The Wilmington Express: The 10-Minute Guide to Dupont and Advanced Biofuels
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … (T)he company’s metrics in cellulosic biofuels are starting to look compelling. Not only is commercialization a lot less than five years away – a massive breakout in capacity building looks feasible within that time frame as well.
Let’s take a closer look.
First commercial project.
The company expects to have its 25 million gallon first commercial facility operating within 18 months. It’s writing the check on this one – based up in Nevada, Iowa, adjacent to the first-gen Lincolnway corn ethanol plant.
Following launch.
The company’s corn stover demonstration will shut down and come back up in Tennessee with a demonstration of switchgrass.
System.
Dupont is touting an integrated approach – software and hardware combined, if you will – from seed through to understanding the harvesting of biomass, enzymes and the processing technology.
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The Bottom line
100 plants? Now, that’s talking real business. The $7 per gallon capex is a compelling figure – to date, the USDA has been looking at $8 per gallon, and a number of companies have been deploying at numbers well north of that. With 21 billion gallons of capacity scheduled to be built, that’s not an inconsequential amount of money.
Expectations? For now, a lot of add-on facilities in the heartland of corn ethanol, the Midwest. How many plants are in the Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, South Dakota and Nebraska base? According to the RFA, 143 plants – say, around 100 of them candidates for cellulosic add-ons in terms of project size and modernity. POET is of the belief that you can add around 25 million gallons of cellulosic capacity per existing 100 million gallon corn ethanol plant. READ MORE
