Page 263 - Advances in Eco-Fuels for a Sustainable Environment

226 Advances in Eco-Fuels for a Sustainable Environment

enzyme production required for enzymatic hydrolysis, which significantly reduced the
enzyme production costs.
PROCETHOL 2G received 29.9 million euros of total cost of 76.4 million euros from OSEO,
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a French agency, for building a pilot-scale ethanol plant in Pomacle, France, [54, 56]. The
plant has been in operation since 2011 and produces 2700 tons of ethanol per year from
woody and agricultural byproducts, residues, and energy crops through fermentation.
l Enerkem has developed a gasification-based ethanol production technology jointly with the
University of Sherbrooke [54, 56]. This technology consists of four main processes such as
preparation of feedstock, gasification of feedstocks for producing syngas, cleaning and con-
ditioning of syngas, and catalytic synthesis of syngas to produce ethanol. The plant was
established in 2003 in Sherbrooke, Canada. The plant is producing 375tons of ethanol along
3
with 475m methanol per year from municipal solid waste, wood chips, sludge, petroleum
coke, plastics, and wheat straw. Enerkem built another demonstration-scale plant with a
capacity of 4000tons per year based on the similar technology in 2012 in Westbury, Canada.
l North European Oil Trade Oy launched two demonstration-scale plants in 2016 based on
fermentation technology. One plant was built in Gothenburg, Sweden, with a capacity of
4000tons per year and the other was constructed in Kajaani, Finland, with a capacity of
7900 tons per year.
l SP/EPAP built a fermentation-based demonstration-scale plant with a capacity of 160 tons
per year in 2004 in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden [54]. The conversion of sugarcane bagasse, wheat,
corn stover, energy grass, and recycled waste consisted of a two-step diluted acid treatment
followed by enzyme hydrolysis.

8.5.4 Bioethanol plants stopped production
There are a number of bioethanol plants throughout the world that are no longer in
operation. Some of these plants were stopped during their construction while the plan
for some facilities was canceled well before their start-up year. Almost half the total
cellulosic ethanol plants so far established ceased operation. The share of the commer-
cial, pilot, and demonstration-scale plants in the nonoperational plant category is
nearly the same. The bioethanol facilities in the world that currently are not in oper-
ation are listed in Table 8.4. However, no recent documentation was found regarding
plant operation and specific reasons for the shutdown of the plants.

l Beta Renewables established the world’s first commercial-scale bioethanol plant in 2011 in
Crescentino, Italy. However, they had to shut down the plant due to the bankruptcy of the
parent company Mossi and Ghisolfi [54]. The expected production rate of the plant was
40,000 tons per year from wheat straw, rice straw, Arundo donax, and popular of
270,000 tons per year.
CORE Biofuel targeted the installation of a cellulosic ethanol production facility in Houston,
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Canada [54]. They aimed to produce about 53,511 tons per year from sawmill waste and
roadside residues using gasification technology. However, the plant is still not in operation
and the company has been seeking funding since 2014.
In 2009, Pacific Ethanol installed a demonstration plant in Boardman, the United States, and
l
started production in 2010; however, they stopped the project in 2013 [58]. The plant had a
capacity of 8000 tons per year of ethanol production from wheat straw, corn stover, and pop-
lar residuals at a feed rate of 5.8 tons per hour.
l Coskata started to construct a cellulosic ethanol production plant in Madison, the United
States [54]. They intended to produce syngas by heating wood chips in a plasma center