The new company’s technology and intended products are different, they say, and it is relying on private investment.

Colorado-based Range Fuels had planned to use a catalytic conversion process to make ethanol from wood chips at the Soperton site. When that technology apparently failed to work commercially, Range tried to transfer the plant and a $40 million federal loan guarantee to the newly created LanzaTech Freedom Pines, a subsidiary of New Zealand-based LanzaTech Inc.

However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture refused to transfer the loan, triggering foreclosure on Range Fuels, which ended in LanzaTech Freedom Pines buying the plant on the courthouse steps a month ago for $5.1 million. Company officials have said they hope to add to the existing equipment, hire hundreds of employees and produce a variety of fuels and chemicals.

…Unlike Range Fuels, LanzaTech Freedom Pines has not received any U.S. funding for the Soperton plant. But its parent company has received $560,000 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, $4 million from the Department of Energy and $3 million from the Federal Aviation Administration, all for research and development related to producing jet fuel from waste gas streams or biomass, said Laurel Harmon, vice president for government relations of LanzaTech Inc.

…Robert Rapier, who vets renewable energy technology and writes a prominent industry blog, predicted that LanzaTech will seek government funding for the Soperton project. “I would ban them from government funding until that Range loan is paid off” because of the overlap between the two companies’ investors, he said. “Anyone involved in the Range Fuels thing shouldn’t be getting more tax money. … A lot of people are angry that LanzaTech, with some of the same people, came in and bought (the plant) for pennies on the dollar.”  READ MORE

Jean Moreau, President and CEO of CelluForce, was accompanied by the Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Joe Oliver; Québec’s Minister for Finance, Alain Paquet; John D. Williams, President and CEO of Domtar; and Pierre Lapointe, President and CEO of FPInnovations.

CelluForce is ramping up its production of NCC with a target of reaching a 1,000 kg (1 metric ton) per day production rate in 2012. Trials integrating NCC into the manufacturing process of different products are currently taking place through technical collaboration agreements between CelluForce and 15 companies based in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia in four main industrial sectors: paints and coatings, films and barriers, textiles, and composites.

Plant construction extended over a 14-month period and was completed on time. The Canadian and Québec governments made a significant contribution to the financing of the $36 million plant with $23.2 million coming from Natural Resources Canada (Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program and Transformative Technologies Program)
and $10.2 million from Québec’s Natural Resources and Wildlife Department.

Grateful to all those who have contributed thus far to this exciting venture, Jean Moreau declared: “This is the stellar result of the winning combination of Domtar’s operational expertise with FPInnovations’ technical and scientific knowledge to develop an effective manufacturing process for NanoCrystalline Cellulose. Governments were receptive to
our project, which was in line with their innovation and forestry industry strategies, while our enthusiastic employees were thrilled to participate in such a unique and innovative initiative. Today we celebrate a milestone that enables us to be the first in he world on the path to creating a significant market for NCC. There is an exciting future ahead for NCC and CelluForce.”

“Our investment in the CelluForce project is part of a larger story at Domtar around unlocking greater value from wood fiber,” added John D. Williams, Domtar President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are thrilled to be partners in this world-class venture that aligns so squarely with our business growth objective to become a global leader in
fiber innovation.”

Pierre Lapointe, President and CEO of FPInnovations stated that “This is a significant milestone in Canadian innovation history. We have demonstrated that through investment in public-private partnerships, Canada is taking a leadership position in developing and deploying game changing innovations, such as NCC, to help the transformation of the forest industry and to create wealth for Canadians. We are very proud that this innovation developed by FPInnovations’ research team is now moving from the laboratories to the marketplace. This is a great day for FPInnovations’ staff and
all our partners.”
NCC is an advanced material derived from wood fibre that improves the strength, durability and toughness of products. It can reduce damage caused by wear, abrasion and light. This high-value nanomaterial can also be incorporated into systems to make light reflective structures (tunable from ultraviolet to infrared), impermeable to gas and stable over time. NCC can transform the performance of existing products as well as help create new, unique and improved products. Natural, renewable, recyclable, compostable and bio-degradable, NCC also has the potential to become a contributor to the green economy in numerous industrial sectors in the coming decades.

NCC’s remarkable properties will lead to commercial applications largely exceeding those of traditional wood fibre products. CelluForce will, on a worldwide basis, market NanoCrystalline Cellulose for strength applications under the CelluForce Impact™ brand, and optical applications under the CelluForce Allure™ brand.  READ MORE

That would boost Treutlen County employment even more than the plant’s former owner, Range Fuels, had promised in exchange for state and federal handouts.

…State and local officials say they plan to meet with LanzaTech leaders in about 10 days to discuss possible job creation commitments. The equipment, which made the plant attractive at auction, was purchased mostly through a $6.25 million Georgia grant that required Range to create more than 60 jobs by 2015.

“We’re looking at tens of jobs in the near term, and hundreds of jobs as we scale to commercial (production),” (Laurel) Harmon (vice president for government relations of LanzaTech Inc.) said. “I hate to be specific about dates and numbers at this time. The intent is certainly to fulfill and exceed the job commitments made formerly.

“The goal is to take this site and achieve what wasn’t achieved before.”

LanzaTech Freedom Pines has retained the handful of employees that were still working for Range Fuels and just rehired a former employee, Harmon said.

“Our commitment is to hire locally wherever possible, and people with experience at the plant are an added bonus for us,” she said.

…Initially LanzaTech will build a demonstration-scale plant with the intent to increase to commercial production of 35 million to 50 million gallons a year, Harmon said.  READ MORE

CORE is commercializing a patent-pending variant of ExxonMobil’s methanol-to-gasoline process, trademarked the Melnichuk-Kelly-Stanko Fuel Synthesis Process (MKS Process). The company has modified the process by incorporating advanced, commercially-proven direct gasification modules developed by Energy Products of Idaho, which creates an exothermic reaction for sufficient electricity and steam generation to power the process. CORE has devised a novel route to effectively and efficiently produce biogasoline straight from DME, bypassing the production of methanol entirely, via a robust zeolite-based catalytic reaction without the need for further upgrading to meet retail pump 92-octane requirements.

…Sheppard said that CORE is currently vetting potential sites in central British Columbia for its first biogasoline biorefinery, adding that he anticipates the plant to break ground by early 2014. When operational, the biorefinery will be capable of converting more than 250,000 tons of wood and other cellulosic material into roughly 18 million gallons of biogasoline annually, in addition to coproducing 6.5 million gallons of distilled water, 190,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 10 megawatts of electricity.

According to Sheppard, the company’s first biogasoline facility will be considered a demo plant that utilizes commercially demonstrated equipment and process technology. It will serve as the model for CORE’s long-term commercialization strategy for deploying future biogasoline production facilities through either a build/own/operate model via joint venture partnerships or through licensing arrangements to third parties of the combined technology package.  READ MORE

…Crude tall oil is a by-product of pine-wood pulp production. UPM says that its biodiesel will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport up to 80 percent compared to fossil fuels.

…“The biofuel produced at the plant will be suitable for all cars that use diesel,” says UPM’s Vice President for Biofuels, Petri Kukkonen.  READ MORE

…The Energy & Environmental Research Center has developed and tested at small scales much of the technology necessary for distributed indirect liquefaction systems. With funding provided by customers of Xcel Energy through a grant from the Renewable Development Fund, and the U.S. Department of Energy through the EERC Centers for Renewable Energy and Biomass Utilization, the EERC designed and built a mobile, demonstration-sized indirect wood waste liquefaction system. The EERC then operated it in order to determine best construction and operating practices, overall system productivity, and necessary design changes to make the concept more commercially viable.

…The system uses a unique gasifier to convert the wood waste into synthesis gas, which is cleaned and compressed and flows to a reactor that converts the gas to a liquid. In this program, we focused on the production of methanol, the simplest alcohol, because it can be easily reformed into hydrogen, which can be used to power fuel cells to efficiently make electricity at sites separate from the biomass resource.  READ MORE

Carbon: Biogenic vs. Geologic   The study “Managing Forests Because Carbon Matters: Integrating Energy, Products, and Land Management Policy” is an update to a previously released report initiated by the Society of American Foresters, and was put together by a task force of people who had all been involved in forest and carbon accounting aspects.  It took about 10 months to complete, according to lead author Robert Malmsheimer, professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

…  “As long as you manage forests sustainably, you can produce bioenergy and help address some of the issues surrounding climate change,” Malmsheimer says, segueing into the first supporting conclusion. “We can provide carbon benefits through both storage in forests and through substitution benefits, while providing all of the other benefits that forests normally provide society.”

…The second main supporting conclusion of the study is that energy produced from forest biomass returns to the atmosphere carbon that plants absorbed in the relatively recent past, and therefore it essentially results in no net release of carbon.

…Malmsheimer says the Manomet study had a very specific purpose and a very specific question, which was answered. “The problem with that study is that the question was wrong: what is the carbon accounting on a single plot of land? We don’t manage just one plot; we manage hundreds of thousands of stands. Granted, some stands are just getting to a point of carbon deficit, and some are further away, but you have to look at multiple stands over long periods of time. It’s impossible for [wood energy] to be worse than coal, because you have to go back to the very basic idea that with coal you’re taking geologic carbon and putting it into the atmosphere.”  READ MORE and MORE and MORE (Environmental and Energy Study Institute)

This publication assesses the environmental, social and economic issues as well as the legal and institutional frameworks that can ensure the sustainable production of woodfuels from forests, trees outside forests and other sources. The study continues FAO’s long interest in wood energy issues and complements other FAO reports on wood energy and sustainable forest management.

To ensure that the key issues related to the sustainability of woodfuel production are fully recognized and addressed they need to be analysed and organized within a rational framework. The criteria and indicators presented under four overarching principles provide such a framework. The principles are:
· Policies, laws, institutional frameworks and capacity exist and are clear and consistent.
· Human and labor rights are respected and social and cultural values are maintained or enhanced.
· Economic sustainability is ensured.
· Landscape and site productivity and environmental values are sustained.

Two general recommendations can be drawn from this examination of the issues involved in woodfuel sustainability and the tools available to address these issues. They are that:
· policy-makers and decision-makers involved in decisions on woodfuel systems should recognize more clearly the benefits of sustainable woodfuel production and the range of issues and concerns associated with unsustainable woodfuel production;
· the issues, concerns and benefits associated with woodfuel production should be addressed with the aid of the criteria and indicators for woodfuel sustainability presented in this publication, adapted to suit local conditions.  READ MORE  Download Study

The term Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) refers to cultivation systems using fast-growing tree species with the ability to resprout from the stump after harvest. Harvest occurs in short intervals, 2-6 years, and management practices (soil preparation, weed control, planting, fertilisation, harvest, etc.) are more similar to those of agricultural annual crops than to forestry, despite the fact that the species currently used in commercial SRC plantations in Europe are fast-growing species with good coppice ability that achieve high biomass yields, such as willows (Salix sp.) and poplars (Populus sp.).  READ MORE   Download Study