I have said before that
one of the benefits of expanding corn based ethanol production capacity now is that such facilities will be in place and can be modified to become cellulosic plants in the future and this will facilitate the expansion of cellulosic ethanol production when it becomes economically viable. Converting corn based ethanol plants to using biomass energy sources for heat and power (before cellulosic is cost effective) will help us realize cellulosic ethanol on an industrial scale that much quicker. Cellulosic plants will gasify plant material and use this for heat and power for the ethanol production process. But this process (gasification of plant/organic material) still needs developement and work to improve it and to make it more efficient. YOu can use this gasification of plant material to power the ethanol production of starch based ethanol too (in fact, when you eliminate fossil fuel from the equation the Energy gains from starch based ethanol go up significantly) and it gives us experience with the gasification of plant material which will pay off when we start to expand cellulosic ethanol production.
http://www.auri.org/news/ainjan08/biomass_bridge.htm
Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company will gasify wood chips, corn cobs and other biomass to run its plant. The system will go on line early 2008, replacing about 20 percent of the company’s natural gas consumption. Eventually, biomass gasification will supply nearly all of CVEC’s energy needs.
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In Phase 2, CVEC will install additional syngas-cleaning technology. In the final phase, the gasification system will be scaled up to fuel the entire plant. The full-size system will consume about 250 tons of biomass daily, furnishing 90 percent of the plant’s energy needs.
Developing biomass markets
“The biomass industry is very immature. There’s a vast, untapped supply of these materials, but they are hard to handle.” Nobody really knows yet what biomass will cost to collect and transport, he says, but one thing is certain: “The marketplace is dynamic.” As demand for biomass builds, “smart people will figure out how to manage it well and costs will come down.”
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“You can’t have a cellulosic ethanol industry unless you have a biomass market first,” says Lee, who often speaks to farm and industry groups about ethanol trends.
Getting experience dealing with biomass as a heat and power source will pay off when we move into and expand cellolosic ethanol.
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