March 2, 2007

 

DuPont selected for biofuel plant funding

 

 

The biofuel project of DuPont is one of the six of about 75 applications that was chosen to receive a US$385 million -fund by the government funding for four years, the US Energy Department said.

 

DuPont Co. is part of a partnership selected by the US Department of Energy to receive up to $80 million for the construction of an ethanol plant that will use not just the corn kernel, but also the cob, to make fuel.

 

Congress must still approve funding for the program.

 

Support for the projects is part of a push to meet President George Bush's goal of increasing the use of renewable and alternative transportation fuels to the equivalent of 35 billion gallons of ethanol in 10 years.

 

Corn-based ethanol production is at about six billion gallons a year now, but "it's hard to get beyond 12 billion to 15 billion gallons based on corn, said Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman.

 

High corn prices caused by demand from ethanol producers have already significantly boosted the cost of producing eggs and meat.

 

That pressure on food prices has increased the sense of urgency in government and industry to reduce the cost of producing ethanol from plant materials not used for food, such as yard waste, crop residue, and sawdust.

 

Bodman hopes these projects will support a cost-effective cellulosic industry in the country.

 

He said the goal was to reduce the cost of producing cellulosic ethanol to the level of corn-based ethanol, which is US$1.10 to US$1.20 a gallon.

 

Mike Muston, executive vice president of DuPont's partner, Broin Cos., Sioux Falls, South Dakota said the current cost of producing cellulosic ethanol was US$2.25 to US$2.50 a gallon.

 

It will reach below US$2 thirty months after the Energy Department grant comes through and will compete with corn-based ethanol shortly thereafter, he said.

 

The Broin-DuPont plan is to expand a corn-based ethanol plant in Iowa to use the fibre from the corn kernel and the cob, in addition to the starch in the kernel, to make ethanol. The grant would help move up construction as much as three years, Muston said.

 

Separating the fibre from the cornstarch will boost ethanol production from a bushel of corn 11 percent, and using the corncob will boost ethanol production from an acre of corn 27 percent, Muston said.

 

Broin operates 19 ethanol plants in seven states that produce 1.2 billion gallons of ethanol a year from 3.5 percent of the nation's corn crop. The company has five plants under construction.

 

About US$200 million of the US$300 million expansion, which will boost annual capacity to 125 million gallons from 50 million gallons, is related to the capacity to produce about 30 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol.

 

DuPont, of Wilmington, has for several years been working on an integrated corn biorefinery - using the entire corn plant - in laboratories at its Experimental Station and elsewhere.

 

But the plan now calls for using only the cob, which is easier to collect during harvest. No system exists for collecting, drying and storing cornstalks and leaves or other forms of biomass, said David Morris, cofounder of the Institute for Local Self Reliance in Minneapolis.

 

Carol Werner, executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington, said she was glad to see that the Energy Department picked companies with "diverse geography, diverse technologies and diverse feedstocks... so we can start to see how these things work."