Terrabon works on green petrol
Texas, US-based Terrabon is working on a renewable green petrol fuel, identical to ordinary petroleum-based fuel, which can be made from organic material like cornstalks.
Terrabon has been testing a technology known as MixAlco. Developed by scientists at Texas A&M University, it uses an acid fermentation process that can convert biomass into chemicals that can be further processed into petrol.
By September Terrabon plans to be producing 300 gallons a day of green petrol from chopped sorghum using the Bryan facility and a second in College Station that does the final conversion to petrol.
While Terrabon has had success with test batches and recently received the backing of a major oil refiner, the fuel still has not been proved on a large scale. The nation’s ethanol industry is well-established with robust government support.
The company is fine-tuning the research stage at its $3.5 million (€2.45 million) Bryan research facility that the company calls Energy Independence I.
‘One of the reasons we built this was to find out what we didn’t know,’ Malcolm McNeill, Terrabon’s chief financial officer, says.
The company hopes to begin building a much larger plant in Port Arthur with the backing of San Antonio’s Valero Energy, the nation’s largest oil refiner. In April, Valero said it would be the lead investor in the first installment of equity financing for Terrabon.
Green petrol behaves much more like conventional petrol, with comparable fuel economy and compatibility with existing oil infrastructure, Terrabon says.
The company believes it can produce the fuel for $1.75 per gallon—cheaper than estimates for some cellulosic ethanol technologies.
Terrabon has been testing a technology known as MixAlco. Developed by scientists at Texas A&M University, it uses an acid fermentation process that can convert biomass into chemicals that can be further processed into petrol.
By September Terrabon plans to be producing 300 gallons a day of green petrol from chopped sorghum using the Bryan facility and a second in College Station that does the final conversion to petrol.
While Terrabon has had success with test batches and recently received the backing of a major oil refiner, the fuel still has not been proved on a large scale. The nation’s ethanol industry is well-established with robust government support.
The company is fine-tuning the research stage at its $3.5 million (€2.45 million) Bryan research facility that the company calls Energy Independence I.
‘One of the reasons we built this was to find out what we didn’t know,’ Malcolm McNeill, Terrabon’s chief financial officer, says.
The company hopes to begin building a much larger plant in Port Arthur with the backing of San Antonio’s Valero Energy, the nation’s largest oil refiner. In April, Valero said it would be the lead investor in the first installment of equity financing for Terrabon.
Green petrol behaves much more like conventional petrol, with comparable fuel economy and compatibility with existing oil infrastructure, Terrabon says.
The company believes it can produce the fuel for $1.75 per gallon—cheaper than estimates for some cellulosic ethanol technologies.
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