A growers' consortium has been given a USDA Rural Development grant worth nearly $500,000 to find the answer to precisely that question. The money will be used to finance a feasibility study that will determine the most economical and efficient way to harvest, store and transport wheat and barley stover for a commercial-scale biomass-to-ethanol plant, according to Duane Grant of 4-D Farm in Rupert.
Grant is heading up the consortium of 80 growers in south and southeast Idaho and working closely on the study with Canada's Iogen Corporation.
Ottawa, Ontario-based Iogen, in conjunction with Royal Dutch Shell, owns and operates the world's first "demonstration-scale bioethanol facility," utilizing advanced enzymes that convert lignocellulosic material—instead of plant starch-into ethanol. The $30-million facility has the ability to process 50 tons of wheat straw per week into fermentable sugar, according to the company. The company has intentions to build commercial-scale plants, and license its technology worldwide.
The USDA-funded feasibility study, being conducted by the University of Idaho, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INREL) and Iogen, must show that growers in Idaho can supply straw in a competitive manner-at a rate that would be financially feasible for both the growers and the ethanol plant. Proof of viability would allow Iogen to locate a commercial-scale cellulose-to-ethanol plant in southeastern Idaho and bring commercial validity to its process technology.
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The Idaho consortium has backers to help with the feasibility study, including INEEL, based near Idaho Falls. INEEL is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to supporting DOE missions in environment, energy, science and national defense. The national laboratory's role in the straw-to-ethanol project is to develop the scientific and engineering parameters needed to accomplish each of the straw assembly scenarios proposed. Additionally, INEEL will be responsible for systems integration of the straw assembly processes, and analysis of the three scenarios to determine the most feasible straw preprocessing and assembly options for southeastern Idaho.
The role of enzymes
Enzymes, of course, play a major role in the cellulose-to-ethanol process.
Tania Glithero of Iogen's marketing and communications department said that Iogen produces its own enzymes used to break down the cellulose in straw into glucose, which is then fermented into alcohol for the distillation process. Iogen's "bioethanol" process uses an enzyme hydrolysis step to convert biomass into sugars. These sugars are fermented and distilled into fuel ethanol using conventional ethanol distillation technology.
Reducing the cost of enzymes is necessary to the commercialization of cellulose-to-ethanol technology and two manufacturers, Genencor International and Novozymes, are bridging the gap. Working with the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the companies have developed low-cost cellulases and other enzymes for the production of ethanol from biomass. Both enzyme makers have delivered enzyme systems enabling a 10-fold improvement—or better—in the economics of breaking down plant matter and other complex carbohydrates into fermentable sugars.
Novozymes, for example, recently reported a "12-fold" enzyme cost reduction. During the course of the subcontract, Novozymes used its proprietary biotech research platform to increase enzyme activity and fermentation yield, reducing production costs. These improvements have reduced the cost of enzymes required to produce one gallon of biomass ethanol from above $5 to less than 50 cents.
Wheat, barley, oat straw needed
The proposed 60-mmgy plant, which would be owned by Iogen and Royal Dutch Shell, would use 800,000 tons of straw annually, Grant said. To grow that much straw would take about 1.5 million acres, he added.
Patricia Dailey, Idaho Wheat Commission director of programs, said a University of Idaho study on the availability of straw determined that a combination of wheat, barley and oat straw would net about 2.3 million tons statewide. South central and southeast Idaho alone produce 1.6 million tons of straw. About 72 percent of available straw is found in those two areas of the state, said the report, which was headed by Paul Patterson, a University of Idaho economist in Idaho Falls.
Grant said that many different types of cellulosic biomass could be used to supply an ethanol plant.
"In our case, wheat and barley straw would be used," he said.
To supply the straw, a broad coalition of growers would have to become involved in the project.
"There's enough straw out there," Grant said. "We have to show that it would return enough to them at a price they can afford and at the same time return enough to the growers."
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