Des Moines Register
03-01-07
Iowa plant wins grant for ethanol from cobs
The Department of Energy will provide up to $80 million for Broin Cos.' project.
By PHILIP BRASHER
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
Washington, D.C. - The government agreed Wednesday to invest as much as
$80 million in an Emmetsburg biorefinery that will turn corn cobs, not just corn,
into fuel ethanol. But the project's developers said still more federal cash will be
needed to get farmers to sell their cobs.
The Broin Cos. project was one of six nationwide that were awarded up to $385
million to help build the first commercial-scale factories for producing ethanol
from biomass, such as crop waste, garbage and citrus peels.
Cellulosic ethanol, which can be made from plentiful, inedible material that
makes up all plants, is key to meeting President Bush's goal of displacing 20
percent of U.S. gasoline use by 2017, said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.
The projects "could eventually change the way we run our entire transportation
sector in America. It's a big deal," said Bodman.
Jeff Broin, Broin's chief executive, said the Emmetsburg project should be
operational by the end of the decade and would "help end America's dependence
on foreign oil."
The DOE grant would cover up to 40 percent of the project's construction costs.
However, the company will be seeking an additional $20 million from Iowa to
build the refinery. Plus, Broin wants additional funding from Congress to
subsidize the cost of buying the 750 tons to 850 tons of cobs needed each day to
supply the facility, said Mike Muston, the company's executive vice president for
corporate development.
Farmers will need to be paid about $100 a ton to get them to participate, he said.
The company hopes to get Congress to foot about half that cost through the
2007 farm bill, he said.
At $50 per ton, taxpayers would pay about $40,000 a day, or about $15 million a
year, if the plant operated every day.
Broin needs 300 to 400 farmers within about 35 miles of the facility willing to
harvest cobs along with their grain.
Aides to the Senate and House agriculture committees said lawmakers were
looking at a variety of ways to promote biofuels development. "What types and
levels of support are needed for feedstocks remains to be determined," said Kate
Cyrul, a spokeswoman for Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., chairman of the House
Agriculture Committee.
Broin intends to begin harvesting tests this year in several states.
The project requires expanding the existing Voyager Ethanol plant south of
Emmetsburg, which now produces 50 million gallons of ethanol a year from corn.
The completed facility would increase production to 125 million gallons annually,
with 25 million to 30 million gallons coming from cobs and kernel hulls. The
biorefinery would use waste from the cellulose to generate its own heat and
electricity.
The plant would use fermentation technology developed by DuPont at its
Wilmington, Del., research facilities. A DuPont subsidiary, Des Moines-based
seed giant Pioneer Hi-Bred International, would assist in advising farmers in the
Emmetsburg area and determining the best corn hybrids for use in the project.
Broin is working with Deere and Co. to modify combines to harvest both the cobs
and grain.
In 2003, DuPont received a $38 million matching grant from the Department of
Energy to develop cellulosic ethanol from corn plants.
The company is well short of meeting its targeted production costs.
With current technology, Broin can produce ethanol from cellulose for about
$2.25 to $2.50 a gallon, Muston said.
By the time the Emmetsburg project is in operation, the company hopes to have
lowered the cost through internal research to less than $2 a gallon.
Eventually, the goal is to bring the production cost in line with that of grain-based
ethanol, now about $1.30 to $1.40 a gallon after recent increases in the price of
corn.
The Energy Department had originally planned to give three projects a total of
$160 million but decided to expand the program to accelerate development of the
biofuel.
The exact funding for each project, including Broin's, will depend on how well the
projects progress and how much money Congress allocates each year, officials
said.
Other projects would use everything from yard waste to wheat straw and waste
trees. They would test a variety of technologies, including gasification, acids and
enzymes, to process the cellulose.
The projects "have their pluses and minuses," said Robert Brown, director of
Iowa State University's Office of Biorenewables Programs. "The technology
is still at a point that it's difficult to estimate the economics of it."
Reporter Philip Brasher can be reached at (202) 906-8138 or
pbrasher@dmreg.com