|
Latest
News
October 23, 2009 (from Cleantech.com)
Illinois-based Coskata's secret formula for cellulosic ethanol is now in the hands of investor General Motors (NYSE:GM).
The biofuel startup has launched production at its Madison, Pa.-based demonstration facility, which is turning wood chips into ethanol using a continuous, three-step process that takes minutes from start to finish.
The facility is co-located with a gasification plant from Calgary, Alberta-based partner Alter NRG (TSX:NRG) in a secure nuclear facility an hour outside Pittsburgh.
None of the final product is destined for the commercial market, CEO Bill Roe told the Cleantech Group during an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the plant. Coskata doesn't plan to use the plant's full production capacity of about 40,000 gallons.
Instead, Coskata is using the facility to prove the commercial viability of the process, and to send samples to GM and a potential strategic partner that Roe declined to name, saying only that it wasn't an automotive firm.
GM is testing the ethanol for its flex fuel cars, which are expected to make up half the company's automotive production by 2012, said Bob Babik, vehicle emissions director for GM.
"We'll probably exceed that by quite a bit," Babik said. "When we look at the near-term greenhouse gas reductions, biofuels offer one of the biggest near-term solutions. & It's the everyday experience [drivers are] already familiar with."
Babik said GM has invested in just two biofuel companies: Coskata and Mascoma. He declined to share initial results of the tests on Coskata's fuel.
Currently, only 2,200 U.S. fueling stations, or about 1.5 percent, offer E-85, a mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent petroleum gasoline, Babik said.
But even if electric cars eventually win, biofuels are essential in the interim, Roe said.
"I think we have another 30 to 40 years of internal combustion engines and liquid fuels to go with them," he said. "Worst case scenario, we're a stop-gap."
Roe is confident about the growing market for Coskata's technology because of the U.S. government's Renewable Fuels Mandate, which calls for 36 billion gallons of annual biofuel production by 2022 (see Ethanol blend increases while oil reaches new low). Coskata plans to focus on developing biofuel for the U.S. market first, although it's not ruling out licensing deals or partnerships in markets such as China (see Coskata enters China ethanol market).
Coskata plans to develop and operate plants, but expects that licensing the technology will be a bigger business in the short term. Potential licensees include energy developers, or oil and gas companies.
"We consider ourselves a technology company," Roe said. "You can expect the first licensees in the next couple of months."
The technology could also be used to help industries looking for new revenue sources, such as the timber industry.
"You can't make a house out of switchgrass, but you can plant switchgrass between the trees," Roe said.
The demonstration facility was completed for a little less than $25 million and produces 100 gallons of ethanol from about one ton of dry feedstock, which is helping reach its goal of production for less than $1 per gallon, Roe said (see Coskata leaks word that demo plant is up and running and Coskata to build demonstration plant in Penn.).
The relationship between Alter NRG and Coskata is non-exclusive, but Alter NRG's Chief Marketing and Sales Officer Richard Fish said Coskata is the only biofuel developer his company is working with. Coskata and Alter NRG each have about 50 employees.
Coskata, which built its demonstration facility in Madison to co-locate it with Alter NRG's pilot, plans to use the company's gasification technology in its first commercial plant, and possibly others, Roe said.
Coskata's timeline calls for a 50 million to 60 million gallon commercial-scale plant to begin production in late 2012 somewhere in the U.S. Southeast. Design work began in November 2008, with the study completed in June, Roe said (see Coskata, ICM to build ethanol plant). Still, Coskata plans to revisit the design based on performance of the Madison plant.
"We're not announcing a location, although we have one," Roe said, noting that the company is finalizing the financing. "We'll do that shortly."
Roe said such a plant would cost $300 million to $350 million, or about $5 to $6 per gallon of installed capacity.
Coskata also operates a pilot plant in Warrenville, Ill., that opened in 2008.
Roe confirmed that Coskata is still in talks with U.S. Sugars for a $400 million project in Clewiston, Fla., using leftover sugarcane material to produce ethanol.
"It's still alive. It's in the court of U.S. Sugar to move on," he said. "We've begun early-stage licensing discussions."
Coskata has raised almost $70 million in venture capital and private equity, Roe confirmed (see (see Coskata gets $40M as pilot ethanol plant nears completion and Solar power wheeling and dealing). In addition to GM, investors include Khosla Ventures, the Blackstone Group, Advanced Technology Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, Cargill and Sumitomo.
"There isn't any one investor that has controlling interest in the company," Roe said. "Not even close."
------------------------------
October 23, 2009
Coskata's newly-opened semi-commercial flex ethanol facility in Madison, Pennsylvania is as small as it can possibly be. Co-located at a Westinghouse facility that also in some fashion uses nuclear energy, the Lighthouse project, as it's called, is running 24/7 to turn wood chips into ethanol. It's also intended to show off just how far Coskata has come since emerging from stealth mode almost two years ago. Oh, and the plant can also be scaled up to fit the needs of cellulosic ethanol producers from coast to coast.
The Lighthouse plant follows the Horizon integrated processing plant that started in 2008 in Warrenville, Illinois and precedes the Flagship plant that is due for 2012 at a location somewhere in the Southeast U.S. that will be announced later. The location for the Flagship plant has been selected, but Coskata will not specify where it is exactly until it can talk more specifically about the financing arrangements involved for the 55-million-gallon-per-year plant that will use forest residue and other woody biomass. Coskata says the Flagship will be "the first commercially-viable, feedstock-flexible ethanol facility." Coskata has not taken any government money to date, but they may apply for DOE loan guarantees for the Flagship plant. Coskata will not expand the Madison Lighthouse facility. In fact, they're only located there as a guest and will leave when the contract is up. The facility is modular and will actually be dismantled and trucked to the Flagship location in the future.
What is flex ethanol?
Flex ethanol is the term Coskata is using for ethanol that can be made with almost any feedstock, i.e., ethanol made using the Coskata process. As we've heard since day one, the plasma torches and microorganisms can turn everything from tires to coal to municipal waste into ethanol. Flexible inputs = flex ethanol.
Making flex ethanol is fast, too. Coskata CEO Bill Roe said that it takes "just minutes" to go from feedstock to ethanol. The Coskata process is continuous, not a batch process, and the entire team we heard from in Madison was clear that there are no longer any technical hurdles to overcome in order to start full-scale cellulosic ethanol production using this system. As shown in the slide below, the feedstock is sent into the gasifier where the plasma torches create a gas. This gas needs to be cleaned and is then sent into the bioreactor where Coskata's proprietary microorganisms (shaped like PacMan, apparently) eat it and make ethanol. Compared to standard gasoline, Coskata's cellulosic ethanol reduces greenhouse gases by about 96 percent and uses half as much water. The microorganisms could also be tuned to make butanol or other chemicals, but the focus is on ethanol for now.
The prehistoric anaerobic microorganisms are from the family of clostridium bacteria. These "bugs" are found in nature, typically in deep-water ponds. Cosakata has managed the strains with nutrient programs and selection process to make them more efficient at producing ethanol. Coskata "did what Mother Nature would do, but on an accelerated path," Roe said. The microorganisms were discovered and developed with help from the Oklahoma Biofuels Consortium, made up of OSU, BYU and OU.
OK, what does it mean for E85 in the U.S.?
Coskata used to say that it would be able to make (not sell) ethanol for $1 a gallon. At the plant unveiling in Madison, that number was not mentioned a single time. Instead, Richard Fish from Alter NRG (home to the Westinghouse Plasma Corporation and a partner to Coskata) said that the Coskata system is able to produce ethanol at "a very competitive price" compared to the market as a whole. A "very competitive price"? How much is that? Roe explained that the exact cost depends on the feedstock going into the gasifier. Municipal waste will get you ethanol that costs much less than a dollar a gallon, virgin hardwood would cost you much more (but anyone using that particular feedstock is of questionable sanity).
In any case, Coskata doesn't see itself really competing with other renewable energy companies - "We need a lot of producers in this industry," said Coskata CMO Wes Bolsen. "I don't see anyone in the biofuel industry as a competitor" - and has its sights set on gasoline. As long as Coskata ethanol can be made cheaper than gasoline - which requires that oil costs something in the area of $65 a barrel and that producers can get biomass for $50 a dry ton - the company thinks it has a winner.
---------------------------------
Madison, PA - October 15, 2009 - Coskata Inc., a leading developer of next generation biofuels, today announced the successful start-up of their semi-commercial flex ethanol facility located in Madison, PA. The accomplishment represents the successful scale-up of the company's technology, and will serve as a showcase for the world's first commercially-viable flex ethanol process.
"We are proud that we have successfully scaled our technology to this significant level," said Bill Roe, president and CEO of Coskata. "This facility is demonstrating that our efficient, affordable and flexible conversion technology is ready for commercialization. The next step is to build full-scale facilities and begin licensing our technology to project developers, project financiers and strategic partners."
Unlike other technologies and facilities that may rely on one primary source of feedstock, Coskata's flex ethanol facility will be producing ethanol from numerous feedstocks, including wood biomass, agricultural waste, sustainable energy crops, and construction waste. This flexible approach at the Madison facility is enabled by Westinghouse Plasma Corporation (WPC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Alter NRG, and their plasma gasification technology. The feedstock flexible nature of the Coskata approach also allows for true geographic flexibility, meaning facilities can be built anywhere a feedstock can be sourced or delivered.
Coskata's technology, as demonstrated through Project Lighthouse, will be able to reduce greenhouse gasses by as much as 96% over conventional gasoline, while using less than half the water that it takes to get a gallon of gasoline. In addition, the company's ability to produce non grain-based ethanol that is as much as 7 times as energy positive as the fossil fuel used in the process, addresses many concerns related to traditional processes, including energy efficiency and the use of grain.
"The integrated biorefinery - utilizing Westinghouse Plasma Gasification on the front end and Coskata's syngas-to-biofuels conversion process on the back end - serves as an excellent example of two leading companies working together to deliver a viable process to the biofuel market," said Mark Montemurro, President and CEO of Alter NRG. "We're excited to be delivering the feedstock flexibility to Coskata's efficient and affordable process."
The facility is a demonstration of "minimum scale engineering", an industry standard term which means it is the smallest size that will still allow the company to scale directly to 50 million and 100 million gallon Coskata facilities. Some of the ethanol that is being produced at the facility has been delivered to the General Motors Milford Proving Grounds for early testing, as well as to another major strategic partner.
"We invested in Coskata so that we could enable the rapid deployment of commercially viable and environmentally sustainable ethanol globally," said Bob Babik, GM Vehicle Emissions Director. "We're proud to say that we have already accepted some of Coskata's ethanol at our Milford facility."
Globally, General Motors has produced more than 5 million flex-fuel vehicles to date. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 3.5 million GM flex-fuel cars and trucks on the road. For the 2010 model year, 17 E85-capable flex-fuel vehicles from the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC brands.
GM is on track to make more than half of its vehicle production flex-fuel capable by 2012.
Coskata leverages proprietary microorganisms and efficient bioreactor designs in a unique three-step conversion process that can turn virtually any carbon-based feedstock into ethanol, from anywhere in the world. Coskata's biological fermentation technology is ethanol-specific and enzyme independent, contributing to high energy conversion rates and ethanol yields. Additionally, the process requires no additional chemicals or pre-treatments, serving to streamline operational costs. In fact, the company has one of the lowest production costs in the industry, allowing them to directly compete with gasoline without long-term government subsidies.
-----------------------------
4/15/09
From ethanolproducer.com
Illinois-based next-generation biofuels technology developer Coskata Inc. is moving forward with a number of potential opportunities in the southeastern U.S. and overseas.
According to Wes Bolsen, chief marketing officer and vice president of business development for Coskata, the company is progressing with plans to develop a 100 MMgy cellulosic ethanol plant in Clewiston, Fla., which would annually convert 1 million tons of sugarcane waste and bagasse into ethanol. The estimated $400 million facility could begin production in 2012, pending USDA loan guarantees and a grant from the Florida Energy Office.
Negotiations between Coskata and U.S. Sugar are pending until the sugar company signs a land sale and use agreement with the state of Florida. In early April, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced a revised proposal to buy 72,500 acres from U.S. Sugar for $530 million in an effort to restore the Everglades. The proposal is less than half of what was initially proposed in June 2008. That proposal called for 181,000 acres to be purchased at a price of $1.34 billion.
Bolsen said the reduced acreage makes the U.S. Sugar and Coskata partnership even stronger. "There was a lot of worry about would there be enough acres for growing sugarcane to utilize in that 100 million gallon per year plant," he said. With the reduced acreage being turned over to the state, Bolsen added, it allows south Florida agriculture to continue farming the land, growing citrus and sugarcane, and operating the mill. In addition, it helps with restoration of the Florida Everglades and provides potential feedstock for a cellulosic biofuels facility.
Bolsen is hopeful that a deal between the state of the Florida and U.S. Sugar will be signed by a September deadline. "We need to start putting steal in the ground and it takes a deal closing so that U.S. Sugar can know what they have to move forward and Coskata is really willing to step in and start as soon as the closing can come together."
Coskata is commercializing a proprietary efficient, affordable and flexible three-step conversion process and related technologies to convert a variety of input materials into ethanol. The three-step conversion process includes: converting incoming material into syngas; fermenting the syngas into ethanol; and separating and recovering ethanol. The company continues to operate a pilot-scale plant in Warrenville, Ill., a semi-commercial facility in Pittsburgh is expected to go on-line in the next few weeks and Bolsen said Coskata is working with partners to build a 50 MMgy wood biomass facility in the southeast United States.
Meanwhile, Bolsen recently visited Australia and Thailand to discuss Coskata's technology.
In Australia, he met with officials from the Australian government and GM Holden Ltd., a division of Coskata's U.S. partner General Motors Corp., to discuss a potential project.
The government of Thailand is investing billions of dollars in renewable energy and is interested in becoming a hub to distribute ethanol within Southeast Asia, especially due to ethanol mandates in Japan. "There's a need for where that ethanol is coming from and Thailand has the ability to grow a significant amount of biomass. Therefore, it has the ability to also be a major producer of ethanol using Coskata's flexible-feedstock technology." From leftover sugarcane molasses, new energy crops, to wheat straw, municipal and agricultural waste, Bolsen said Coskata's technology is feedstock flexible.
Just from existing feedstock sources currently available in China, Bolsen sees a potential for 50 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol production.
"What it takes is a committed partner, a company who wants to own and operate the facility," he said. Coskata plans to continue talks with officials in Australia and Thailand to find feedstock and financing commitments.
-----------------------
12/6/08
Cellulosic ethanol startup Coskata said it's closed its Series C round, with peHub reporting that the company raised $40 million. Illinois-based Coskata did not disclose the amount of funding, but the figure from peHub is a step down from earlier estimates of a $50 million target for the biofuel firm.
Coskata is working on commercializing a system that it says can produce next-generation ethanol from non-food feedstocks at an operating cost of $1 per gallon.
The company took on another big-name backer for its technology with this round, The Blackstone Group, which led the financing. But that's another change from previous expectations, as JPMorgan Chase & Co. had originally been pegged to lead it.
While JPMorgan isn't a part of this funding, Coskata did pick up two more new investors, in addition to Blackstone, with Sumitomo and Arancia Industrial coming on board for the Series C. Some previous backers also participated, including Khosla Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners and TriplePoint Capital.
Not included in that list is General Motors, which acquired an undisclosed equity stake in Coskata in January. A Coskata spokesman confirmed with us via email that GM did not participate in this round, but still holds an equity stake. The struggling automaker is on Capitol Hill this week, along with Ford Motor and Chrysler, trying to get a bailout from legislators.
According to Coskata, this latest round marks one of the first investments made by Blackstone's recently formed Cleantech Venture Partners fund. Blackstone is also reportedly getting a spot on Coskata's board: James Kiggen, head of the Cleantech Venture Partners team, will take the seat.
Coskata said this third round of financing will be used to complete its $25 million demonstration facility near Pittsburgh in early 2009 and to start engineering and design work on its first full-scale commercial facility. The company has yet to release any details on the full-scale plant, but it's working on the pilot plant with Westinghouse Plasma, a subsidiary of Canada's Alter NRG. That pilot plant is expected to produce 40,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year when it's complete.
----------------------------
CLEWISTON, Fla., Nov 17, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --U.S. Sugar Corp. today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Coskata, Inc of Warrenville, IL to explore building a 100 million gallon per year cellulosic ethanol facility in Clewiston, Florida. The facility would be the world's largest second generation ethanol facility. It would convert left-over sugar cane material into ethanol, and would help Florida meet its aggressive second generation ethanol mandate set by Governor Charlie Crist.
"We are very excited to be formally negotiating with Coskata to deploy their industry leading conversion technology," said U.S. Sugar's Sr. Vice President of Public Affairs Robert Coker. "We see this technology as a perfect complement to our existing sugar mill, not to mention a win for the environment, the farming community and for our employees."
The non-food based ethanol could reduce greenhouse gasses by as much as 96% versus conventional gasoline. U.S. Sugar plans to collect cane leaves from the field versus burning them, as well as utilize excess bagasse from the mill. The Coskata technology, which is able to convert almost any renewable material, is expected to produce fuel ethanol with manufacturing costs of around $1 per gallon. As the State of Florida takes some of the US Sugar lands out of production for the Everglades restoration project, the Coskata technology is flexible enough to also use fast growing energy crops and waste materials to make the environmentally superior fuel.
As part of the agreement, U.S. Sugar will be submitting an application to the Florida Energy Office for a financial match to their contribution for early engineering on this project. In addition, US Sugar plans to work with the US Department of Agriculture to secure some of the loan guarantee monies that have been set aside specifically for the production of non-food based biofuels.
--------------------
April 25, 2008
Cellulosic-ethanol developer Coskata said Friday that it will locate its demonstration plant at the Westinghouse Plasma Center in Madison, Penn.
Earlier this month, the company told Greentech Media that it already had begun building the 40,000-gallon-per-year plant, which it expects to begin delivering ethanol next year.
Coskata said the project will cost $25 million, and will be located at the site of a pilot-plant gasifier owned and operated by Westinghouse Plasma Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Alter Nrg Corp.
"It's a substantial commitment we've made with our investors'dollars to put this together," said Chief Marketing Officer Wes Bolsen. "Even though 40,000 gallons a year is not a massive size, it's really the minimum size we needed to show this process works."
The company will modify the gasifier to operate 24-7, turning different carbon-based materials into synthesis gas, which includes hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and then using that "syngas" to make ethanol, he said.
"Coskata has already shown at our offices in Warrenville, Ill., that we can take synthesis gas and our microorganisms can consume it and make ethanol," Bolsen said. "What we're doing here is really demonstrating one step prior to full commercialization of Coskata technology, where you will be able to watch wood chips go in the front end and, two minutes later, see ethanol come out the back end."
While Coskata already is confident of its technology, completing the demonstration plant will convince "everyone else who has said, 'Well, we'll see when Coskata can get there,'" Bolsen said.
The company chose the Pennsylvania site because it already had a gasifier that has been turning sugarcane bagasse, wood chips, municipal waste and other agricultural waste into "syngas" -ideal for a test plant, he said.
"If we went with a gasifier that was really good with, say, wood chips, we'd only be testing one feed stock," he said. "This really allows us to test different input materials [in a single demonstration plant]. If we instead had to have four different gasifiers for four different feedstocks, then it would be much harder."
Westinghouse has run hundreds of tests on the gasifier over more than 20 years and the gasifier is extremely flexible because plasma gets so hot -up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit -that nothing can survive, Bolsen said.
General Motors also already has used the same gasifier in a metal-melting foundry in Ohio, making it a "really neat tieback" into Coskata's partnership with the car company, he said.
---------------------------------
March 12, 2008
Coskata raised $19.5 million in a second round of funding, according to Private Equity Week.
Investors in the round, which was announced in a regulatory filing by Coskata, included Globespan Capital Partners, General Motors, Capital Partners, Khosla Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures.
--------------------
February 7, 2008
Start-up biofuel company Coskata Inc said on Wednesday it teamed up with engineering firm ICM Inc to build a commercial plant to mass produce cellulose-based ethanol using Coskata-developed technology.
General Motors Corp owns a stake in Coskata, although the top U.S. automaker has declined to disclose the size of its stake or how much it paid for it.
The plant will be designed and constructed by ICM, which specializes in ethanol plant design. It is due to open in late 2010 and will be Coskata's first ethanol plant.
Warrenville, Illinois-based Coskata projects it will be able to produce ethanol for less than $1.00 a gallon almost anywhere in the world from a range of materials including agricultural or municipal waste.
Coskata claims its process uses less than one gallon of water for every gallon of cellulosic ethanol produced and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 84 percent compared with gasoline.
Tests carried out by Argonne National Laboratory have shown Coskata's cellulosic ethanol generates 7.7 times the energy used to produce it, compared with 1.3 times for corn-based ethanol.
----------------------------------
January 13, 2008 -Coskata Inc., a leading developer of biology-based technology for the production of biofuels, formally launched and unveiled its proprietary process today. The Coskata process can produce ethanol almost anywhere in the world, using a wide range of feedstock, for less than US $1.00 per gallon. This technology makes the widespread use and availability of ethanol much more achievable.
Today, the company also announced major industry support through a strategic partnership with General Motors. Rick Wagoner, the Chairman and CEO of General Motors, announced the partnership and that GM had taken an undisclosed equity stake in Coskata at the 2008 North American International Auto Show. Coskata was initially formed with funding from Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), GreatPoint Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
"As a nation, we've been dependent on oil for so long, we continue to think we will be dependent on oil to meet our future energy needs," said Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures. "Scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs like Coskata are here to prove it doesn't have to be this way. With the development of an economically-viable ethanol solution, Coskata has the propensity to change the types of fuel consumers find at the pump -providing fuel derived from widely-available national resources, rather than foreign imports."
Coskata's process is feedstock flexible, and enables the use of cost-effective, locally abundant materials to achieve the lowest ethanol production cost targets in the industry. This groundbreaking approach addresses many of the constraints lodged against current renewable energy options, including environmental, transportation and land use concerns.
Using patented microorganisms and transformative bioreactor designs, Coskata ethanol is produced via a unique three-step conversion process that turns virtually any carbon-based feedstock, including biomass, municipal solid waste, bagasse and other agricultural waste into ethanol, making production a possibility in almost any geography. Coskata's process technology is ethanol-specific and enzyme independent, requiring no additional chemicals or pre-treatments; environmentally superior, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 84% compared to conventional gasoline; and has the ability to generate 7.7 times as much energy as is required to produce the ethanol, compared to corn ethanol which generates approximately 1.3 times as much energy according to Argonne National Labs.
"Our technology and proprietary process have been validated by some of the world's most renowned research labs, universities and energy companies," said Bill Roe, CEO of Coskata. "Coskata is poised to revolutionize the ethanol industry with the backing of GM and our partners. Together, we can make ethanol a viable transportation fuel with production costs of under $1 per gallon."
Coskata is working closely with leading research institutions focused on renewable energy to bring this compelling syngas-to-ethanol process technology to market, including Oklahoma State University, The University of Oklahoma, Brigham Young University and Argonne National Laboratory. Founded in 2006 by Todd Kimmel and Dr. Rathin Datta, the company has compiled a strong IP portfolio of patents, trade secrets, know-how and assembled a first-class management team.
"Coskata's announcement is a perfect example of the evolutionary state of the ethanol industry," said Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, the national trade association for the U.S. ethanol industry. "Building on the solid foundation grain-based ethanol production has provided, and partnering with companies like General Motors that have demonstrated a commitment to renewable fuels, Coskata demonstrates what is possible when financial and intellectual capital are applied to solving the growing energy crisis in the United States."
-----------------------------------
Jan. 13 -General Motors announced a partnership Sunday with Coskata Inc. to use the company's breakthrough technology which affordably and efficiently makes ethanol from practically any renewable source, including garbage, old tires and plant waste.
Coskata, which was formally introduced as part of GM's opening press conference at the North American International Auto Show, uses a proprietary process that leverages patented microorganisms and bioreactor designs to produce ethanol for less than $1 a gallon, about half of today's cost of producing gasoline.
"We are very excited about what this breakthrough will mean to the viability of biofuels and, more importantly, to our ability to reduce dependence on petroleum," GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said.
Coskata's process addresses the issues most often raised about grain-based ethanol production.
According to Argonne National Laboratory, which analyzed Coskata's process, for every unit of energy used, it generates up to 7.7 times that amount of energy, and it reduces CO2 emissions by up to 84 percent compared with a well-to-wheel analysis of gasoline.
Coskata's process uses less than a gallon of water to make a gallon of ethanol compared with three gallons or more for other processes.
Coskata, based in Warrenville, IL, can use its technology practically anywhere in the world that a carbon-based feedstock is available.
For GM, this could lead to joint efforts in markets such as China, where growing energy demand and a new energy research center could jumpstart a significant effort into ethanol made from biomass, Wagoner said.
More immediately, GM will receive the first ethanol from Coskata's pilot plant in the fourth quarter of 2008. The fuel will be used in testing vehicles at GM's Milford Proving Grounds.
GM is the auto industry leader in offering consumers a choice of flex-fuel cars and trucks that run on either ordinary gasoline or E85 -a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent, or any combination of the two. GM produces more than 1 million flex-fuel vehicles a year and has 3.5 million on the road globally.
In the U.S., GM has more than 2.5 million flex-fuel models on the road and is committed to making half its production flex-fuel capable by 2012. GM sells 11 E85-capable models this year and will increase that to more than 15 models for the 2009 model year.
The next logical step was making the fuel more readily available. GM has worked in partnerships with businesses, universities and non-governmental organizations over the last two years to grow the U.S. infrastructure for E85, helping to open 300 fueling stations in 15 states.
The timing of the GM-Coskata partnership coincides with President Bush's signing of the Energy Independence and Security Act last month, which calls for a dramatic increase in biofuels -from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. Corn-and other grain-based ethanol are expected to account for up to 15 billion gallons of that new standard with 21 billion gallons coming from cellulosic and biomass sources.
One of the criticisms of cellulosic ethanol is that its development is several years away. Coskata CEO and President Bill Roe says the next generation ethanol is here today.
"We will have our first commercial-scale plant making 50 to 100 million gallons of ethanol running in 2011, and that includes the two years it will take to build the plant," Roe said. "Success in delivering on our business plan means that we could account for a significant portion of the biomass ethanol mandated in the new Renewable Fuels Standard within 10 years."
The partnership includes an undisclosed equity stake for GM, joint research and development into emissions technology and investigation into making ethanol from GM facilities'waste and non-recyclable vehicle parts.
The Coskata partnership builds on a quarter century of GM research into biofuels and is part of GM's five-fold approach to providing energy alternatives for automobiles. These include continued efforts in making fuel-efficient engines; E85 ethanol; hybrids; electrically driven vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells.
"There is no question in my mind that making ethanol more widely available is absolutely the most effective and environmentally sound solution," Wagoner said. "And it's one that can be acted on immediately."
|
|
Technology
Coskata CEO explains how to get to $1 a gallon ethanol
It's one of the more interesting processes out there, because it combines both biological (i.e., microbes) and thermochemical (heat and chemicals) processing. Menlo Park, Calif.-based ZeaChem is also taking a mixed approach, but it combines thermochemical and biological processes in a different manner. Most other companies are using primarily chemical or biological processes.
"First, the company can use a wide variety of feedstocks for making fuel: wood chips, weeds and non-food crops like miscanthus, human waste, and carbon-heavy garbage (such as tires). Biomass, ideally easy-to-grow crops that don't require much water, will likely be the primary feedstock. The ability to exploit various feedstocks reduces exposure to crop failures or shortages. Coskata, which has received an investment from General Motors, also makes fuel from the lignin in biomass. Some companies making ethanol from strictly biological processes can't use lignin to make fuel.
"You can imagine biorefineries in every single state. This is an enormously efficient process," Roe said. "We don't need 'eurekas'anymore. We think it comes down to execution."
Conceivably, Coskata could even produce fuel from the carbon monoxide from steel mills. If you could capture all of the carbon monoxide that comes out of mills worldwide, you could make 50 billion gallons of fuel a year, or close to a third of the U.S. annual consumption of fuel.
"Handling all of these different feedstocks is actually a little simpler than it looks from the outside. The first stage in Coskata's process revolves around converting the feedstocks into synthetic gases. The different feedstocks can be segregated and processed differently. Waste can be converted to gas with plasma technology, for instance, while plant matter can be gasified with less energy-intensive methods. This allows the company to optimize on different gasification processes. It also reduces variability in processing.
"There's actually a lot of innovation going on in gasification," Roe said.
"Coskata has happy microbes. Once the syngas is produced, it is fed to microbes that convert it to liquid fuels. The microbes live in large colonies that collect on membranes. Fuel is produced when the gas passes through the membrane. Part of the company's intellectual property revolves around coming up with a way to let the microbes live as colonies and form slimes. Yum. Some other companies swirl their microbes in water and keep them in perpetual motion. Letting them live in colonies allows more of the gas to be converted to fuel.
The company is experimenting with five microbes and is particularly fond of two.
"Less distillation. Microbes can create a fluid that contains a small percentage of alcohol or so by volume but can't get it to 99 percent purity on their own. That's why distilled spirits are stronger than beer.
Rather than fully distill the fluid, Coskata will distill to about 50 percent and then employ a membrane from Membrane Technology Research in Menlo Park to purify it the rest of the way. This cuts processing costs and energy. Coskata actually doesn't need the membrane to get to $1 a gallon. "This is gravy," Roe said.
"Coskata doesn't want to make fuel. Unlike several other companies (such as Range Fuels and Imperium Renewables) Coskata doesn't want to build and operate megaplants. It will set up demonstration plants and some moderate-sized production plants, but it primarily wants to earn revenue and profits as time goes on from licensing the technology to big companies. The company has talked to large forestry concerns, petroleum producers, and chemical manufacturers. The interesting part about this approach is that it leaves the onerous challenge of building billion-dollar plus facilities to those who have been doing it for decades. Start-ups just aren't geared for that.
Soon, Coskata may make an announcement with another partner. Roe wouldn't give us names, but Chevron has cut a number of development deals in this area recently, including one with Solazyme, which has come up with a way to ferment algae for biodiesel.
Coskata will have a formal coming-out party for its 40,000 gallons a year demonstration facility. Construction is already under way. Roe wouldn't tell us what state it is in, but will announce it April 24 with the governor of the mystery state.
Coskata's process and fuel is relatively clean, he added. Overall, it cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent, well-to-wheel (or stump-to-pump, if you prefer) compared with gas. It also uses less water than most ethanol processes, which rely on food crops.
To clarify, the $1 a gallon figure is how much the fuel will cost to produce. It includes the cost of the feedstock, the cost of the energy required to convert raw materials into fuel, and labor. It does not include paying off the capital of the facilities, taxes, retail mark-ups, or other expenses that can be added as the fuel wends its way through distribution. On the other hand, the $1 a gallon figure does not include subsidies, which lower the cost to consumers. (Ultimately, adding in all these factors can raise the price to around $1.50 a gallon, Zeachem CEO James Imbler estimated in a recent interview.)
Still, at $1 a gallon, that's half the equivalent costs for gasoline, which is around $1.95 to $2.00 a gallon.
----------------------------
The following is from www.groovygreen.com:
Three important things make Coskata stand out from the other cellulosic technologies that are in development.
1. The bacteria Coskata uses is able to process syngas into ethanol in a constant process.
2. The Coskata process uses a filter, rather than distillation to separate the ethanol from water.
3. Multiple feedstocks can be used.
Constant process:
Most cellulosic research has used the batch process, allowing only large batches to be produced and then a enzyme used to breakdown the cellulose into sugar. Coskata's process uses bacteria that are able to process syngas into ethanol in approximately 2 mins, and then is ready to keep going back for more, reducing the production time. And we've all heard the adage "time is money", and it is no different in this case.
Filter, Not Distillation
This is where Coskata is able to really improve on the EROEI of the ethanol process. Traditional ethanol production, and even second-generation technologies involve thermal distillation to remove the ethanol from alcohol. Big batches of "beer" are cooked down, requiring large amounts of energy to do so. Coskata's ability to use their proprietary technology to filter out the ethanol without having to put in large amounts of energy to do so greatly improves not only the EROEI, but again the cost.
Multiple Feedstocks
Here's where things get interesting. The flexibility the Coskata process offers is one of its greatest strengths, and also a possible detriment. They describe the flexibility to use virtually any combustible, carbon containing good to be turned into the syngas used in their process, even municipal waste.
However, Coskata emphasized that they are focused environmentally friendly sources of biomass to use as a feedstock. In fact their models use $50/ton as the cost of feedstock -which is the cost per ton of harvested wood -in their equation to come up with a cost of $1/gallon. This allows them to take new instituted producer credits for ethanol production that passed in last years energy bill.
Tires were mentioned as a great source of carbon, but also noted that these are prized by waste to energy facilities, and the cost of tires is higher than other sources.
Coskata hopes to roll out production to all 50 states, allowing local economies to produce ethanol and use it directly for local transportation needs. The multiple sources allowed by the Coskata process will allow these individual sites to use the feedstocks that are available specific to that location. (e.g. corn fodder in Iowa, wood waste and biomass in Maine.)
---------------------------------
Coskata is commercializing a proprietary process and related technologies for the conversion of a wide variety of input materials into ethanol. Coskata has an efficient, affordable, and flexible three-step conversion process:
1. Incoming material converted to synthesis gas (gasification)
2. Fermentation of synthesis gas into ethanol (bio-fermentation)
3. Separation and recovery of ethanol (separations)
During gasification, carbon-based input materials are converted into syngas using well-established gasification technologies. After the chemical bonds are broken using gasification, Coskata's proprietary microorganisms convert the resulting syngas into ethanol by consuming the carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) in the gas stream. Once the gas-to-liquid conversion process has occurred, the resulting ethanol is recovered from the solution using "pervaporation technology."
Coskata's proprietary microorganisms eliminate the need for costly enzymatic pretreatments, and the bio-fermentation occurs at low pressures and temperatures, reducing operational costs. In addition, the Coskata process has the potential to yield over 100 gallons of ethanol per ton of dry carbonaceous input material, reducing both operational and capital costs. Coskata's exclusively licensed separation technology dramatically improves the separations and recovery component of ethanol production, reducing the required energy by as much as 50%.
|
