Alliance Bioenergy sees positive results from cellulosic ethanol multiple feedstock testing

Alliance BioEnergy Plus Inc., West Palm Beach, Florida, has released the results from months of testing and data collection on dozens of lignocellulose feedstocks utilizing the patented CTS conversion process. Corn stover, sugar cane bagasse, various grasses, hard and soft woods, landscape waste, agricultural waste and specialty plants were all put through the CTS system. The C5 and C6 sugars were recovered, solubilized and fermented into alcohols while the pure lignin was separated and collected. Extensive data on energy consumption, recycling, recovery rates, processing times and overall economics have been compiled.

The company says it is the first time a cellulose conversion process has been able meet the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS and RFS2) requires a continuing reduction in the use of corn-starch based sugar and an increase in cellulosic based sugar for the production of renewable fuel to be blended into petroleum based transportation fuel in increasing amounts each year, escalating to 36 billion gallons by 2022 with no more than a maximum of 15 billion gallons from corn-starch ethanol and a minimum of 16 billion gallons from cellulosic ethanol.

Alliance says RFS2 has created a serious problem for ethanol producers using a cellulosic enzymatic extraction process at commercial levels. The company notes these projects have not been successful. The common elements of these plants are the use of an enzymatic conversion process, corn stover as a feedstock and a projected gallon of ethanol production cost well above $3.50, making these ventures economically unfeasible, according to the company.

Alliance’s CTS process overcomes the enzymatic shortcomings, says the company. Alliance says the CTS is inexpensive to construct and operate and able to accept and process multiple cellulosic feedstocks on a continuous basis without the need for a pretreatment, enzymes, liquid acids, applied heat or pressures.

The company adds, if its process was added to one of the existing cellulosic ethanol plants using the extremely high corn stover economic model and bypassing the pretreatment and enzymatic process completely, the cost to make a pound of sugar from the stover would decrease to less than 8.5 cents and the production cost of a gallon of cellulosic ethanol would drop to less than $1.70.  

The company also claims the capital cost for the CTS replacement system for the same capacity would be less than 30 percent of the cost of the enzymatic system it is replacing. Additionally, the company says the CTS process is able to introduce less costly feedstocks bringing the per pound sugar cost down to as low as 4 cents in some cases and the per gallon production cost of cellulosic ethanol to as low as $0.90 cents with the right feedstock. By contrast traditional corn ethanol is produced at a cost of between $1.35 and $1.75 depending on the price of corn, according to Alliance.