Advanced biofuel technology developer ZeaChem, Inc., has reported successfully producing ethanol at its new biorefinery in Oregon.
The company, which has its head office in Lakewood, Colorado, has been developing a new cellulosic ethanol facility in Boardman, Oregon.
Earlier this year, it confirmed the first stage of its technology, converting cellulosic biomass into ethyle acetate.
It has now successfully carried out the second stage, producing ethanol from ethyl acetate at a capacity suitable for commercial operations.
After confirming the results of its process with third-party vendors, it said the next stage would be to put the two stages together at its $73 million biorefinery, which has been under construction since last month.
With core systems expected to begin operations by the end of 2010, from 2011 the facility will produce around 250,000 gallons of advanced biofuels each year.
ZeaChem’s process uses fermentation and catalysis to break down cellulosic ethanol to produce ethyle acetate, with the intermediary product then subjected to hydrogenation, a common industrial process, to produce ethanol.
“Through the successful production of ethanol, we’ve completed ZeaChem’s C2 carbon chain suite of products, which includes acetic acid, ethyl acetate, and ethanol,” said Jim Imbler, president and CEO of ZeaChem.
“The next step is to integrate these processes to achieve commercial production of economical and sustainable biofuels” – Jim Imbler, ZeaChem
“The next step is to integrate these known processes to achieve the ultimate target of commercial production of economical and sustainable biofuels and bio-based chemicals.”
ZeaChem is chasing a share of the $26.2 billion global market for ethanol. In the US alone, 36 billion gallons a year of biofuels will be needed by 2022 to reach the targets under the Renewable Fuels Standard, with a 15 billion gallon a year limit on the contribution of conventional ethanol.
Ethanol made from cellulosic biomass is seen as more environmentally-friendly than conventional biofuels, because the fuel can be made from non-food crops and waste materials that would avoid affecting global food prices and potentially damaging land-use change.
As well as ethanol, ZeaChem hopes to use its process to produce other biomass-sourced biofuels and chemicals like propanol and propylene.
The company said it intends to build a series of commercial biorefineries following the successful start-up at Boardman.
