Edeniq crosses the 1,000 hour mark at CellEth demo

May 16, 2013 |

In California, Edeniq announced the company’s first demonstration plant, located at its Visalia, CA headquarters, has completed a successful “performance test” that exceeded the benchmark of  1,000 hours of continuous operation. The Corn-to-Cellulosic Migration plant utilizes Edeniq’s proprietary technology to process over one metric ton of cellulosic feedstock per day to cellulosic ethanol, exceeding the plant’s initial target.

The project was borne out of an initial $20.5 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE), also under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009, to retrofit and build the California plant as part of the DOE’s Integrated Biorefinery and Biomass program. This effort has been carried out in partnership between Logos Technologies, LLC (Fairfax, VA), as prime contractor and administrator, and Edeniq, as primary subcontractor, technology provider, and operator.

In addition to achieving over 1,000 hours of continuous operation, the plant sustained and exceeded the DOE’s target of at least 90 percent up time, in fact demonstrating over 95 percent operational reliability. The objective of the project has been to demonstrate the viability of scaleable, cost-effective approaches to producing ethanol from non-consumptive sources including corn stover, switchgrass, and woodchips.

Following this milestone, Edeniq will continue operations of the plant under the co-sponsorship of the California Energy Commission. The plant will undergo further process enhancements toward the production of low-cost sugars from a range of biomass and agricultural waste sources, including those indigenous and strategic to California. Edeniq is already leveraging the technical and operational lessons learned from this project in the design and implementation of larger scale facilities—including the demonstration of low-cost, high-purity sugars production via bagasse processing at 20 metric tons per day.

Category: Fuels

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