American Process: Biofuels Digest’s 2015 5-Minute Guide

February 4, 2015 |

5-Minute-Guide-logoAlthough American Process has been most closely associated with its complete cellulosic biofuels package — of late, the company has been much in focus because of its capabilities in producing low-cost renewable sugars.

Thought it was a matter of making sugars and shipping them to an ethanol producer? Think again. In this case, there are opportunities for butanol and ethanol conversion from xylose and mannose. But glucose is expected will go to the sugar markets and to chemical processors.

So, American Process highlights the advantages in co-locating with power plants for power & heat. In short, there’s an industrial symbiosis building up — where you can see power, renewable sugars separators, fuel biorefineries and chemical plants potentially sharing a central location, close to biomass feedstock and rail logistics.

Rankings

50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy: #28, 2014-15

The Situation

American Process has tied itself tightly to the fortunes of its major investor, GranBio, and that’s turned out pretty darn well because GranBio has completed its first cellulosic ethanol deployment and is readying for a second.

American Process itself came through fine on a Q2 2013 startup of its demonstration project that will handle up to 10 tons per day of biomass, and producing up to 300,000 gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol.

AVAP (American Value Added Pulping) co-produces pulp and ethanol from biomass in an integrated biorefinery application. Biomass is converted to sugars using a two step proprietary process. In the first step biomass is quickly broken-down into its three major components: cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. In the second step, hemicellulose is hydrolyzed to sugars using heat and cellulose is hydrolyzed to sugars using enzymes. Lignin is removed and burned to produce the energy required to run the process.

The first 21.6 million gallon GranBio facility in Alagoas that will use sugarcane bagasse as feedstock is came online in late 2014. The first plant produces cellulosic ethanol from sugarcane bagasse and straw; Novozymes supplies the necessary enzyme technology, while Beta Renewables and Chemtex, both part of Italian chemical group Mossi & Ghisolfi (M&G), provide other process technologies and engineering.

CEO Theodora Retsina sums it up: “For us, there are five important lessons learned. First, leverage co production wherever you can, and don’t build anything you don’t have to. Second, understand that there is real risk, and perceived risk, and only operating a large demonstration that you keep as simple as possible, will allow you to understand the risks.

“Third, there’s the execution risk, and we have found that it is paramount to keep in-house control of basic engineering and construction management. “Fourth, a lack of stable policy has great impact. Fifth, in financing, you have to look everywhere, conventional and unconventional.

But we like one thing even more about American Process, though its a more futuristic science, and we can sum it up in one word: nanocellulose. If the cars of the future are going to feature lighter but stronger body materials — meaning better fuel efficiency or smaller batteries — we’ll ikely have nanocellulose to thank. And that’s just one application of a whole new frontier of aplied science where American Process is one of a handful of key players.

Type of products produced

Ethanol, industrial sugars

Major investors

GranBio

Past milestones

In November 2014, American Process and Futuris Automotive formed a partnership with researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, Clark Atlanta University, Swinburne University of Technology, and the USDA’s Forest Products Laboratory to develop ultra-strong, lightweight automotive structural components reinforced with nanocellulose. Nanocellulose is a rapidly emerging high performance nanomaterial extracted from trees. The goal of the project is to replace heavy steel structures within cars, such as the seat frames, with advanced reinforced polymers that have cost parity with traditional materials. The nanocellulose composites promise to be an economical substitute for expensive light-weight carbon fiber composites currently used in some luxury automobiles such as BMW’s all-electric i3.

In April 2014, American Process shipped its second commercial ethanol cargo and sold the first cellulosic ethanol RINs from its Alpena Biorefinery. These are the first cellulosic ethanol RINs generated since the beginning of 2013.  These are also the first ever commercial cellulosic ethanol RINS generated from woody biomass in in the US. We believe that American Process is also likely the first company in the world to produce commercial quantities of cellulosic ethanol from mixed forest residue.

In April 2013, at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference (ABLC 2013), GranBio completed the acquisition of a 25% equity stake in American Process. Under the agreement, GranBio said it will have gained access to a proprietary biomass pretreatment platform that makes it possible to cost-effectively develop cellulosic sugars as a feedstock to a range of biochemicals and biofuels. The companies said that they expect to break ground on their first commercial-scale facility by the end of 2014. The companies will collaborate on a first commercial facility with API technology in Brazil, followed by one in the United States. Between now and then, American Process will complete demonstration activities on targeted feedstocks at its demonstration-scale plants in Alpena, Michigan and Thomason, Georgia.

In 2010, American Process was awarded an $18M DOE grant for the development of the Alpena Biorefinery to be built at the Decorative Panels International mill in Alpena, Michigan. The project has also received a $4M state grant from the Michigan Center of Energy Excellence.

2010 – Built EPCM AVAP Demonstration Plant in Thomaston, GA and filed 22 biorefinery patent applications

2009 – Developed apiMAX™ biorefinery simulator – read more…

2009 – Formed JV with Sniace for cellulosic ethanol plant in Spain

2008 – Developed Process Development of Red Shield DOE awarded process

Future milestones

GranBio’s second next-gen cellulosic ethanol plant iin Brazil is expected to commence operation by 2016 with a nominal capacity we expect of 22 million gallons (82 million liters).

Stand by for more progress on nanocellulose.

Business model

Licensor.

Competitive edge

API’s Retsina pointed towards technical capabilities, especially the technology’s capabilities of separating three distinct fractions from softwoods — cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. “Softwoods are very recalcitrant and difficult to work with, but 90% of the sugars in the hemicellulose are C6 and that is a distinct difference from other wood, not to mention the plentiful supply of softwood, for example across the southeastern US. Softwood is abundant and today is in surplus — and it’s been one of the myths that, with hemicellulose, you typically have C5 sugars – that’s not the case with softwoods.”

“The investment in API marks GranBio’s entry into the North American cleantech market, said GranBio president Bernardo Gradin. “It is a strategic move by the company, since the pretreatment solution developed by API enables the production of low cost cellulosic sugars, which also fulfill the stringent requirements required for manufacturing biochemicals. With this platform, we will be able to expand GranBio’s activities to other products, beyond cellulosic ethanol.”

“The association with a demonstrated cleantech leader like GranBio strengthens American Process,” said API CEO Theodora Retsina. “Sugar is the new crude — the production of low cost clean sugars is key to unlocking the potential of biomass as a versatile feedstock for fuels, chemicals and bio-products. We are actively partnering with “sugar converters” to complete the supply chain and convert sugars to high margin products.”

Company website

Category: 5-Minute Guide

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