The Energy Department seemed pretty level headed last week when it pumped $600 million into biofuels companies.
As we reported at the time, the department had a clear emphasis on second-generation cellulosic ethanol. In other words, fuel sources other than edible corn and sugar cane, the purer sugars.
ZeaChem is using a $25 million grant to build its first bio-refinery in Oregon. Key technology integration results are expected in January
But the emphasis was as well on companies that are making steady, measured progress toward commercialization – not those swinging hard for the fence in one blow.
Jim Imbler, CEO of the biofuels company ZeaChem, also says the DOE was careful to hedge its bets. There were firms focused on the fermentation of cellulosic plants, gasification and the conversion of algae into fuel, among other initiatives.
Even the funding for algae-based biofuels – which is further off than cellulosic ethanol – was done with reasoned judgment, not unbridled hope, he said.
Among those getting grants and loan guarantees were BlueFire Ethanol Fuels, eager to build a Mississippi plant to process wood residue, Archer Daniels Midland, BioEnergy International, Enenkem, and algae fuel producers Sapphire Energy and Algenol Biofeuls.
The department also selected ZeaChem for a $25 million grant, which the company will use to build its first ethanol bio-refinery in Oregon. ZeaChem is earmarking $40 million in private capital for the project, which will use the wood of poplar trees.
Imbler says the company is in the process of proving out the integration of the three key pieces of its conversion process. Key results will be available in January showing whether the technique it uses to convert biomass into sugars is ready for commercial production.
“We’re very confident,” says Imbler of the microbe ZeaChem uses to break down wood chips – and which could be used with switchgrass and other cellulosic fuels.
The data should be broadly useful to the industry, he says. And to the DOE, which is now negotiating the final grant terms with the company.
If the numbers look good, one of the department’s big bets might suddenly look like a sure thing. And second-generation biofuels will appear a step closer to reality.
