Comment on Gasification

Bob King — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:16:47 GMT

The following is an excerpt from: Autobloggreen.com

Aside from the variety of feedtsocks, Coskata is particularly proud that its ethanol production process uses less than a gallon of water to make a gallon of ethanol and returns 7.7 times the energy it takes to make the biofuel (this was verified by Argonne National Labs but note that all of this energy is not contained in the ethanol; some of it is in the electricity generated when parts of the biomass feedstock that don't become ethanol are burned). So, to make 100 gallons of ethanol , Coskata needs a ton of dry material and less than 100 gallons of water. Also, Coskata President and CEO Bill Roe said that will cost less than a dollar to produce a gallon of ethanol "almost anywhere in the world" using his company's process ( yes, that's the production cost, and does not take government production credits into account ).

Coskata uses "proprietary microorganisms" and patented bioreactor to produce ethanol. The microorganisms are fed a syngas and then they process the gas into ethanol. Coskata currently has five strains of these microorganisms (all from Oklahoma State University and Oklahoma University) that can make ethanol, butanol and other liquids. Coskata representatives told AutoblogGreen that they expect to increase the number of strains in the future, and will possibly be able to make other fuels from them. Roe also said that other automakers approached his company but that GM had the most long-term, most well-developed plan.

AutoblogGreen spoke with the Coskata (and GM) representatives on a cold morning in early January in Chicago at the Coskata headquarters. The day featured presentations from five individuals, beginning with Roe. The others were (in order) Mary Beth Stanek, director of GM's environment & energy policy and commercialization, Coleman Jones, GM's biofuel implementation manager, Candace Wheeler, GM technical fellow in GM research & development and planning and Richard Tobey, VP of engineering and R&D at Coskata. You can listen to recordings of all of these presentations. I'll note the highlights here. More....

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