Utility poles make cheap ethanol feedstock for Enerkem

Montreal, Canada-based biofuel and biochemical producer Enerkem said it is less than a month away from round-the-clock production of ethanol from discarded utility poles.

Enerkem developed a proprietary gasification process to use non-homogeneous materials as a feedstock to create synthetic gas. The company then uses off-the-shelf catalysts to rearrange the syngas into ethanol, methanol, diesel, or a variety of high-value biochemicals, such as acetic acid or acetate.

CEO Vincent Chornet told the Cleantech Group that the plant is mechanically complete. Enerkem is now commissioning the plant to test the quality of the syngas before converting it to ethanol, which the company plans to sell in Canada.

The Westbury, Quebec, plant is expected to have annual production capacity of 5 million liters (1.3 million gallons) in about 15,000 to 20,000 square feet. Chornet declined to reveal the cost of the project or the per-gallon cost to make ethanol, but he said it’s cheaper than current corn-based ethanol processes.

Enerkem said its thermo-chemical process uses one metric ton of waste to produce 360 liters (95 gallons) of ethanol.

The key to Enerkem’s process is making sure the syngas is of premium quality and without contaminants such as arsenic that can be present on the non-homogeneous feedstock, Chornet said. Enerkem exposes the feedstock to uniform heat within the reactor to create syngas. The reactor can employ a variety of feedstock, including solid waste, plastic, textiles, wood chips, and forestry biomass.

"If you have a piece of paper in one end of the reactor, it will crack as well as a piece of plastic at the other end because the reactor dissipates heat in a uniform manner," Chornet said. "It allows the syngas to be produced from feedstock, despite that lack of homogeneity."

The Westbury plant will initially use utility poles from a nearby saw mill that recycles discarded poles.

"There’s enough poles in Westbury to run the plant with poles alone," Chornet said. "But it's a large site, so we have plans for expanding it and adding a second production line for other feedstocks."

The timeline for expansion depends on demand, he said. A pilot plant in Sherbrooke, Quebec, has been in operation since 2003. A larger project is in the works in Edmonton, Alberta, using municipal solid waste to produce fuel.

Enerkem is working with Toronto-based ethanol producer and distributor GreenField Ethanol to jointly build the C$70 million plant with an annual production capacity of 36 million liters (10 million gallons) per year (see GreenField, Enerkem to build waste to ethanol plant in Edmonton).

That facility is in the advanced engineering phase, and the companies are obtaining the final permits, Chornet said. Construction is expected to begin this year, with the project taking about 18 months, he said.

The facilities will both produce ethanol solely for the Canadian market. A July 2008 government mandate, C-33, requires refiners to blend 5 percent ethanol with gasoline by 2010, which is expected to create a shortage of ethanol, Chornet said. The U.S. government recently increased its ethanol requirement to 10.21 percent in 2009 (see Ethanol blend increases while oil reaches new low).

That need has prompted the government to contribute to the Edmonton project. The joint venture is getting C$20 million in backing from the Alberta Energy Research Institute, with the city of Edmonton and the government of Alberta contributing the bulk of that cash.

Enerkem is also attracting private investment. The company has raised about C$30 million (US$24.48 million) in venture backing, including C$8.6 million from Rho Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, Solidarity Fund QFL and Innovatech Sud du Quebec in February 2007 (see Know the name Imperium? You will...). BDR Capital is also an investor.

Enerkem is attracting dollars as first-generation ethanol companies across North America are struggling because of the unpredictable price of corn. Just last week, Pacific Ethanol announced it planned to temporarily close its 40 million gallon capacity plant in Madera, Calif. Last year, industry leader VeraSun Energy filed for bankruptcy and delayed the opening of two of its Minnesota plants (see VeraSun reportedly near bankruptcy).

And in recent months, producers including Denver, Colo.-based ethanol firm Biofuel Energy, Chesterfield, Mo.-based Abengoa Bioenergy New Technologies, Bioenergy Development, and Pratt, Kan.-based Gateway Ethanol have either postponed or closed ethanol plants (see Using superpowers for the greater cleantech good).

But Chornet said Enerkem has an advantage over first-generation ethanol producers, and even the newer cellulosic methods using wood chips. Enerkem will be paid to take the utility poles.

"We’re the only one that will be capable of using a negative-cost feedstock," he said. "Combine that with the flexibility of our process to take municipal solid waste streams, and that’s the breakthrough here."

Enerkem has about 50 employees, including 13 on the Westbury project and 21 in Edmonton.

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