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Alliance announces completion of FEL 2 for CTS technology

Hydrocarbon Engineering,


Alliance BioEnergy Plus, Inc. has announced the completion of the front end loading 2 (FEL 2) engineering phase ahead of schedule and under budget. The engineering process for building a cellulose ethanol plant, that can convert a 1000 t a day of cellulose biomass into 39 million gal./y of cellulose ethanol using the cellulose to ethanol (CTS) patented system, is a four stage process; front end loading known as FEL 1 thru 3. FEL 2, which is now complete, focused on detailed flow diagrams, major equipment selections, preliminary PFD’s, mass balances, piping, heat transfers and material handling. FEL 2 also started to look specifically at product purity, shipping, utilities and automation components.

“We are extremely excited to be involved with this project. Given the results from the FEL2 study, it appears Alliance’s cellulose to sugar technology provides an economic advantage over conventional enzymatic or acid hydrolysis cellulose processes, especially when integrated into ethanol production,” said Mike Sessions, Chief Process Engineer with Process Engineering Associates, LLC.

FEL 2 also explored specific uses of the CTS technology in the production of cellulose ethanol. As illustrated, the CTS process replaces up seven steps in the current corn ethanol production plant thereby greatly reducing the capital costs, operating costs and maintenance costs of a traditional ethanol plant. In new construction, a CTS cellulose ethanol plant, processing 1000 tpd of virtually any biomass, will produce upwards of 39 million gal./y of a high grade ethanol that produces 86% less greenhouse gas than gasoline and costs on average 50% less to build than a smaller enzymatic or acid hydrolysis plant.

Unlike competing enzymatic or acid hydrolysis cellulose ethanol processes the CTS process is completely green, no liquid acids, no live enzymes, no applied heat or pressure, no exotic equipment or disposal needs, no hazardous materials of any kind go into the process or come out of the process. The CTS cellulose ethanol process is fast, inexpensive, simple and feedstock agnostic. The cellulose converts in minutes, not days, in a single mechanical step (eliminating several front end steps) and then proceeds directly to ethanol fermentation as a clean liquid sugar stream (eliminating several back end steps).


Adapted from press release by Francesca Brindle

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/clean-fuels/17112015/alliance-completes-fel2-cellulose-ethanol-technology-1742/

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