The poetry of cutting greenhouse gas emissions
The world’s largest producer of corn-based ethanol will see a reduction in carbon emissions by 111% over petrol when it opens its first planned commercial cellulosic ethanol plant.
This means Poet’s cellulosic ethanol actually has negative emissions; it will offset more greenhouse gas emissions than it produces.
The analysis, compiled by Air Improvement Resource highlights a number of characteristics of Poet’s process that lead to this large emissions reduction.
A lifecycle analysis tracks the emissions of ethanol production from field to tank. It includes emissions from planting and harvest, feedstock transportation, conversion to ethanol, waste products, co-products and transportation of the ethanol. It also includes Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculations for changes in land use and effects on agriculture inputs.
Poet’s Project Liberty produces ethanol from agriculture waste. Because it uses a waste product from an existing crop, there are no additional inputs for planting and growing the feedstock.
The waste stream from Poet’s process is fed into two anaerobic digesters to create biogas. Enough biogas is produced to completely power both Project Liberty and the adjacent grain-based ethanol plant. The natural gas that is displaced in this process is credited to the cellulosic ethanol plant.
The analysis found that all the inputs into Project Liberty will emit 41.8 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent units per megajoule of energy produced. The biogas exported as a co-product will offset 49.8 gCO2eq/MJ. EPA estimates for land use and agriculture changes offset an additional 1.7 gCO2eq/MJ, bringing Project LIBERTY’s total emissions to -9.7 gCO2eq/MJ. EPA’s standard for petrol emissions is 92.9 gCO2eq/MJ.
Poet produces more than 1.6 billion gallons of ethanol and 9 billion pounds of high-protein animal feed annually from 26 production facilities nationwide. Poet also operates a pilot-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, which uses corn cobs as feedstock, and will commercialise the process in Emmetsburg, Iowa.
This means Poet’s cellulosic ethanol actually has negative emissions; it will offset more greenhouse gas emissions than it produces.
The analysis, compiled by Air Improvement Resource highlights a number of characteristics of Poet’s process that lead to this large emissions reduction.
A lifecycle analysis tracks the emissions of ethanol production from field to tank. It includes emissions from planting and harvest, feedstock transportation, conversion to ethanol, waste products, co-products and transportation of the ethanol. It also includes Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculations for changes in land use and effects on agriculture inputs.
Poet’s Project Liberty produces ethanol from agriculture waste. Because it uses a waste product from an existing crop, there are no additional inputs for planting and growing the feedstock.
The waste stream from Poet’s process is fed into two anaerobic digesters to create biogas. Enough biogas is produced to completely power both Project Liberty and the adjacent grain-based ethanol plant. The natural gas that is displaced in this process is credited to the cellulosic ethanol plant.
The analysis found that all the inputs into Project Liberty will emit 41.8 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent units per megajoule of energy produced. The biogas exported as a co-product will offset 49.8 gCO2eq/MJ. EPA estimates for land use and agriculture changes offset an additional 1.7 gCO2eq/MJ, bringing Project LIBERTY’s total emissions to -9.7 gCO2eq/MJ. EPA’s standard for petrol emissions is 92.9 gCO2eq/MJ.
Poet produces more than 1.6 billion gallons of ethanol and 9 billion pounds of high-protein animal feed annually from 26 production facilities nationwide. Poet also operates a pilot-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, which uses corn cobs as feedstock, and will commercialise the process in Emmetsburg, Iowa.
Loading ...
