Garbage-to-Gas Progress May Open Green Frontier in Iowa

by Gabriella Dunn (Des Moines Register) ... Iowa's budding advanced biofuels industry stretches from Emmetsburg in the west to Marion in the east.
Although business and political challenges remain, engineers have concocted an expensive cocktail of enzymes too small to see with the naked eye, but capable of devouring landfill trash and turning it into a new fuel that can power the family car.
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Trashanol is one form of biofuel classified as cellulosic ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol is derived from plant fiber, such as in corn stover, switchgrass, wood residue, and hybrid willow and poplar trees.
The emergence of cellulosic ethanol is causing excitement among serious energy experts, scientists and government officials not only in Iowa but nationwide.
"There's a huge opportunity to continue to expand. I think, ultimately, cellulosic ethanol could fill much of the gap between what is now made from corn and what is now produced from gasoline," said Charles Wyman, professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of California at Riverside.
Numerous companies have converted landfill waste into ethanol on small-scale projects, but none are large enough to take on the waste from a populous urban area. This leaves industry professionals concerned about profitability.
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Poet-DSM in Emmetsburg anticipates commercial scale production to begin this month. DuPont Biofuel Solutions expects to reach that point later this year. When finished, the DuPont facility is expected to be the largest cellulosic ethanol plant in the world.
"It's almost a limitless opportunity for producing fuel," said Matt Merritt, director of public relations at Poet-DSM. "The potential there is enormous."
In eastern Iowa, even newer technology is underway. A company called Fiberight could soon start feeding off landfill waste to make trashanol on an industrial scale for the first time ever. Craig Stuart-Paul, chief executive officer of Fiberight, has plans for a $9 million pre-processing plant in Marion.
... City officials have been negotiating with Fiberight over a deal for a pre-processing plant that would sort out suitable waste from Iowa City's municipal landfill and truck it to Blairstown.
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Jan Koninckx, global business director of biorefineries at DuPont, said as the industry advances, the cost of enzymes will go down and their function will improve. READ MORE