The University of Tennessee has been laying the groundwork for this project for several years, conducting a full range of agronomic research on switchgrass varieties, establishment and management and potential conversion technologies and uses. Tennessee’s vision began taking shape as part of the SunGrant Research Initiative, created by Congress in 2003 to establish five regional efforts in biobased energy and product technologies. Several departments in the University of Tennessee, along with the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory explored feedstock and conversion options. In the fall of 2007, the university’s groundwork seemed to have come to a fruitful juncture when a partnership was announced with cellulosic ethanol developer Mascoma Corp. to build a 5 MMgy cellulosic ethanol plant at Vonore, Tenn. The project, designed to demonstrate cellulosic ethanol technology at one-tenth commercial scale, landed a $26 million DOE grant and the state of Tennessee committed $40 million to the project. But just a year later, in July of 2008, UT announced it had ended that partnership and would be working with the joint venture Dupont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC.
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Shifting Directions
With the shift in direction for industry partners in Tennessee, it appears the project is picking up momentum. DDCE’s plans are to build a 250,000 gallon demonstration facility with corn cobs as the initial feedstock at the site near Vonore, Tenn., chosen by the Tennessee Bioenergy Initiative. Meanwhile, the University of Tennessee continues to sign up farmers in a state-funded incentive program to stimulate switchgrass establishment, and is now looking to get a pelleting plant established as an alternative user of switchgrass production while the biorefinery project develops.
A ceremonial groundbreaking was held in October at Niles Ferry near Vonore for DDCE’s demonstration plant. The plant is a joint venture with Genera Energy LLC, the corporation formed by the University of Tennessee Research Foundation to manage the collaboration. Construction began in earnest in December on the 250,000 gallon per year facility. “We’re calling it a demonstration instead of pilot plant,” says Georg Anderl, DDCE vice president of engineering. “Because of the strengths that the parent companies have going into this joint venture, at this scale we can go directly to commercial scale without intermediate steps.” By the end of the year DDCE expects to be running cob through the facility, producing the data for the parallel engineering of the first commercial facility targeted to be operational by late 2012.
While DDCE is planning to build and operate several commercial plants using its technology, it is not planning to become a major provider of cellulosic ethanol, says Joe Skurla, president and CEO. “We will be entering the market globally as a provider of cellulosic ethanol technology. That will mean licensing, royalties, providing proprietary equipment, maintenance contracts and support.” DDCE has a team already looking for a location for the first corn cob-based commercial facility, likely to be co-located with a corn ethanol plant to make use of existing infrastructure. Once the cob-based process is underway, DDCE will turn to switchgrass, with the first commercial facility to be built in Tennessee. “It’s important to put your money where your mouth is,” Skurla says, “and that makes your mouth more credible.” The commercial facilities are aimed at demonstrating the viability of DDCE’s technology platform and the Vonore facility under construction now will become an applications laboratory for optimizing DDCE’s process for multiple agricultural residues and dedicated energy crops.
Unlike many cellulosic ethanol ventures under development, the money backing DDCE is coming entirely from the joint venture partners. Each entity is contributing $70 million as well as technology and key personnel. Skurla and Stuart Thomas, DDCE technology director, joined the joint venture from Dupont, while Georg Anderl, vice president of engineering, and Jack Huttner, vice president commercial and public affairs, came from Genencor, a division of Danisco AS. The joint venture is built upon previous collaborations. The Dupont-Tate & Layle BioProducts Joint Venture tapped into Genencor’s enzyme expertise as they developed and built a plant at Loudon, Tenn., to manufacture bio propanediol from corn starch. DuPont sells the bio-based polymer and also uses it in several product lines including fibers, de-icers and detergents.
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