California Cellulosic Ethanol Biorefinery

Edeniq develops technologies to convert biomass to sugars, which serve as feedstock for the manufacture of low-carbon, cellulosic ethanol as well as other biofuels and biochemicals. Edeniq used the funds from this project to upgrade its United States Department of Energy funded pilot facility to a new, continuous design – a technological breakthrough driving higher product yields and other process efficiencies expected to result in lower capital and operating costs for a commercial-scale facility.

Edeniq designed proprietary preprocessing equipment that physically alters biomass such that higher solid streams can be processed efficiently. Combined with improved breakdown of the pretreated cellulosic and hemicellulosic substrates, conversion of biomass to sugar exceeded the targeted 70 percent, enabling production of an equivalent of approximately 70 gallons of cellulosic ethanol per ton of biomass feedstock. These conversions approach the economics required for a commercially viable project. The project also successfully demonstrated that each process step – preprocessing, pretreatment, and saccharification – can be operated consistently and reliably on a day-to-day production basis in excess of the two ton per day throughput design.

Sustainable production of cellulosic ethanol in California would help the state meet the objectives of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Processing corn stover into ethanol using Edeniq’s process could result in a carbon intensity rating of as low as 25.1 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule, a 74 percent reduction relative to gasoline. Edeniq evaluated a range of California-specific feedstock options and found corn stover to be a better option than switchgrass and other alternatives. Prospects for a commercial cellulosic ethanol project could be increased through improvements in feedstock supply chain development, process optimization, and cost reductions in key raw materials such as enzymes. The ability to scale up without significant increases in capital, while meeting key specifications, is challenging in all first-of-a-kind projects and will require long-term operating experience.