool Terra biochar with commercial growers have shown yield improvements of more than 50% with significant reductions in fertilizer and water use.
Cool Planet strategic investors include BP, Google Ventures, Energy Technology Ventures (GE, ConocoPhillips, NRG Energy), and the Constellation division of Exelon.
Unless they find a HUGE market for bio char, they do NOT have a business plan.
Posted by: SJC | 27 February 2014 at 11:49 AM
They should use hemp instead.
Biochar is an excellent soil ammendment.
Posted by: Brotherkenny4 | 27 February 2014 at 12:08 PM
I am sure it is, but they need to find a market for billions of tons of the stuff, or the numbers do not work out.
Posted by: SJC | 27 February 2014 at 01:10 PM
A $20/ton CO2 tax would merit a rebate of $55/ton for sequestered carbon.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 28 February 2014 at 11:04 AM
It is not the price per ton, but selling 10 million tons per year. They would have to get all 100 million acres of corn production on a rotating basis. They have not even started yet.
Posted by: SJC | 28 February 2014 at 08:46 PM
You don't have to sell it if you get rebated carbon-tax money for plowing it under. The "customer" is people buying carbon offsets.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 01 March 2014 at 03:31 PM
We will see, I think the whole thing is a scam.
Posted by: SJC | 02 March 2014 at 07:19 AM
Corn ethanol is a scam. Bio Char might be very good for gardens and farms even. I hope that they are building next to a natural gas pipe and convert methane to liquid fuels when bio-mass is not available; even that process reduces CO2 release compared to making liquid fuels from crude oil. If they are close to an oil field they can sequester CO2 in it and the oil company can improve production. They could even use coal when natural gas is too expensive for very low cost jet fuel. The airlines should build these plants to operate on natural gas right now. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 05 March 2014 at 02:58 AM