¦ADVANCED BIOFUELS
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hose in the cellulosic ethanol industry know “five more years down the road” as a phrase that’s been associated with commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol production for a very long time. With the close of 2013, it’s safe to say that timeline is no longer relevant, as the time has finally come. In the advanced biofuels arena, no cellulosic ethanol projects have been watched more closely than those being built by Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels, Abengoa Bioenergy and DuPont Industrial Biosciences. Together, these cellulosic ethanol plants rise from the plains and fields, acting as beacons to the advanced biofuel industry that is just pulling its ship to shore.
Abengoa Bioenergy The Abengoa cellulosic plant in Hugoton, Kan., began construction in July 2011 and is one of the first cellulosic plants expected to begin its commissioning process in
2014. “We are just on the verge of a startup here,” says Christopher Standlee, executive vice president at Abengoa Bioenergy. “We started commissioning the boiler and electric cogeneration unit and sold our first power back to the grid on Dec. 27.” Another highlight was the big construction push that began last summer. “Starting in about July, we had the big final push to get construction completed,” Standlee says. “So starting in July and running through this month, we had more than 1,000 full-time construction workers onsite. That’s a pretty massive undertaking.” Attending a morning safety meeting and seeing more than 1,000 workers donning reflective vests at the plant is an awe-inspiring site, he adds. The plant's second phase, initiating the overall startup, was conducted from late January through early this month. “We certainly expect to have some production,” Standlee says. “I mean certainly not consistent production, we expect a ramp-up period, a de-
bugging period and that sort of thing, but we certainly expect to have some production in January and March.” For the most part, all major construction is complete, Standlee says. The next step for the facility is the commissioning processes that are expected to take some time. “I don’t think we’re going to finish our commissioning for a while,” he adds. “It could very well take a period of months. But we’re going to start that process clearly in the first quarter of 2014, probably sometime in February.”
Project Liberty with Poet-DSM Project Liberty broke ground in Emmetsburg, Iowa, in spring 2012, and is the second commercial-scale cellulosic plant that will complete construction and commissioning phases this year. The plant, which sits adjacent to Poet’s biorefining ethanol plant, has taken shape over the year and is now visible in the sky from within Emmetsburg.
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