Coskata Fires Up Cellulosic Ethanol Demonstration Plant Near Pittsburgh
By John O'Dell October 15, 2009
By Dale Buss, Contributor
Even as questions about ethanol's role in the energy supply chain continue roiling the industry, cellulosic ethanol pioneer Coskata Inc. unveiled and fired up its 50,000-gallon-a-year "semi-commercial" plant in Madison, Pa., today, pushing itself toward the forefront of fledgling second-generation ethanol producers.
Towering over the surrounding countryside, the 65-ft. structure with an 8,000-degree torch that blasts the wood chips serving as a raw material, the plant is the $50-million result of research and development efforts going back several years.
It moves the Warrendale, Ill.-based start-up closer to the 55-million-gallon plant Coskata anticipates opening by the end of 2012.
"We now have verification of everything that we'd earlier expected, and a tuned message that we can deliver about the costs associated with the build-out of a commercial-scale plant, and eventual operating costs," Bill Roe, Coskata's chief executive officer, told Green Car Advisor.
"This gives us a proof statement and demonstrated capabilities."
Volume Questioned
Coskata already has been delivering small quantities of cellulosic ethanol to General Motors Corp. for use in its test fleet in Milford, Mich.
GM was an initial investor in the company and continues to support its aims, but the volume of ethanol needed in the future is uncertain. Automakers are among the parties raising concerns over a proposal that the federal government increase the ethanol "blend wall" to as high as 15 percent of a gasoline-ethanol mixture from the current limit of 10 percent.
Car companies are worried about ethanol's potential corrosive impact on delicate fuel system parts.
But Roe - whose company benefits from a higher "blend wall" that requires more ethanol, insists that "there's plenty of data and evidence that you could go to at least 15 percent without...adverse effects on the performance or emissions of autos."
Easy Solutions?
Roe said there are "easy technological solutions" to address any concerns about blend levels. "You could postulate having blend pumps at filling stations where you could dial in" varying blends, from zero ethanol to 15 percent, he said.
"This isn't an insurmountable issue, but it is an emotional one because you have big industrial complexes that are for or against this to varying degrees."
The issue won't go away, he said, "until government sets up and enduring policy on it."
Bad publicity for corn ethanol over the last year or two - because of a price spike and competition for the raw material with food needs - has hurt the second-generation, or "flex," ethanol industry, conceded Wes Bolsen, Coskata's chief marketing officer.
"Flex" ethanol is so called because it is cellulosic ethanol that can be made in a single facility from a variety of feedstocks.
New Game
"The attitude is, 'You guys aren't going to do this again, are you?'" he said. "Our answer is, 'No.' When you think about the new processes and technologies we have that can convert a whole new array of feedstocks, which are available in massive quantities, it's a whole new ballgame."
Coskata long ago validated its technique for using bacteria to produce ethanol from numerous feedstocks, including wood biomass but also agricultural waste, sustainable energy crops, construction waste and even certain municipal wastes.
Roe called Coskata's approach a hybrid that has some of the advantages of both the biological and thermal processes that other cellulosic-ethanol start-ups are using.
"We don't need the [expensive] enzymes that others use because we have a microbe" that breaks down raw materials effectively, he explained. "And we don't need intermediate sugars because our thermal process allows us to generate efficiently the syngas that allows the bugs to do their things."
Roe said Coskata believes the Pennsylvania plant will help demonstrate that the company can produce the fuel commercially for $1 a gallon or so, its long-declared cost goal that analysts say would make flex ethanol cost-competitive with gasoline.
And Coskata's technique is as much as 7-times as "energy-positive" as the fossil fuels used in its production. Nor is it particularly thirsty when it comes to water requirements for production.
Commercial Plant Coming
Coskata is moving full-speed ahead toward building full-scale facilities on its own or with big partners who might supply feedstocks, or are interested in the ethanol output, or both.
For example, Coskata is working with Florida-based U.S. Sugar to explore the possibility of using wastes from sugarcane production and processing to fuel an ethanol plant.
"Part of our business model is to license aggressively and enable developers - whether they're feedstock- or out-take-oriented - to get to the point where they can build and operate facilities on our technology platform," he said.
"The demonstration facility [in Pennsylvania] is a necessary thing for these people to see and gain confidence."
Coskata's first commercial-size flex-ethanol facility is likely to be located in the Southeast, Roe said, using wood biomass as its primary raw material, with a capacity of about 55 million gallons a year - more than 100 times that of the Pennsylvania plant Coskata calls Project Lighthouse.
"There is a high probability that we will beat most of our partner companies out there with the first commercial plant, because we have our own plant design and want to be first," Roe said.
Coskata intends to break ground ts first commercial plant next year and to begin operating it about two years later.
Roe maintained that the company is on a timetable that puts it at or near the pole position in the developing flex-ethanol industry.
"The differentiators for us are the simplicity of our approach and our cost points, both operating and capital [costs] and the speed with which we can get this to market on a commercial scale as advertised," he said.
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