Enerkem: 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy candidate profile

Enerkem
Based in: Canada
2008-09 ranking: Unranked

Business: The Company uses a proprietary thermo-chemical technology (green gasification and catalytic conversion) to convert heterogeneous materials into ethanol. R&D is underway to produce Synthetic gasoline (syngas), Synthetic diesel, and Dimethyl Ether (DME). The Company is majority owned by clean-technology investment pioneers and institutional funds, including Rho Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures and BDR Capital. The Company was founded in 2001.

Model: Owner/operator

Past milestones:

1. Started operating its commercial demonstration plant in 2009. It is expected to produce methanol by the end of 2009 and ethanol shortly after. The plant will produce 1.3 million gallons of ethanol from used electricity poles (treated wood).

2. Signed a 25-year supply agreement with the City of Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) to build and operate a municipal solid waste-to-biofuels project.  The project received the necessary environmental permitting, and is ready to start construction by the end of 2009.

3. Announced its first biofuels project for the United States (Mississippi), along with its agreement with the Three Rivers Solid Waste Management Authority of Mississippi (TRSWMA) for the supply of municipal solid waste as feedstock.

Future milestones:

1. Production of methanol and second generation ethanol will begin at its Edmonton municipal solid waste-to-biofuels production facility. The plant will produce 10 million gallons per year.

2. Construction of its waste-to-biofuels facility in Pontotoc, Mississippi will commence. The plant will produce 20 million gallons per year from sorted municipal solid waste and wood residues.

3. Additional projects will be launched, as Enerkem is currently developing these plans in North America.

Metrics: Enerkem has an efficient modular plant model with scalable units of 10 M gallons/year of biofuels from waste and residues.  Its standardized plant design can easily be replicated.  The 10 M gallons of ethanol can reduce CO2 emissions by 240 000 tonnes per year. Enerkem’s thermo-chemical technology has been proven through more than 3,600 hours of rigorous piloting and testing, since 2003.

The Company has signed a 25 year agreement with the City of Edmonton for the supply of 100,000 tonnes of sorted municipal solid waste to be used as feedstock.  The Edmonton biofuels plant will be situated at the City’s leading Edmonton Waste Managed Center (EWMC). Enerkem has also signed a Memorandum of Intent for the supply of189,000 tons of unsorted municipal solid waste per year, for use as feedstock, with the Three Rivers Solid Waste Management Authority of Mississippi (TRSWMA), for its Pontotoc (Mississippi, US) plant.

Enerkem quotable quotes:

“Enerkem is proud to have gone through the entire rigorous path to commercialization, moving from: lab to pilot to commercial demonstration to commercial. This has allowed Enerkem to ensure a smoother transition to commercialization and an optimization of its process. “

“The Company’s technology is feedstock flexible, allowing it to use sorted municipal solid waste as well as agricultural and forest residues. Therefore, it can develop projects in both rural and urban centers. One of our plants is capable of converting more than one type of feedstock. This gives Enerkem a strong competitive advantage, as its feedstock is a source of revenue (receives waste disposal fee).The technology is also a  multi-product technology platform, which makes it possible for Enerkem to produce advanced transportation fuels, green chemicals and renewable electricity- a wide range of projects based on market conditions.”

“Our process is environmentally-friendly, as the water is re-used in a closed-circuit and the process is often a net producer of water; our facilities are compact, decentralized and located near the feedstock supply; and, our use of waste provides an alternative to landfilling and is complementary to recycling. Enerkem’s plant model also requires low energy, as the gasifier is auto-thermal and the chemical reactions produce most of the energy and heat needed”

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