Abengoa secures biomass supply for Kansas cellulosic ethanol project

April 15, 2011 |

In Kansas, Abengoa is reporting that they are on schedule to secure 100 percent of the biomass raw material for its Hugoton, Kansas, cellulosic ethanol plant.  The company has signed contracts with several local biomass producers, and is currently in talks with others, to obtain the required annual supply of 315,000 tons of cellulosic biomass by the end of 2011.

Upon start-up, the facility, scheduled to be commissioned in 2013, will convert about 315,000 dry tons per year of crop residue and cellulosic energy crops to 25 million gallons of ethanol, while also generating 25 megawatts (MW) of electrical power, enough to power the ethanol conversion process.

Abengoa reports that they took several steps to ensure their biomass supplies, including looking at economical transportation distance  to the facility, that the supplies would be available normal fluctuations of weather and different growing conditions, life cycle sustainability, and working with suppliers to make sure that the harvest would meet expecations of both the producers and Abengoa.

Abengoa also reports that they will start  biomass in the fall of 2011 and will continue in the summer and fall of 2012.  Construction of the  Hugoton, Kansas, plant is planned to start this summer and full commercial operation is expected in the first half of 2013.

This facility will be Abengoa’s first second-generation facility and seventh bioethanol facility in the U.S., bringing the company’s total biofuel production in the country to more than 400 million gallons.

More on the story.

Category: Fuels

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