Cellulosic ethanol cheaper than traditional ethanol

Alliance BioEnergy Plus Inc. has announced that with the completion of Front End Loading 2 (FEL 2) engineering the stark difference between the CTS process and all other fuel technologies is becoming more apparent from a capital building expense as well as yearly operating expense.

The CTS Cellulose Ethanol plant processing 1000 tpd of virtually any cellulose biomass and producing upwards of 34 million gal./y of high-grade ethanol with 86% less emissions than gasoline will cost approximately US$1.97 a nameplate gallon to build.

By comparison, DuPont just announced the opening of their 30 million gal./y enzymatic cellulose ethanol plant in Iowa at a cost of US$225 million. That is US$7.50 a nameplate gallon to build. Last year Poet-DSM opened a 25 million gal./y cellulosic ethanol plant at a cost of US$250 million or US$10.00 a nameplate gallon.

A traditional corn ethanol plant costs approximately US$2.38 a nameplate gallon to build. The CTS process can also be added to a traditional corn ethanol plant as a bolt-on addition for a minimal cost. This will allow the corn plant to eliminate up to seven (7) current processes while reducing overall energy consumption by more than 70%. The plant can continue to process corn kernel with higher yields, recover 5x the valuable corn oil and begin to transition away from the kernel in favour of any other cellulose biomass, without any down time.

Alliance will be licensing its CTS Cellulose Ethanol bolt-on solution to ethanol producers while seeking to build and operate Cellulose Ethanol plants in the US and abroad.

Edited from press release by Angharad Lock

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/clean-fuels/20112015/cellulosic-ethanol-cheaper-than-traditional-ethanol-1660/