Advanced BioFuels USA

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) Just in the last few days, it’s been all about low carbon, lower carbon, net-zero carbon – and all of it from waste. Virgin Group and Agilyx’s strategic partnership to produce lower carbon fuel from plastic waste. REG’s state-of-the-art pretreatment facility to refine some of the lowest carbon intensity, hardest to convert waste fats and oils for bio-based diesel production. Louisiana Green Fuels’ conversion of forestry waste feedstock into renewable diesel. Circular SynTech’s new waste-to-renewable-chemicals production facility in Missouri.

In today’s Digest, carbon talk is hot this week and waste to fuels even hotter, so let’s talk about carbon and how converting wastes to fuels will get us to where we need to be, these key projects, and more.

Virgin Group and Agilyx

Let’s start with the news that Virgin Group and chemical conversion technology company Agilyx are forming a strategic partnership in order to research and develop lower-carbon fuel facilities to help address plastic pollution and the global transition to net-zero.

They aim to reuse plastic waste that otherwise would be un-recycled to produce synthetic crude oil that will then be refined into a lower carbon fuel.

…

Agilyx’s proprietary technology is able to break down plastic waste through a pyrolysis process.  Pyrolysis converts mixed waste plastic into a synthetic crude oil which, once further refined, can be used as a lower carbon fuel.

…

Renewable Energy Group

News also came in from Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group, Inc. which will install a state-of-the-art pretreatment facility in Germany, enabling the company to refine some of the lowest carbon intensity, hardest to convert waste fats and oils for bio-based diesel production. The project is located on the North Sea harbor of Emden, Germany at the border to The Netherlands.

This project will enhance REG Emden and REG Oeding’s ability to produce renewable fuel from a wider variety of feedstocks, including ‘Generation 3’ advanced feedstocks as defined under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II. 

…

Check out “Another 250M gallons per year: The Digest’s 2022 Multi-Slide Guide to REG” here to take a look at how Renewable Energy Group’s biobased diesel compares to petroleum-diesel, their work with GoodFuels in marine shipping and Ruan in trucking, their planned expansions and additional capacity for renewable diesel, where they see sales of biodiesel and renewable diesel blends going, and more.

Louisiana Green Fuels

Last week, news came from the state of Louisiana that Governor John Bel Edwards awarded Strategic Biofuel’s Louisiana Green Fuels project a $250 million bond allocation for its carbon-negative renewable diesel fuel project. The bonds will form an integral part of the debt financing for construction costs of the project and be sold into the private market at final investment decision in early 2023, when construction begins.

As the first renewable diesel project in North America to achieve “negative” carbon emissions, LGF will affordably and sustainably convert forestry waste feedstock into cleaner-burning renewable diesel producing approximately 34 million gallons of renewable fuel per year, once in operation.

…

Circular SynTech

Also last week came news that a novel technology developed at Mississippi State University will be used in a new industrial facility that is turning solid waste into liquid fuels.

Circular SynTech broke ground Friday on its new waste-to-renewable-chemicals production facility in New Madrid, Missouri. The company uses a patented process developed by researchers in MSU’s Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering.

…

The new industry in Southeast Missouri, located along the Mississippi River, will collect solid waste from major population centers and use (Mark) White’s method to turn synthetic gases from the waste into liquid fuels, providing a cleaner energy source at an industrial scale.

…

Other recent projects

Earlier last week we covered two other waste to fuels projects that are worth highlighting again – the first commercial advanced renewable fuels project of USA BioEnergy, their subsidiary Texas Renewable Fuels will convert 1 million green tons of wood waste into 34 million gallons per year of renewable transportation fuel. Future expansion will double the plant’s production capacity to 68M gallons annually.

And let’s not forget last week’s news that waste-to-fuel start up WasteFuel launched WasteFuel Agriculture which will turn farm waste into low-carbon fuels including renewable natural gas and bio-methanol that can be used in land and marine transport with significantly lower emissions footprints than fossil fuels. The new effort offers farmers a way of handling their waste streams and reducing emissions.

Another interesting waste to fuel project as reported in The Digest in December 2021, Mote announced its first facility to convert wood waste into hydrogen fuel while capturing, utilizing, and sequestering CO2 emissions from the process.   READ MORE

Virgin Group and Agilyx to form strategic partnership to produce lower carbon fuel (Virgin Group)

Renewable Energy Group Announces Strategic Investment in Expanded Low Carbon Feedstock Processing in Europe (Renewable Energy Group)

Louisiana Green Fuels Project Allocated $250 Million of Private Activity Bonds by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (Strategic Biofuels)

Making fuel from trash: Innovative MSU technology put to use in new Missouri facility (Mississippi State University)

USA BioEnergy Selects Bon Wier, Texas, for $1.7B Advanced Biorefinery (USA BioEnergy/Associated Press/Newswire)

WasteFuel Agriculture launches to turn agriculture waste into green fuel (WasteFuel)

World’s First Carbon Removal Plant Converting Wood Waste to Hydrogen (Mote/Business Wire)

Houston Biotech Startup Will Use Microbes to Make Hydrogen From Oil (BNN Bloomberg)

Strategic Biofuels finalizes EPC agreement for Louisiana wood-to-diesel project (Biobased Diesel Daily)