DuPont held a groundbreaking ceremony on November 30 at the site of their first full-scale cellulosic ethanol processing/refining operation in Nevada, Iowa.
The facility is expected to begin production in 2014 and will have the capacity to produce 27.5 million gallons of ethanol each year. The total volume of cellulosic material to generate this quantity of ethanol is massive: 590,000 large bales of corn stover (stover is the corn plant’s above-ground biomass, excluding the grain and root system).
The initial challenge of producing ethanol from material other than grain (MOG) was to find enzymes that would break down the leaves and stems so that the starches and sugars could be fermented into ethanol. DuPont partnered with Danesco to accomplish this scientific feat at their pilot plant in Tennessee.
The startup in Nevada will need to contract with corn producers to bale and transport the stover to the plant during the harvest season; this will be an additional operation for growers, but also has the potential to be profitable to them.
Meanwhile POET, the nation’s largest ethanol producer, is building a cellulosic refinery in Emmettsburg, Iowa that may go online before the DuPont plant. If this new generation of ethanol production is successful, it paves the way for more plants to be constructed across the country.
The renewable fuel standard (RFS) calls for 36 billion gallons of advanced biofuels to be produced for blending with liquid transportation fuels by 2022. The goal is that roughly 30% of all liquid transportation fuels be supplied from renewable sources by that date. To accomplish such a feat, it would require 320 cellulosic ethanol facilities twice the size of the DuPont plant.
