Cellulosic Ethanol Performance Tests Successful

August 20, 2015

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by PJ Griekspoor (Agri-View) St. Joseph, Mo., pilot plant completes tests of making cellulosic ethanol that also yields value-added co-products -- The prospects for profitable cellulosic ethanol just got a little brighter with the completion of two successful 1,000-hour performance runs for ICM's patent-pending Generation 2.0 Co-Located Cellulose Ethanol process.

ICM performed the runs at its pilot plant in St. Joseph, Mo.

The tests prove out the co-located technology design that allows cellulosic biomass feedstocks including agricultural crop residues and forestry residues to be converted to cellulosic ethanol and co-products, including high-protein animal feed and boiler fuel that can be burned with coal to generate electricity.

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What the industry needs now, he said, is more market demand for ethanol.

"We need to move beyond E10 and E15 to higher ethanol blends," he ( ICM Principal Scientist and Cellulose Team Leader Jeremy Javers) said. "We need that market pull to get take development and investment to the next level."

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There is currently no standard for ultrafine particulates, which are so small they can't be seen with the naked eye, but which lodge deep in the lungs and have a cumulative health impact. Higher blends of ethanol in gasoline drastically reduce the amount of ultrafine particulate matter that is emitted from automobile tailpipes.

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ICM's latest successful tests are a step forward for a process that offers the ability to add a 25 million gallon cellulosic plant to an existing 100 million gallon corn plant and save on the cost of infrastructure. And its process does produce saleable byproducts for animal feed and fuel.

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Previously in December 2012, ICM's R&D team successfully completed a 1,000-hour run of an integrated cellulosic corn fiber campaign to prove out its patent-pending Generation 1.5 Grain Fiber to Cellulosic Ethanol Technology (Gen. 1.5), which resulted in substantial operating and capital expense cost savings over a Gen. 2.0 approach to cellulosic ethanol production. READ MORE and MORE (Ethanol Producer Magazine)