There’s major interest in developing biomass-to-ethanol commercial demonstration facilities in the United States right now. It seems as if any company with a biotech-related patent under its belt is declaring participation in this pursuit of technological commercialization for biomass-based ethanol production. Some industry analysts liken this quest to pole positioning: the first-place showing goes to those who’ve put the best sheen on technologies that have hitherto been economically dull and inefficient; the prize for which is gaining the alliance of potential investors and the trust of the financial community.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s multi-million dollar funding spree and the Advanced Energy Initiative are surely responsible for some of this interest. After all, even the shrewdest follower of self reliance would find these carrots tempting. Circulating reports indicate the energy department will be ready to issue loan guarantees in 2007, provided Congress plays ball.

Nevertheless, the big technology providers instrumental in establishing today’s successful dry-grind ethanol industry—ICM Inc., Broin Companies and Delta-T Corp.—administer their plans for rolling out new technologies differently than those companies seeking to get a foot in the door. Smaller and oftentimes publicly-traded companies looking to break through the “cellulosic ceiling” often tout their preliminary successes with individual pieces of biomass conversion’s technological puzzle. Established ethanol industry insiders often keep their R&D behind closed doors—and with good reason, many say—until proven results in partnership with like-minded associates are protected and a pathway to deployment is secured.

Mike Muston, executive vice president of corporate affairs with Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Broin Companies, makes this case by telling EPM, “True to Broin history, we don’t want to say something we’re going to do but rather try to consistently say what we have done.” He follows this by detailing one of Broin’s latest cutting-edge developments.

“We’ve got a plant that we’ll be constructing in Iowa—we hope it’ll be early next year (2007)—and it has three pieces to it,” Muston says. “It’ll be a biorefinery that provides for an 11 percent increase in biofuels compared to the current industry production from a bushel of grain corn. Second, this technology will increase the production per acre of corn by 27 percent. Third, if this proves commercially viable through the demonstration of this plant, we will reduce the natural gas consumption of a [like-sized] plant by 83 percent.”

Broin also recently hired a new vice president of research, which exemplifies the company’s “desire, willingness and abilities to move beyond ethanol,” Muston says. “We have also struck a significant biomass technology development agreement with a household name.” More detailed announcements will come in the near future, Muston says.

Broin isn’t the only established company making headway toward a more diverse and inclusive industry of ethanol production, though.

ICM Inc. is partnering with LifeLine Foods LLC, a food processing company based in St. Joseph, Mo., to accomplish several different things. First, the partnership will allow ICM to incorporate its own refined version of dry fractionation within its already successful dry-milling process design—or an optional alternative to the current industry standard. Second, the St. Joseph site will house a new R&D center and pilot plant, where ICM will pursue the development and testing-out of novel processes to help carry the future of this industry beyond starch and corn.

ICM CEO and President Dave Vander Griend tells EPM that one of the major R&D objectives on which the company will focus in the new center will be developing a “best methods” commercial approach to cellulosic ethanol either through a gas-to-liquid production or via effective pretreatment followed by fermentation—or perhaps an alternative method. More details are provided in the October 2006 issue of Ethanol Producer Magazine.

Delta-T Executive Vice President Rob Swain tells EPM his company will be prepared to release one or more major announcements regarding biomass conversion—“dramatic news,” Swain says—by the end of this year, perhaps as early as October or November. “Delta-T’s R&D vision is—well, we see an end coming to the bubble of traditional dry mills,” Swain says. In two years to five years, Delta-T sees the emergence of commercial retrofits with biorefining concepts for this industry. “We’re within a five-year window of a commercially viable cellulosic industry,” he tells EPM. According to Swain, Delta-T has strategies in four or five major technology areas to allow the company to participate in what he says is “a market going through rapid development.”

Ron Kotrba is an Ethanol Producer Magazine staff writer. Reach him at rkotrba@bbibiofuels.com or (701) 746-8385.

Posted: 2:53 p.m. CDT Monday, September 18, 2006