Inbicon Operating World’s Largest Cellulosic Ethanol Plant, as U.S. Companies Sign On
Eric Lindeman
Using wheat straw for feedstock, Denmark’s Inbicon has begun operating its first biomass refinery, with a capacity to produce 1.4 million gallons cellulosic ethanol annually—making it the world’s largest producer of cellulosic ethanol.
And three U.S. companies have announced plans to develop cellulosic ethanol projects that will use a scaled-up Inbicon biomass refinery design to produce 20 million gallons per year—Great River Energy, Genesee Regional BioFuels, and SWI Energy. Inbicon is the cellulosic biorefinery technology subsidiary of Danish utility DONG Energy.
"We're producing not only the new ethanol to replace gasoline, but also a clean lignin biofuel to replace coal," said Inbicon CEO Niels Henriksen recently announced.
But, he explained, “Our renewable energy process is as important as our renewable energy products. The Inbicon Biomass Refinery can demonstrate dramatically improved efficiencies when integrated with a coal-fired power station, grain-ethanol plant, or any CHP (combined heat and power) operation. Symbiotic energy exchange helps our customers build sustainable, carbon-neutral businesses."
The refinery in Kalundborg will be integrated with the Asnaes Power Station, Denmark's largest, and although Inbicon is using wheat straw, the company said it can use a variety of feedstocks—corn stalks and cobs, sugar bagasse, and grasses.
Moreover, the waste steam from the power station will run the biomass refinery, increasing the refinery's total energy efficiency to 71 percent. The company claims the refinery's lignin biofuel co-product is so clean that it can be used to augment coal-firing in power plant boilers without further purification.
Sandra Broekema, manager of business development for Great River Energy, a Minnesota electric cooperative, said Dakota Spirit AgEnergy, a commercial-scale Inbicon Biomass Refinery processing North Dakota wheat straw or corn stover, will be co-located with Great River’s new 64-megawatt CHP plant in Spiritwood, N.D.
The biorefinery will convert feedstock into a variety of higher value energy products including cellulosic ethanol, C5 molasses and purified lignin pellets (solid fuel). Annually, it will use 480,000 tons of wheat straw or corn stover, produce 20,000 gallons of cellulosic biofuels, 170,000 tons of purified lignin (solid boiler fuel), and 188,000 wet (40 percent moisture) tons of feed grade C5 molasses.
Genesee Regional BioFuels, plans to build a biomass business complex near Rochester, N.Y. John Gell, director of Genesee, said his company is focused on bringing an old brown site back to life while revitalizing New York's agriculture—it will process corn stalks and transition to home-grown grasses. The lignin will offset coal used in existing power stations.
PE, Integro Services Group, developing engineer for SWI Energy, is planning to build a new 59 million gallon per year corn-to-ethanol plant in Alton, Ill., integrated with a 20 million gallon per year Inbicon biomass refinery. Utilizing the synergies of each will produce fossil-free ethanol, said Peter Bendorf, an engineer with Integro.
Inbicon also inked its first a licensing agreement at the end of February, with Japan’s Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding (MES) on refineries in Asia. The agreement grants Mitsui the right to build a number of biomass refineries in Southeast Asia using Inbicon’s technology. Mitsui intends to apply the technology in the palm oil industry, where waste products from palm oil production can be converted into ethanol, solid biofuel for energy production, and animal feed.
“With the license agreement, we have taken an important step towards the establishing of a plant engineering business for the production of second-generation ethanol in Southeast Asia,” Mitsui Director Shunichi Yamashita said at the time. “We have already committed considerable resources to the development of this new business. Furthermore, we are expecting to expand the cooperation with Inbicon into other markets.”
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