Des Moines Register
12-03-06
Frontline adds fodder to power source debate
Ames firm wants ethanol plants fueled by stalks, straw, not fossil fuel
By JERRY PERKINS
REGISTER FARM EDITOR
Frontline BioEnergy of Ames wants to provide a renewable power source for
ethanol plants.
Although ethanol has been touted as a renewable fuel made from corn, fossil
fuels - most commonly natural gas - power most of the nation's ethanol plants.
Iowa's 25 ethanol plants will use 19 percent of the natural gas burned in Iowa this
year, estimated John Reardon, Frontline BioEnergy research and development
director.
Coal, which fuels two of Iowa's 25 operating ethanol plants, is much cheaper
than natural gas, but the fossil fuel emits greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide,
blamed for global warming.
Frontline promotes another option: gas from biomass sources, such as corn
stover, wheat straw and other plant material.
Biomass gas costs about half as much as natural gas and about the same as
coal, Reardon said.
"Biomass is a local feedstock," Reardon said. "Your energy dollars stay local and
benefit your local economy."
Frontline's new technology is reversible, so that if biomass becomes unavailable
for some reason, natural gas burning can resume.
The company's biomass gas has applications in other natural gas-fired
industries, Reardon said, but the company wants to concentrate on ethanol now.
Frontline should have its biomass gasifying equipment ready for commercial sale
in about a year, Reardon said.
A simple biomass gasifying system will cost about $15 million from Frontline,
Reardon said, which is cheaper than coal.
Frontline moved to Ames from Colorado last year, Reardon said, because Iowa
is the largest producer of ethanol in the United States.
Most of the ethanol plants use natural gas to produce steam that turns corn
starch into liquid and to distill the alcohol that becomes ethanol. Natural gas
accounts for about a third of the cost of producing ethanol, the second-largest
expense after corn, Reardon said.
Natural gas also is needed to dry the high-protein livestock feed known as
distillers grains that is a co-product of the ethanol-making process.
Frontline's mission statement says the company wants "to lead the nation in
biomass gasification solutions for energy and products."
Frontline is testing its pioneering technology at Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co. of
Benson, Minn., a 10-year-old farmer-owned plant in east-central Minnesota.
The project aims to demonstrate how biomass gas can replace almost all of the
natural gas that an ethanol plant uses, Reardon said.
A research and development agreement that Frontline and Chippewa Valley
entered into a year ago calls for Frontline to install a biomass gasification system
at the 45-million-gallon-a-year Chippewa Valley ethanol plant.
Chippewa Valley has purchased $15 million in services, equipment and materials
from Frontline for installing a prototype gasification system at the ethanol plant.
In exchange, Chippewa Valley will get an alternative energy source to the $20
million in natural gas that it used last year. Chippewa Valley has taken an
ownership stake in Frontline Bioenergy and has two seats on the five-member
board of directors.
The prototype gasifiers will be designed by Frontline to use several different
biomass feedstocks, including corn stover, distillers dried grains, corn, wheat
straw and wood wastes.
Dan Benson, a board member of Chippewa Valley, said the ethanol plant will
benefit from lower energy costs and will use a locally produced resource.
"I really like the idea of replacing natural gas and reducing (Chippewa Valley's)
operating costs with a renewable resource like the corn stover that's available on
my farm," said Benson.
Chippewa Valley will be responsible for developing a system for supplying the
biomass feedstocks that will be gasified at the ethanol plant.
With the ethanol plant's equity position in Frontline BioEnergy, Benson and Bill
Lee, Chippewa Valley's general manager, joined Frontline's board. Also on the
board are the company's principal owners, Reardon, Norman Reese and Jerod
Smeenk, who worked for 10 years at Iowa State University.
A $132,274 grant from the Grow Iowa Values Fund, the state's premier economic
development program, is helping Frontline design commercial-scale gasifiers that
can process 300 tons or more of biomass a day, according to ISU.
Working with Frontline on the research: ISU researchers Robert Brown,
director of the Office of Biorenewables Programs; Ted Heindel, a professor
of mechanical engineering; and Francine Battaglia, an associate professor
of mechanical engineering.
Heindel and Nathan Franka, a master's student in mechanical engineering, will
use Iowa State's $640,145 X-ray flow visualization facility to look at what
happens when biomass gas is used.
Battaglia and Mirka Deza, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, will use
Iowa State's "Lightning," a computer that can run 1.8 trillion calculations a
second, to provide computations of the simulations.
The computer can help Frontline make design changes without having to
construct expensive prototypes for experiments, ISU said.
Frontline also has a demonstration project at the Iowa Energy Center's Biomass
Energy CONversion facility, known as BECON, in Nevada.
Farm Editor Jerry Perkins can be reached at (515) 284-8456 or
jperkins@dmreg.com