Next generation ethanol in GreenField's sights

Monday, May 9, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

GreenField Ethanol Inc. is getting ready to begin making transportation fuel from agricultural materials not normally associated with ethanol production.

GreenField has launched a new collaborative partnership company, G2 BioChem, to produce cellulosic ethanol, which is referred to as next generation ethanol. G2 BioChem is backed by major international partners and collaborators with GreenField as the principle partner in the venture.

The company will be using agricultural residues like corn cobs and stover, energy crops like switch grass and sorghum and forest biomass like poplar and willow.

Barry Wortzman, GreenField ‘s vice-president of business development and president of G2 BioChem, says “you go through a process that will end up with cellulosic ethanol.”

He says they’ll start building a cellulose demonstration-scale facility this summer. It will be integrated with GreenField’s existing facilities at its Centre of Excellence in Chatham.

GreenField is exploring the use of new materials for ethanol production because it wants to increase the amount of ethanol in the transportation pool. But there will be limitations on the availability of first-generation grains, such as corn and wheat, currently being used to produce ethanol. “It’s abundant but it’s not limitless,” he explains. “You want to be able to expand on your feedstock availability and that raises a whole new process requirement.”

Another reason to explore the use of new materials has to do policies developed by American legislators. Wortzman says new legislation enacted in the United States outlines requirements for the production of next generation ethanol. “The policies of the U.S. government have created the demand for this product.”

Wortzman says three to four years ago GreenField’s innovative team of scientists and engineers recommended the company pursue manufacturing second-generation ethanol.

The project will reach commercial scale by the end of 2013, he says.

GreenField is Canada’s largest ethanol company producing 450 million litres of ethanol annually. BF