Syntec drops licensing fee for waste-to-ethanol process in bid to attract stranded corn ethanol producers

Syntec Biofuel has announced that it would drop an upfront $250,000 licensing fee for its waste-to-ethanol process, in a bid to attract business from to corn-based ethanol producers hit by soaring feedstock prices. “Corn prices have killed any prospect that most of those using fermentation processes with grain feedstock can produce ethanol cost-effectively,” Syntec chairman and president Michael Jackson said. Syntec proposed a royalty arrangement for its thermonchemical catalysts, which convert wood chips, corn stalks, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse and other non-food materials into biofuels.

Syntec background

Syntec Biofuel has joined the Brigham Young University Fischer-Tropsch Consortium. Working with the BYU Catalysis Laboratory, Syntec will develop proprietary Fischer-Tropsch catalysts and process for producing diesel and jet fuels. The Syntec process will gasify waste biomass, and produce a sulfur-free, carbon neutral synthetic diesel.

Last October, the Syntec Biofuel-Wood Energy Resources acquisition was finalized after closing of more than $1 million in a private placement. Syntec owns and distributes Ethanol Catalyst Technology for conversion of biogas and syngas into ethanol, butanol, methanol and propanol.

They expect to reduce the cost of ethanol to $0.37 per gallon based on conversion of cellulosic biomass such as wood waste, organic waste, corn stover, sugar bagasse, switch grass, poplar, and are moving to the stage of testing catalysts in an industrial environment, prior to moving into the commercialization stage.

Unlike other second generation biofuels producers which use a fermentation process, Syntec uses a thermo-chemical conversion of syngas. After gasifying the biomass, it passes the gas over the catalysts in a fixed bed reactor, similar to the production process for methanol.

Cellulosic ethanol-related activity has perked up considerably this month. U.S. Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota) announced this week the Senate farm bill will provide $200 million in producer incentives to produce and deliver energy-dedicated crops such as corn cobs, perennial grasses, and wood chips, incentivizing up to 100 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol production.

In California, the Emeryville site of a new $135 million, 65,000 square foot cellulosic biofuels lab at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) was announced. The lab will be funded by the US Department of Energy, and also will benefit from a $500 million grant from BP. In Tennessee last month, The University of Tennessee is ready to voted to construct a pilot cellulosic ethanol plant in Vonore in conjunction with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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