There are two ways to make ethanol out of agricultural crops.
Grain-based ethanol facilities like the one Broe Companies Inc. plans to build in Belle Plaine, Sask., use corn and cereal grains to produce the alternative fuel.
Cellulose-based plants such as Iogen Corp.’s demonstration facility in Ottawa and the new plant proposed by the Nipawin Ethanol Co-operative use the stalks, stems and leaves of plants to make ethanol.
Ottawa recently announced a $100 million program for the construction of new ethanol plants over the next three years. Both types of facilities will be able to apply for that money.
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But later in that same announcement the federal government said that over the coming months it will work with the provinces to examine a range of programs to develop a commercial “cellulose-based ethanol industry.”
The announcement indicated the federal government is keen on the cellulose-based approach to ethanol production for one reason.
“There is about twice the benefit in terms of greenhouse gas reduction when you produce it from cellulose as compared to either using cereal grain or corn,” said Bill Cruickshank, manager of the biochemical conversion program at Natural Resources Canada.
Grain-based ethanol plants run on fossil fuels like natural gas. Cellulose-based operations derive energy from the plant material itself. One of the major components in cereal straw is lignin. Lignin can’t be converted into ethanol, but it acts as an energy source for the whole process.
“That’s where the real greenhouse gas benefit comes from,” said Cruickshank.
Cellulose-based plants are also more productive, said Bill Russell, project manager for the Nipawin Ethanol Co-op. His plant will use a gasification process to produce 550 litres of ethanol per tonne of biomass compared to the 320 L that can be squeezed out of a tonne of wheat.
Given the right blend of biomass ingredients there can be as little as two percent residue left over after the cellulose is converted into synthetic gas, which in turn is converted into ethanol through a high-heat, low-oxygen process.
“The only residue we have is a mineral ash,” said Russell.
A briefing memo on the Nipawin project said it is expected to be less capital intensive, recover a higher volume of ethanol and more profit than grain-based systems.
That contradicts the findings of a 2001 report on ethanol prepared for Saskatchewan Economic and Co-operative Development.
It estimated the output from a cellulose-based plant at 300 L per tonne, similar to grain-based units. And it said a cellulose plant would be “much more capital intensive” than building a grain-based ethanol facility.
No commercial scale cellulose-based plant has been built in North America, so no hard data is available to accurately compare the two techniques.
But one of the partners in the Broe project said grain-based plants have one significant proven advantage. About one-third of the raw material that goes into the process comes out the other end in the form of distillers grain, said Dennis Estey, director of business development with Saskatchewan’s Crown Investments Corp.
That high-protein feed ingredient can help the province grow its cattle herd.
“We could feed more cattle here in the long run as opposed to sending them west to Alberta,” said Estey.
