Cellulosic Ethanol Enzymes in 4 Years?

Cost level
Considering recent announcements of POET, COFCO, Abengoa, Royal Nedalco and others to build industrial and semi-industrial scale plants, we are moving closer towards that goal. So what cost levels can we expect in the near future? “The DOE has set a very ambitious goal of USD 1.07 per gallon of cellulosic ethanol, which, in some cases, is lower than the production costs of first generation ethanol at the moment. We have received quite a few pre-treated feedstock from various players in the industry and concluded that the cost for the enzyme process are currently around 1 to 1.50 dollar per gallon. These are the cost for a process that runs in a semi-efficient manner ,and more work is required both on the enzymes and integration of the processes side in order to further lower that cost. So it’s clear we need to repeat a similar cost reductions to the one we realized between 2000 and 2004. Currently, total production costs are between 3 and 4 dollar per gallon, so we still have a long way to go but the potential of biotechnology is major and we trust that quantum leaps can be achieved. The fact that more pilot plants are coming on line will help the industry greatly in reducing these costs and developing a range of diverse technologies applicable on various feedstock. In order to help this industry demonstrate feasibility, Novozymes keeps supplying commercial and pre-commercial enzymes and enzymes blends to a great number of players working on developing the industry.

The United States
Novozymes is active on almost all continents, with facilities and partnership in the United States, Europe, Asia and Brazil. Is there any difference in how the technology develops in these markets? “There are very clear differences. The U.S. is probably the one country that is helping the industry the most, because the DOE is making substantial funding available to the industry. As an example, a recent 200 MUSD DoE solicitation will allow six to ten projects with different technologies to further improve their processes. (from the collection of the feedstock, to the pre-treatment, the hydrolysis step and the fermentation). But the most interesting thing about the U.S. market is that the DOE is trying to involve major industrial players early in the scale-up process, which ensures that the developed technologies can be tested in real large scale conditions. ” Right now, almost every feedstock is being considered in the US with a predominance of corn stover and corn fibers. Novozymes is currently working with POET on a project pertaining to the expansion of a conventional corn dry mill facility to include cellulose to ethanol commercial production (dealing with corn cobs and fibers).

Europe
“Europe has a very different approach. Although the EU and local governments are providing funds to the industry as well, these are much smaller and attract a more academic audience that primarily focuses on fundamental research. The industry is much less involved, therefore the technology is fine-tuned on a non-commercial scale. Once discoveries are made, the expectation is that they will click into the rest of the processes and work efficiently. This is definitely a very different approach and it seems that Europe is anyway focusing heavily on biodiesel right now. The second generation ethanol will however provide Europe with the opportunity to develop a broader inclusion of this biofuel. A few projects are shaping up in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark France and Spain all focusing on different feed-stock ranging from wheat straw, wood and even various other industrial wastes.