Company CEO explains details of biorefinery processes, products

Irshad Ahmed, president and CEO of Pure Energy Inc. the company that is spearheading the effort to build a biorefinery complex in Saline County, spoke on the specifics of operations at the complex during the Saline Green Project town hall meeting, including how to involve local farmers.

The complex will be capable of producing 10 million gallons of ethanol annually, with the potential of producing 40 million gallons once the project's second phase is completed.

"We want to walk before we run," said Ahmed.

Ahmed said 1,800 "green" tons, meaning material with 50 percent moisture content, will be processed daily by the facility.

"Our objective is, on the feedstock side, to actually have purpose-grown crops right here, have the farm community actually start the project going immediately," said Ahmed.

Agricultural wastes and crops suitable for use by the complex will include rice straw, wheat straw, corn stover, corn cobs, bagasse, molasses and grasses. Usable municipal solid waste usable will include paper, cardboard, construction and deconstruction waste, solid waste and sewage sludge. Industrial waste that can be used will include soft wood, wood chips, pallets, sawdust, paper mill sludge, food processing waste and other cellulosic waste, Ahmed said. Over 32 varieties of lignicellulosic and municipal wastes have been tested.

"Our process is very flexible when it comes to using different kinds of feedstocks. We can mix and match," he said. "We can actually utilize what is available to us on a given day and adjust our process conditions to produce ethanol without missing a beat."

Ahmed mentioned a number of financial incentives offered for such a project as this.

"While the intent and the resolve has been there from Washington, top down, and we all recognize -- as businessmen, as farmers, as community leaders -- that this is the right thing to do, we just couldn't implement it, partly because the disconnect that we've all experienced with the financial world and the profit and loss statements compared to the 'right thing,'" Ahmed said. "... I'm very glad that we have put that chapter of our lives behind us."

The 2008 Energy Policy Act mandates the annual production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022, with 21 billion gallons of that annually coming from cellulosic biomass, said Ahmed, which means this is a field that is legislated to grow.

The federal subsidy for cellulosic ethanol is $1.01 per gallon, Ahmed said, more than double the federal subsidy of 45 cents for each of the 7.5 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol currently produced in the country each year. Additionally, Missouri offers a subsidy of 20 cents per gallon of cellulosic ethanol, which by itself amounts to $2 million annually, based on a production of 10 million gallons per year.

In addition, $20 billion is currently available in federal loans from U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy to support cellulosic ethanol projects, and DOE is offering $800 million in grants of $50 million each, Ahmed said.

Finally, he pointed out, 51 percent of the biorefinery project can be written off for tax purposes, so long as the center begins operations by 2013.

Further financial benefits will come after the plant opens, Ahmed said.

He explained that this process of cellulosic ethanol production will annually create 18,000 metric tons of a number of useful derivative chemicals as byproducts, such as furfural.

"Furfural is a very interesting 'mother chemical,' as I call it," said Ahmed

Other "mother chemicals" are benzene, toluene, xylene, propylene and ethylene, all of which can be produced from crude oil, and in fact, said Ahmed, make up 30 percent of a barrel of oil.

"Of course, ethylene goes to ethylene bags and plastics and a wide variety of other (things), but you will be surprised to know that those five mother chemicals actually give birth to as many as 80,000 derivative chemicals, and that touches every aspect of our lives. So, when we talk about reducing our dependence on foreign oil, the solution is not simply to get rid of gasoline. ... The challenge is not simply to look at gasoline or diesel or finished products as your target, but to look at the entire barrel of crude oil as your target to replace."

Contact Geoff Rands at marshallreporter@socket.net

Related story:
Community members meet to hear about biorefinery project:
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