A California-based biofuels company officially launched its Corn to Cellulosic Migration (CCM) pilot biorefinery this week. The CCM biorefinery is located at the headquarters of Edeniq in Visalia, California.
According to the company, the pilot plant’s technologies can be used as bolt-on technology to existing facilities to allow the use of other feedstocks such as corn stover, switchgrass, sugarcane bagasse, and woodchips.
The plant was constructed in partnership with Logos Technologies Inc. under a $25 million program funded 80% by the Integrated Biorefinery Initiative Program of the U.S. Department of Energy. The pilot plant has the capacity to convert two dry tons per day of feedstock into cellulosic sugars and 50,000 gallons per year cellulosic ethanol. According to the Department of Energy, ethanol produced from cellulosic materials has the potential to cut life cycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 86% relative to gasoline.
“Reducing our dependency on foreign oil with minimal effect on the environment is a goal that Edeniq shares with all Americans,” said Brian Thome, President and CEO of Edeniq. “We are working towards this goal by demonstrating, in our pilot plant, advanced technologies and methods to convert non-food cellulosic feedstocks into ethanol in an economically and environmentally compelling way.”
The ethanol process equipment for the pilot plant was skid mounted and shop manufactured in Michigan and then shipped to California for assembling into the integrated plant. Edeniq is gathering metrics from the pilot plant for construction and scale-up opportunities at commercial-sized facilities.
With a new logo and website, Edeniq celebrated the launch of the pilot plant this week with a new logo and website and an industry event at company headquarters.