Idaho Energy Future published by state: wood, biodiesel, cellulsoic ethanol, waste-to-energy, biogas, and ethanol in focus

The state of Idaho released a detailed assessment titled “Idaho Energy Future”, and identified numerous bio-energy opportunities for economic development.

The report concluded that “Wood is a key opportunity; biogas power generation in Idaho holds promise; Waste to energy for municipal waste is of interest; ethanol production capacity for alternative fuels is growing; cellulosic ethanol is an emerging opportunity in the state; and biodiesel has strong and growing potential. Biofuels Digest Index stock Intrepid Resources was featured in the report for its innovative digest plants.

Biofuels Digest has obtained a copy of the full report and it can be downloaded here.

Idaho background

Idaho Ethanol Processing said that it will spend up to $6 million in the next year to improve the energy use at the plant, which uses potato waste, unusable wines and juices, molasses, and beet syrup as feedstocks. The project will develop a process to generate power from methane created in potato processing.

The 60 Mgy Pacific Ethanol plant in Burley is facing daily fines from the local town council for zoning violations stemming from odors characterized in an AP story as “eye-watering”. The company is working to investigate and remediate. The $120 million project opened in April. Pacific Ethanol recently commenced production at the plant, which will use 21 million bushels of corn, and the entire ethanol demand for Idaho from the plant, as well as up to 500,000 tons of distillers grains for livestock feed.

In Canada, Iogen said that would suspend development in the state of Idaho and build its 23 Mgy cellulosic ethanol plant in Saskatchewan, after the Canadian officials put together a $500 million incentive package for ethanol projects, although it was not disclosed how much would be steered to Iogen. The US Department of Energy had offered $80 million in loan guarantees for the $350 million project. Iogen is backed by Shell, Petro Canada and Goldman Sachs.

Iogen execs said that they hoped to launch the 23 Mgy plant north of Saskatoon by 2011, using wheat straw and other cellulose as feedstock.

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