Coskata: 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy candidate profile
Coskata
Based in: Illinois
2008-09 ranking: #1
Business: The company’s process heats raw materials to 17800 degrees fahrenheit, then releases the material into a bioreactor where microbes convert the gas into ethanol, with a yield of 100 gallons per ton of feedstock at a cost of less than $1 per gallon. The company can co-locate with steel mills to convert CO into as much as 50 billion gallons of gasoline per year.
Model: Technology licensor; owner and operator of a demonstration-scale facility.
Past milestones:
1. Built a pilot-scale facility in Warrenville, Illinois.
2. Raised $19.5 million in a second round of funding that will be used towards construction costs of its first 100 Mgy cellulosic ethanol plant. General Motors and Khosla Ventures were among the investors in the first round of funding.
Future milestones:
1. Building a 40,000 gallon demonstration plant for cellulosic ethanol in Madison, PA. The semi-scale plant in Pennsylvania will demonstrate the integrated operation of Coskata’s gasification technology and what Coskata believes is the leading gallons per dry ton conversion rate for biomass.
1. Coskata projected in 2009 they it would reach 100 Mgy in annual production by 2012.
2. The company expects to build its first 50-60 Mgy commercial scale plant in the Southeast, with a focus on the US Sugar facility near Lake Okeechobee in South Florida. The company said that it’s process reduces the use of water in refining by 50 percent compared to gasoline.
Metrics: Coskata, which uses thermochemical and biological processes, says that it can produce 100 gallons of fuel per ton of waste.
The Coskata model presupposes a yield of around 100 gallons per ton of biomass. Sugar cane grows at around 70.9 tonnes per hectare in India, and at 71 in Brazil; in Florida, yields are at 68 tonnes per hectare. 12 percent of that cane is sugar, which yields 1700 gallons of ethanol per acre, or more. The remaining 88 percent is bagasse for a Coskata process, or about 60 tonnes per hectare. To generate 100 million gallons in this model, Coskata will need 1 million tons, or 900,000 tonnes of biomass. That will require 15,00 hectares, or 32,500 acres. That’s 51 square miles, or the area within 4 miles of a 100 million gallon refinery. A mighty plantation, but not long hauling distances.
Coskata quotable quotes:
“Speaking at the Advanced Biofuels Summit, Wes Bolsen, Coskata CMO said he was not worried in the short term about downstream development of ethanol distribution infrastructure, saying that in the context of building the first handful of 50-100 Mgy cellulosic ethanol plants that people were lining up to take the ethanol.”
“Coskata confirmed to Australian media that it plans to establish a 53 Mgy advanced biofuels plant in the state of Victoria, and was seeking a partnership that would help provide cellulosic ethanol, forest residues and building waste. The state government of Victoria also confirmed that it is in talks with Coskata, which is partly owned by General Motors, the parent company of Australia’s largest auto maker, Holden.”
The Hot 50 for 2009-10 will be released Tuesday, 12/1. Between now and then, you’ll see profiles of potential candidates in the Digest, and you’ll have a chance to vote for your favorites. Reader response will count for 50 percent of a company’s overall score in the preparation of the rankings. The remaining 50 percent is voted by a panel of experts.
Information on registering your company for the “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy” rankings is here. While registration is not required, completing the candidate profile allows companies to augment information provided to the panel of selectors – registration form materials are also used to create candidate profiles that are published daily in Biofuels Digest.
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