One Step Closer to Commercial Production of Cellulosic Chemicals and Ethanol

One Step Closer to Commercial Production of Cellulosic Chemicals and Ethanol
I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

One of the world’s first operational cellulosic biorefineries is located here in the Pacific Northwest -- in Boardman, Oregon. Earlier this week ZeaChem,Inc. announced the Boardman demonstration plant has started production and will serve as a key stepping-stone toward large-scale commercial production.
Unlike conventional biorefineries, ZeaChem can convert nearly any non-food biomass into fuels and chemicals.
ZeaChem Director of Public Affairs Carrie Atiyeh shares more details.

Atiyeh: “We just announced the production of bio-fuels and bio-based chemicals at that facility. Those products are being sourced with woody biomass with Greenwood Resources Tree Planation nearby as well as wheat straw from local area farmers. What ZeaChem is doing is replacing fossil-based fuels and chemicals with renewable fuels and chemicals that utilize local biomass resources in the Boardman area.”

She says ZeaChem plans to have its first commercial facility up and running in the first half of 2015.

Atiyeh: “And that will be located adjacent to the demonstration plant in Boardman. We will be scaling up from 250,000 gallons per year to 25 million gallons a year at that first commercial plant.”

Currently the demonstration facility uses 10 tons a day of biomass and when the commercial facility is up and running in the fall of 2015 it will use 600 tons of biomass on a daily basis.