Cellulosic Biorefinery to Break Ground in North Dakota

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine) A biorefinery that will produce 16 MMgy of cellulosic ethanol and 120,000 of lignin pellets is set to break ground in Spiritwood, North Dakota, in the spring of 2019. The facility, under development by New Energy Blue, will feature Inbicon technology.

The proposed plant, known as New Energy Spirit Biomass Refinery LLC, will be located in Spiritwood Energy Park near Jamestown, North Dakota, adjacent to Dakota Spirit AgEnergy LLC, an existing 70 MMgy corn ethanol plant, and Spiritwood Station, a 99-megawatt coal-fired power plant that produces electricity and steam.

Thomas Corle, CEO of New Energy Blue, explained that his company has been working with Denmark-based Inbicon for approximately 10 years. Two of the New Energy Blue partners have worked with technology since its inception, he added. The Spiritwood biorefinery marks the first commercial deployment of Inbicon cellulosic ethanol technology in the U.S.

While many cellulosic biofuel projects have been supported by USDA or U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantes, the New Energy Spirit Biomass Refinery is not. Rather, the project will be using a Danish loan guarantee known the EKF.

The plant will take in approximately 280,000 tons per year of wheat straw as feedstock. The facility may also process corn stover. Corle said feedstock for the plant will be sourced from Pacific Ag, which already harvests wheat straw in the area.

Cellulosic ethanol sold at the plant will be sold into California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard market. Corle said New Energy Blue is also applying for a fuel pathway with the U.S. EPA that will allow the facility to generate D3 cellulosic renewable identification numbers (RINs).

In addition to cellulosic ethanol, the biorefinery will also produce fuel pellets from its lignin coproduct. Corle said the company has contracted with European customers for plant’s pellet output, noting the lignin-based pellets will be used to offset the use of coal in power plants. READ MORE

Excerpt from NewEnergyBlue: NewEnergyBlue is about six months away from breaking ground on a ground-breaking renewable fuel refinery. New Energy Spirit Biomass Refinery is forecast to turn 280,000 tons of North Dakota wheat straw into 16-million gallons a year of some of the lowest carbon auto fuel selling in California, the world’s fifth largest market.

“It’s no secret that clean energy producers covet the state’s monster fuel market,” says Thomas Corle, Blue’s CEO. “Carbon is the California regulator’s primary yardstick. The policy goal of the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard is shrinking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by reducing fossil carbons in transportation fuels. Traditional grain ethanol is rated 20%-30% below the carbon baseline of gasoline. But with our process design, cellulosic ethanol can achieve 130% below gasoline’s baseline. The project gets paid on every ton of fossil carbon saved.”

Sited in Spiritwood Energy Park near Jamestown, North Dakota, the refinery is expected to produce not only cellulosic ethanol capable of exceeding California’s rigorous air-quality standards, but also clean lignin—without using any fresh water in our designed process.

Because lignin reduces stack emissions in coal-fired power plants, it’s a cleaner replacement than wood chips. Lignin is also a lightweight binder for composites that replace metal parts in automobiles and other products.

After its Spiritwood refinery is up and running on Dakota straws, NewEnergyBlue says it expects to double capacity of future biomass refineries and also process corn stalks. Corle envisions a series of refineries throughout the grain belts of the U.S. and Canada, each producing 32 million cellulosic gallons a year and attracting escalating support from capital markets keen on catching the next wave of renewable energy. “California alone could easily absorb production from 70 of our refineries to reach their goal. Other states and Canada are following California’s successful low-carbon model.”

Stephan Rogers, President of NewEnergyBlue and former head of Qteros, has pursued an economical way to turn plant sugars into ethanol for two decades. “Today we’re reaping the benefits of over $250 million already invested in scaling-up and optimizing our proprietary process,” he says. “When we extract sugars from grain straws and corn stover, they’ll become cellulosic ethanol. But also imagine every plastic water bottle now made from petroleum someday being made from plant sugars that break down harmlessly in landfills.”

Though Corle and Rogers speak passionately about their “game-changing” business platform and global energy vision, which has attracted international investor interest, their immediate focus is the New Energy Spirit project. “We’ve engaged top engineers to complete the development work,” says Rogers, “We expect to finalize the $170 million financing and are shooting for steel in the ground by spring 2019.”

New Energy Spirit Biomass Refinery, LLC will own and operate the plant. It’s funded in part by regional investors with a strong interest in the project’s sustainability and its invigorating contributions to the area economy. READ MORE