GM and Coskata claim cellulosic ethanol has arrived: gasification-fermentation process yields biofuel for under $1 per gallon
General Motors announced a partnership with Coskata Inc., both claiming that affordable cellulosic ethanol production has arrived today. Coskata's innovative gasification-biofermentation process efficiently makes the biofuel from practically any source of biomass for under a dollar per gallon. If true, the breakthrough would at once change the perspective on many of the constraints lodged against current biofuel options, including environmental, transportation and land use concerns. It would end the artificial food versus fuel debate (at least on a conceptual level), and open up whole new era of highly efficient biofuels with low to no environmental impacts. Biofuels can then really begin take on their major role as one of the leading instruments in the fight against climate change and energy insecurity.
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: cellulosic ethanol for less than $1 per gallon (less than 20 eurocent/liter), about half of today’s cost of producing gasoline. This is the magical barrier for next-generation biofuels.
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 and allowing for the use of vast non-food biomass resources. Coskata’s process technology is ethanol-specific and enzyme independent, requiring no additional chemicals or pre-treatments.
The process is based the following steps:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: ethanol :: cellulosic :: gasification :: fermentation :: microbiology :: biotechnology ::
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. 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:
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.
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 also builds on GM’s activities in automotive fuels development and testing that include research and development of unleaded fuels in conjunction with the development of the catalytic converter, and early formulations of ethanol.
Brazil is the best example of the market potential for alternative fuels. Since 1975, Brazil has been using ethanol made from sugar cane to create self-sufficiency in motor vehicle fuels. GM has been a leader in flexible-fuel powertrains in the Brazilian market. These are vehicles capable of operating on any blend of gasoline and ethanol, up to 100 percent ethanol.
The Saab 9-5 BioPower is another example of GM applying its ethanol learnings globally. During the development of BioPower, Swedish engineers teamed with their GM colleagues in Brazil to transfer knowledge of flex fuels. As a result, Saab now leads the European premium car segment in offering the 9-5 BioPower model, which accounts for 70 percent of all 9-5 sales.
References:
GM: GM Extends Biofuels Leadership With Coskata Partnership - January 13, 2008.
Coskata: Coskata, Inc. Introduces Next Generation Ethanol – Technology to Produce Ethanol for Less Than a Dollar per Gallon - January 13, 2008
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: cellulosic ethanol for less than $1 per gallon (less than 20 eurocent/liter), about half of today’s cost of producing gasoline. This is the magical barrier for next-generation biofuels.
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 and allowing for the use of vast non-food biomass resources. Coskata’s process technology is ethanol-specific and enzyme independent, requiring no additional chemicals or pre-treatments.
The process is based the following steps:
- gasification: cracking the carbon-hydrogen bonds in the biomass feedstock via thermochemical transformation - plasma-gasification - of biomass into syngas
- fermentation: instead of using catalysts to turn the syngas into fuels, Coskata's process relies on fermentation by bacteria (biofermentation) using proprietary microorganisms; the organisms are extremely efficient, utilizing the entire energy value of available input material to produce ethanol. This is a significant advantage over other approaches that only use a fraction of this energy due to their inability to utilize all portions of biomass input material and/or result in non-ethanol byproducts hurting efficiencies. Some ethanol conversion processes use a gasification front-end and chemical catalysis for conversion, producing a mix of alcohols from methanol to pentanol and beyond, resulting in considerable separations and/or recycling costs as well as decreased yield. Ethanol conversion using chemical catalysts requires extremely pure syngas streams, as impurities readily degrade the catalysts. Not only are these catalysts expensive, but the high purity requirements of the syngas stream results in greater capital intensity. Additionally, chemical catalysis approaches require syngas compression in preparation for the high-pressure alcohol synthesis operation. Chemical catalysis is also inefficient with regard to energy and carbon dioxide. It requires a specific ratio of CO:H2 to make ethanol. These ratios are not found in nature, and require an energy consuming "water shift" reaction to make ethanol. Coskata's biofermentation step avoids these higher-cost complexities: (1) during biofermentation, Coskata's naturally occurring microorganisms - some of the oldest biological mechanisms in existence - use the chemical energy of syngas (CO and/or H2) to exclusively produce ethanol; (2) Coskata microorganisms have demonstrated a level of tolerance to typical syngas impurities that poison a chemical conversion approach. Together, Coskata's proprietary microorganisms and bioreactor designs lead to the highest conversion rates of feedstock to ethanol in the industry, as well as greater resistance to phage infections and bacterial contaminants.
- separation: after the bacterial fermentation to ethanol, the ethanol must be separated out of the solution mixture and converted into a fuel-grade ethanol at 99+% purity. As syngas fermentation leads to lower ethanol concentrations than corn fermentations, the energy and cost to separate the ethanol from water is proportionally higher. To reduce this differential, Coskata has exclusively licensed membrane separation technology to reduce the energy requirements by over 50%. This vapor permeation process is amenable to separating ethanol from biofermentation broth because of the very low solids content of the broth relative to other fermentation processes.
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: ethanol :: cellulosic :: gasification :: fermentation :: microbiology :: biotechnology ::
Our technology and proprietary process have been validated by some of the world’s most renowned research labs, universities and energy companies. 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. - Bill Roe, CEO of CoskataOne of the criticisms of cellulosic ethanol is that its development is supposedly 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. Success in delivering on our business plan means that we could account for a significant portion of the biomass ethanol mandated in the new [U.S.] Renewable Fuels Standard within 10 years. - Bill RoeCoskata 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. 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. - Vinod Khosla of Khosla VenturesGM’s partnership with Coskata to commercialize its unique process for turning biomass into ethanol is signals GM’s interest in making ethanol more available by promoting ethanol production technology and infrastructure.
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. 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:
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.
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 also builds on GM’s activities in automotive fuels development and testing that include research and development of unleaded fuels in conjunction with the development of the catalytic converter, and early formulations of ethanol.
We believe ethanol used as a fuel, not just as a gasoline additive, is the best near-term alternative to the surging global demand for oil because ethanol is renewable and it significantly reduces CO2 emissions compared to gasoline. Best of all, it is available today. - Beth Lowery, GM vice president, Environment, Energy and Safety PolicyThe U.S. is the largest market using fuels blended with ethanol; however, its use as a fuel source is gaining global popularity as a more environmentally responsible option to petroleum-based fuels. GM has developed market-specific engines and vehicles that allow consumers to benefit from the use of earth-friendly ethanol fuels produced and available in their country.
Brazil is the best example of the market potential for alternative fuels. Since 1975, Brazil has been using ethanol made from sugar cane to create self-sufficiency in motor vehicle fuels. GM has been a leader in flexible-fuel powertrains in the Brazilian market. These are vehicles capable of operating on any blend of gasoline and ethanol, up to 100 percent ethanol.
The Saab 9-5 BioPower is another example of GM applying its ethanol learnings globally. During the development of BioPower, Swedish engineers teamed with their GM colleagues in Brazil to transfer knowledge of flex fuels. As a result, Saab now leads the European premium car segment in offering the 9-5 BioPower model, which accounts for 70 percent of all 9-5 sales.
References:
GM: GM Extends Biofuels Leadership With Coskata Partnership - January 13, 2008.
Coskata: Coskata, Inc. Introduces Next Generation Ethanol – Technology to Produce Ethanol for Less Than a Dollar per Gallon - January 13, 2008
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