Pacific Ethanol to produce cellulosic ethanol at its California-based plant

Pacific Ethanol, a US renewable fuels producer, and Edeniq, a biorefining and cellulosic technology company, have announced that they have entered into a technology licensing and purchase agreement to enable the production of cellulosic ethanol at Pacific Ethanol’s Madera, California plant using Edeniq’s Pathway and Cellunator technologies.

The Madera plant has a total annual production capacity of 40 million gallons, and is expected to produce up to one million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol with Edeniq’s Pathway process. Installation is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2017.

Neil Koehler, Pacific Ethanol’s president and CEO, said: “Consistent with our strategy to improve yields and increase production of advanced biofuels at our plants, we are expanding cellulosic ethanol production to our Madera facility.

“We began producing cellulosic ethanol using Edeniq’s technology at our Stockton plant in December 2015, and the resulting bottom line contribution is significant. Once commercial scale production is reached at Madera, we expect the technology will increase earnings by over $2 million annually.

“We will be working with the EPA to qualify this production for generating D3 cellulosic RINs, which provide an important premium, and we expect the approval to be received near or shortly after we begin commercial operations. We are also working with the California Air Resources Board to qualify our cellulosic production at both our Stockton and Madera facilities for additional carbon credit under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard.”

Brian Thome, president and CEO of Edeniq, added: “We are pleased to expand our relationship with Pacific Ethanol and provide our Pathway and Cellunator Technologies to its second ethanol plant. The low-cost profile of our technologies offers ethanol producers an attractive option for enhancing ethanol and corn oil yields and producing high-value cellulosic ethanol using existing fermentation and distillation equipment.

“We are excited to have over 2 billion gallons of ethanol capacity either already under license or committed to commercial trials for our Pathway Technology, with additional plants being added each month.”

According to Edeniq, its Pathway Technology is a “low-cost solution for producing and measuring cellulosic ethanol from corn kernel fiber utilising existing fermenters at corn ethanol plants”.

The Cellunator high-shear milling equipment is a leading yield-enhancement technology that offers the most significant and consistent increase in ethanol yield and corn oil recovery, and produces cellulosic ethanol when integrated with Edeniq’s Pathway Technology.

The technology features a proprietary technical validation process, quantifies the amount of cellulosic ethanol produced and complies with the registration, recordkeeping, and reporting required by the EPA to generate cellulosic D3 Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) as defined by the Renewable Fuel Standard.