Earth to Cellulosic Ethanol: Glad You’re Here, Buddy, What Took so Long? Parts 1 and 2

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October 10, 2014

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Cellulosic ethanol arrives at scale — “The five years away forever” put to rest — but are there troubling waters still ahead? For whom, and why?
Part I of II
There’s a gigantic disconnect between two sections in the country as to whether the United States should be celebrating the success or the failure of cellulosic biofuels — biofuels made from crop residues, energy crops, and other feedstocks including municipal solid waste, and which feature a 60 percent or greater full-lifecycle reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional gasoline.
The supporters
On the one hand are the supporters — including project developers, growers, the US Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, several foreign governments (particularly in the EU) and supporters of renewable fuels.
They point to the growing number of commercial-scale biorefineries, and the reaching of cost-competitiveness with $100 oil, as signature achievements of the renewable fuels movement.
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The detractors
On the other hand are ranged a number of detractors — oil companies, some environmentalists, skeptics of government R&D for renewables, and mandate-hating conservatives.
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It’s not exactly right to say that the Congress “mandated” the blending of 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels in 2022. It is true to say that Congress intended to mandate that, if the industry produced the volumes, Congress would require obligated parties (such as oil refiners and marketers) to blend the (competing) fuels into their petroleum fuels, or pay for waiver credits. Which is to say, if the detractors could come up with some way of frightening the heck out of investors and otherwise frustrate efforts to build capacity, the mandate would disappear.
Imagine an EPA mandate that says, in effect, “we mandate lower levels of arsenic and mercury in groundwater if someone comes up with a product to substitute for the one causing the arsenic and mercury problem. If no one produces a substitute, you can go on polluting.” Well, imagine the galvanizing impact on polluters. They could take the hard road of developing cost-effective alternatives, or the easier road of demonizing all the substitutes and thereby keeping them out of the market.
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Some unexpected big wins along the way
The project and promise. Beta Renewables was not formed in time to compete for the 2007 DOE grants, or the round of grants announced under the Recovery Act in late 2009. Chemtex was developing a technology at the time, and ultimately formed Beta with investors Texas Pacific Group and Novozymes.

The actual outcome. The company opened a 20 million gallon commercial-scale facility in Crescentino, Italy in 2012, which is now operating at full capacity. The company has signed firm deals for new plants in China and Slovakia, and is developing a project on its own balance sheet for North Carolina. More licenses are expected over the next 12 months.

The project and promise. GranBio was not formed in time to compete for the 2007 DOE grants, or the round of grants announced under the Recovery Act in late 2009.

The actual outcome. The company opened a 21.6 million gallon commercial-scale facility in Alagoas state in Brazil this past month, which is currently the world’s largest. The company has announced plans to invest $724.5 million in five cellulosic ethanol plants during the next few years.

The project and promise. DuPont Industrial Biosciences (operating than as the JV DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol) either did not compete or did not win a 2007 DOE grant, or in the round of grants announced under the Recovery Act in late 2009.

The actual outcome. The company is expected to open what will become the world’s largest cellulosic ethanol facility in the world when its 30 million gallon, $200M Nevada, Iowa plant is completed by the end of December.

The project and promise. Enerkem’s Edmonton project was not legible for a DOE grant because it is in Canada — but it did pick up a grant for a future project in Pontotoc, Mississippi.

The actual outcome. The company just opened its first commercial 10 million gallon facility — which owing to trends in commodity prices, is currently producing methanol instead of ethanol. All of it, though, from Edmonton’s supply of municipal solid waste.

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Now, realistic timelines and realistic projects are two different things. The United State originally hoped to invade France in 1943, 19 months after Pearl Harbor, and ended up staging Operation Overlord in June 1944, 12 months and 63% later than the original targets. The winning of the war was vastly more important than the timeline. And in the case of POET-DSM — the opening of the plant in 2014 is proof that the journey had a successful ending. READ MORE

Part II of II
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No one ever, ever thought that cellulosic fuels would get off the ground without a loan guarantee program. First-of-kind technologies are simply too risky for conventional project finance lenders and costs — and credit-card interest rates made the projects not economically viable.
So, DOE-backed projects — into which DOE would have extraordinary oversight and insight — were supposed to have access to DOE-backed loan guarantees for their first commercial projects — which theoretically would allow them to zero out the project risk to the lender and allow them to tap conventional project finance at conventional interest rates — something like 4-7 percent. After the first commercial, the technology risk would be eliminated, and the companies could tap conventional project finance on their own — so went the theory.
Did DOE get a start on the program? Sure, In fact, it was not authorized under the 2007 EISA Act, one was originally established under the 2005 Energy Policy Act. By 2007, Ethanol Producer was reporting, “The DOE is also developing a loan guarantee program for cellulosic projects as authorized in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.”
As of today, the DOE has only two loan guarantees in its portfolio for this 1703 program — both for nuclear energy.
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A house oversight committee found that:
“DOE invested a disproportionate amount of its funds into solar technology leaving taxpayers vulnerable by overemphasizing a single technology. 16 of the 27 1705-backed projects employed solar technology – that represented 80 percent of DOE’s funds.”
And noted that:
“DOE has engaged in a disturbing pattern of suspending the approval of a credible project that adheres to all stated standards, only to later approve massive funding for a project proven to be nowhere nearly as far along in the process as DOE purported. DOE’s favoritism significantly harmed numerous companies that had relied on the promise of 1705 financing. The perception is that DOE actively misleads applicants about the status of their loan application, thereby encouraging these firms to misallocate capital, which has led to financial harm.”
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The crisis of innovative technology financing
The problem of the Loan Guarantee program is that it simultaneously required a “reasonable prospect of repayment” while at the same time focusing, in the language of the Energy Policy Act:

The Secretary may only make loan guarantees under §1703 for projects that employ “new or significantly improved technologies.” ...

Common-sense tells us that energy technology “that is not a Commercial Technology” and has “Only recently been developed, discovered, or learned” or “Involves or constitutes one or more meaningful and important improvements in productivity and value, in comparison to Commercial Technologies” is by definition a first-of-kind project.
Common-sense also tells us that first-of-kind projects are not going to have “investment-grade” project ratings.
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Ethanol vs gasoline, which costs less?
Today, in fact, on an energy basis, ethanol is so cheap that what was once a subsidized fuel — and criticized as such in some quarters — is right at parity with gasoline on an energy basis. As GasBuddy.com pointed out here, ethanol-free gasoline costs 10-15 cents more per gallon than E10 unleaded.
And there’s good reason for that. November ethanol futures were trading at $1.59 on the Chicago Board of trade, while the November RBOB gasoline contract was trading at $2.30. RBOB is blended with 10% ethanol content to make 87-octane regular unleaded fuel — with ethanol supplying an extra boost of octane.
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E85 vs gasoline, which costs less?
On a wholesale basis, E85 wins. It’s priced as low as $1.39, wholesale, if you avoid buying it from petroleum companies. That’s a savings of 32 cents per gallon, vs RBOB gasoline, after allowing for differences in energy density.
The Bottom Line
The technologies were hamstrung by a combination of:
1. Overly optimistic views of construction and development timelines from pilot to demonstration, to first commercial, to steady-state operations at scale, to the multiple facility scale. ...
2. Unlucky timing in terms of the 2008-09 financing crisis and the shutdown of project finance markets.
3. No emergence of consensus on how to deal with the E10 saturation point — which accelerated in the face of falling gasoline demand.
4. Poor structure of loan guarantee program, in a way that virtually shut out liquid transportation fuels, even though they were the primary focus of “ending the oil addiction” and the 2005 and 2007 energy policy legislation.
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Asia and Latin America have become the most likely candidates for deployment now. READ MORE

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