ZeaChem starts work on first biorefinery

Lakewood, Colo.-based ZeaChem said today it has started work on its first planned biorefinery in Boardman, Ore., with an initial capacity of no more than 1.5 million gallons per year.

The company tapped CH2M Hill for the engineering work on the cellulosic ethanol plant, scheduled to start construction this summer and have some processes up and running by the end of the first quarter of 2010, CEO James Imbler told the Cleantech Group.

“We expect to be running the complete process by next summer, and we’ve tried to put enough room into our schedule so those things that are unpredictable can happen without changing that time line,” he said today. “I think the industry really needs to start setting realistic targets.”

Imbler said the demonstration plant is being built so that it could be expanded to a commercial-scale facility. The company is using skid-mounted construction to simplify the on-site assembly next to the GreenWood Resources poplar tree farm, which is expected to supply the feedstock for the plant. ZeaChem plans to co-locate future plants next to feedstock to reduce transportation cost and resources.

ZeaChem says its process can use any plant feedstock to produce 135 gallons of ethanol per bone dry ton of feedstock—a 40 percent increase compared to competitors that brings the price to “well under $1” per gallon for ethanol, Imbler said. ZeaChem hasn’t released target prices for specialty chemicals such as propylene, butanol and hexanol that could be made with the same process.

“We see a higher value market in chemicals that excites us down the road,” Imbler said. “It has higher margins, but it’s not as big of a market.”

Skid-mounted construction also reduces the cost, Imbler said. He declined to reveal the cost of the plant but said it was funded as part of the company’s recent $34 million round from Globespan Capital Partners, PrairieGold Venture Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Firelake Capital and petroleum refiner Valero Energy (see New year money goes to biofuels). The company previously raised $4 million (see Please sir, may I have some Mohr?).

Also reducing the cost is that ZeaChem is using known processes and standard refining equipment, Imbler said. The company is getting advice from Valero on sizing equipment in the biorefinery. Valero has bid $280 million for five of bankrupt corn-based ethanol maker VeraSun's plants and the rights to construct a sixth (see Investors inject new funds in recycling).

“We don’t have the same scale up issues as other cellulosic ethanol makers. We’re not designing any new widgets," Imbler said.

Imbler said ZeaChem uses known biochemical and thermochemical processes to make biofuel, but the company combines the processes in a new way and adds a hydrogen strain to the fermentation process to improve the overall efficiency.

ZeaChem fractions biomass to produce a sugar stream. ZeaChem ferments the sugar stream using an acteogenic process to produce acetic acid. ZeaChem says the process does not produce CO₂ as a by-product, unlike traditional yeast fermentation that creates one molecule of CO₂ for every molecule of ethanol.

The acetic acid is then converted to an ester, which reacts with hydrogen to produce ethanol. ZeaChem derives hydrogen by gasifying lignin residue from the fractionation process to create hydrogen-rich syngas, which can be split into hydrogen (used to react with the ester) and syngas (burned to create steam and power for the process).

ZeaChem says that about two-thirds of the energy in the ethanol comes from the sugar stream and one-third comes from the lignin steam in the form of hydrogen.

ZeaChem plans to sell the ethanol to petroleum companies to blend directly into fuel.

ZeaChem, founded in 2002, also has a R&D lab in Menlo Park, Calif.

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