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Keeley Downey speaks to Novozymes’ VP of Bioenergy, Poul Ruben Andersen, about the company’s involvement in one of the world’s first commercial-scale bioethanol plants
Coming to fruition
T
he number of motorists on China’s roads are to increase dramatically from today’s 130 million to more than 200 million in 2020. This substantial growth will lead to a rise in demand for transportation fuel. But with an abundance of agricultural residues, China has the materials to be able to replace 40% of its yearly vehicle fuel consumption with second generation biofuels by 2030, (Bloomberg New Energy Finance), significantly slashing CO2 emissions in the process. And according to a 2009 study by Novozymes and McKinsey, China can cut its petrol usage by 31 million tonnes by 2020. This would reduce its reliance on imported fossil oil by 10% and help eliminate 90 million tonnes of CO2. With such renewable potential, the Chinese government has implemented what can only be described as an ambitious target to improve its energy efficiency by 20% and increase the production of cellulosic biofuels. Under its five-year plan, China has a specific goal of increasing fuel ethanol production from its current level of approximately 1.7 million tonnes a year to 34 million tonnes a year over the next five years. The majority of this should come from second generation feedstocks. One company that believes this five-year plan is realistic is biotech enzyme producer Novozymes. ‘There is definitely a lot of agricultural waste in China and the technology is there. Now it’s just simply a matter of getting the ethanol plants built,’ says Poul Ruben Andersen, VP of bioenergy at Novozymes.
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Novozymes and Shengquan partnership Today, China’s first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, of which Novozymes is involved, is preparing to come online. China’s Shengquan Group is behind the development – a $100 million (€81 million) facility located in Jinan, in the Shandong province.
to be up and running later this month when it will produce 20,000 tonnes a year of cellulosic ethanol. ‘In effect it’s going to be the world’s first commercial-scale bioethanol plant,’ Andersen says. ‘For Novozymes to be involved shows that we are now breaking through in second generation and cellulosic ethanol. Our 10year long effort of developing
‘Shengquan Group’s plant is going to be the world’s first commercial-scale bioethanol plant. We are now breaking through in second generation ethanol’ Paul Ruben Andersen, Novozymes
Under an agreement that was announced in April and finalised in June, Novozymes will supply its enabling enzyme technology to the plant. Asked how the agreement came about, Andersen says: ‘Shengquan is producing furfural and xylitol from corn crops. What is left is a fairly pure cellulose stream by-product that can then be converted into fermentable sugar and turned into ethanol. This is a good example of taking a waste by-product and upgrading it to something useful and valuable.’ Shengquan broke ground on the facility in mid-2011 and the plant is on schedule
the enzymes that will be needed for this process together with our partners is coming to fruition.’ The enzymes that Novozymes will supply to this plant will come from its China-based production facilities. The company currently has two production units in China; one is in Suzhou close to Shanghai and the other is in Tienjin. ‘We have expansion plans and as the demand for second generation and cellulosic ethanol increases, we plan on constructing new enzyme facilities in China and in other parts of the world,’ says Andersen.
Novozymes also has enzyme production facilities in Denmark, – its headquarters – the US and Brazil. First steps to commercialisation Back in 2009 Novozymes took what was then its first steps towards the commercialisation of cellulosic ethanol in China when it signed a memorandum of understanding with COFCO, a producer and supplier of processed agricultural products, and Sinopec, the world’s third-largest oil refinery. As part of the agreement COFCO and Sinopec built the demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant and Novozymes provides the enzymes. The plant has been operational for a number of years, producing ethanol from corn stover. Novozymes supplies its Cellic CTec enzyme product range to the plant; in February 2010 it launched its new Cellic CTec2 enzyme product before releasing its most recent upgrade – the Cellic CTec3 – in February this year. Speaking about the company’s enzyme product range, Andersen says: ‘That’s really the central part in our role and we will continue to develop more and more efficient, cost effective cellulases. In the coming years we will release a CTec 4 and 5. ‘The enzyme range is mixtures of different cellulases that act in different ways. Cellulose is a complex substrate so a mixture of different cellulose enzymes is needed to give the optimal performance. That is what we are trying to figure out – cracking the code and figuring out what specific cellulose enzymes work best
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