Enerkem to demonstrate waste-ethanol power
Canada-based biofuels firm Enerkem may have come up with a solution to create cheap biofuels while at the same time decreasing the amount of rubbish on landfill sites.
The current problem with using ethanol as a biofuel is that it is still expensive but contains much less energy to the gallon compared to petrol.
With a waste-to-fuels facility in Mississippi set up to help Enerkem, and a $51 million (€37.8 million) funding opportunity, including investment from Waste Management of Houston, the company is ready to demonstrate that ethanol-to-biofuels can be economically viable.
The refinery in Mississippi will be Enerkem’s first ethanol biorefinery in the US. Costing $250 million, the project will convert around 189,000 tonnes of waste into ethanol. The price of this end product will be reduced because the pre-sorting of the waste products is minimal.
According to Enerkem, it can produce 90 gallons of ethanol from one tonne of feedstock, 25 gallons of potable water and over 300lbs of aggregates that has the potential to be blended with tar or concrete and used as a construction material.
It is thought that if Enerkem manages to significantly reduce the cost of ethanol, battery-powered vehicles may have some competition to contend with.
The current problem with using ethanol as a biofuel is that it is still expensive but contains much less energy to the gallon compared to petrol.
With a waste-to-fuels facility in Mississippi set up to help Enerkem, and a $51 million (€37.8 million) funding opportunity, including investment from Waste Management of Houston, the company is ready to demonstrate that ethanol-to-biofuels can be economically viable.
The refinery in Mississippi will be Enerkem’s first ethanol biorefinery in the US. Costing $250 million, the project will convert around 189,000 tonnes of waste into ethanol. The price of this end product will be reduced because the pre-sorting of the waste products is minimal.
According to Enerkem, it can produce 90 gallons of ethanol from one tonne of feedstock, 25 gallons of potable water and over 300lbs of aggregates that has the potential to be blended with tar or concrete and used as a construction material.
It is thought that if Enerkem manages to significantly reduce the cost of ethanol, battery-powered vehicles may have some competition to contend with.
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