Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation, the North American division of a company based in Spain, soon plans to build a new biorefinery in southwestern Kansas that will be the first of its kind in the United States.
Oklahoma scientists are looking to use switchgrass as a component of ethanol at this facility. Realistically, this building wont be completed until mid 2011 right about the time this switchgrass will reach time for its full harvest. Even though this seems to be far off - time wise - it will form a sustainable form of income for the state and be a significant contribution to the biofuel industry.
Cellulose is the main ingredient in a plant’s cell walls and is “the most common organic compound in the world.” The biorefinery will use a “biochemical and thermochemical process” to convert said cellulose for its use in ethanol.
The demand for ethanol continues to outpace ethanol production which doesn’t help the transition from gasoline to ethanol. Many continue to be skeptical because of this inability to meet demand in our country.
The new refinery will be able to convert both starch-based and cellulosic products for their use in ethanol. Starch based products of course include corn, cereal grains, etc. and currently are the majority of the ethanol produced. The transition to more cullulosic products will help the demand by allowing more and more products to be used for this production.
Unfortunatly, this type of thing cant really happen quickly. This takes time. Facilities like this new biorefinery are paving the way forward for US companies.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:14 am
very glad to see that tulsa can play a part in providing creative/innovative new ways to provide us with sustainable forms of energy.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
i like the idea of switchgrass better than corn personally. Using food for fuel is a bad idea in my mind. Regardless of the kind of corn used, it’s impact globally has been mixed at best. I think this is a step in the right direction.
thanks for the heads up Travis.
mark
September 26th, 2008 at 8:21 am
@Carlos - I’m not sure how much Tulsa is involved with this specific project, as the switchgrass fields are currently growing in the Oklahoma panhandle.
@riddle - Exactly…the cellulose version of ethanol is much better in my opinion than using all starch based products, and helps out by not utilizing something that we use as a food product to produce fuel with. Since cellulose is found in almost all plant life…it just makes more sense.
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 am
I guess that I’m still skeptical. From what I understand from the seminars I’ve been to that even with the technology advancements that it takes 1.8 gallons of gasoline equivalent energy to produce 1 gallon of gasoline equivalent ethanol. So far this has just been a big tax deal. Hopefully they will get to the point where it pays off on an energy balance basis.