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Potential low-carbon fuel production from Oregon biomass

Source	Potential annual fuel volume (millions of gallons)
Forest residue	58 to 132
Agricultural residue (corn and wheat only)	13 to 32
Urban wood waste	11 to 19
Unused mill residues	1
Orchard, vineyard prunings	6
Grass straw residue	33
Greenwaste	18
Mixed waste paper	41
Expiring Conservation Reserve Program land planted with a dedicated energy crop	239
Existing crops	13
Total	424 to 524

Source: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Large basins of fermented sugars are brewing at in Corvallis. But this brew isn’t beer; it’s cellulosic ethanol, a promising biofuel that the start-up company says could steal some of corn ethanol’s thunder.

State and federal mandates requiring gasoline to contain a certain amount of biofuels have led to the creation of an industry. But as Trillium begins to test its fuel outside the lab, gasoline prices are at an all-time low, so the demand for biofuels is less.

That doesn’t scare Chris Beatty, founder and president of Trillium. Instead of creating an entire production facility for its new fuel, Trillium is testing production at an out-of-state paper mill, a move that Beatty says will be essential to his company’s success.

“The low price of oil means demand for ethanol is slack,” Beatty said. “By colocating a small fuel production module with a mill or even another ethanol facility, there are much lower capital expenses to get started. You don’t have to dream up an industry.”

Trillium started as a research project at Oregon State University. Today, the company has five full-time staffers at its Corvallis laboratory. The fuel process starts out with biomass, such as grass straw or wood waste. That material is treated with a special enzyme that breaks the biomass down and converts xylose, found in most biomass, into a fermentable sugar. The final substance smells and looks like beer, but can be purified and made into fuel-grade ethanol.

Now that Trillium has perfected its process in the lab, it is working with an anonymous out-of-state pulp and paper mill for testing. Paper mills generate a waste product called heavy cellulose, which contains a large amount of xylose used by Trillium. The company will add its biomass processing hardware to the mill and track results over the next 12 months.

“We originally hoped to add our hardware to corn ethanol facilities, too,” Beatty said. “But those people are truly struggling to survive and don’t have the capital to invest in new projects. The number of customers and the demand is lower than anyone thought it would be when we started.”

Colorado-based cellulosic ethanol company ZeaChem is constructing a production facility in Boardman, where it will produce ethanol from poplar trees. The key to the success of the cellulosic ethanol industry, according to Carrie Atiyeh, director of public affairs for ZeaChem, will be its ability to compete with gasoline. That means producing the best performing biofuel at the lowest cost possible.

“Cellulosic ethanol has to cost less and perform even better than conventional fuels,” Atiyeh said. “Our fuel will compete at $50 a barrel. You need to be focused on what the price of petroleum will be over the next 30 years.”

Though things look somewhat bleak today for biofuels, Atiyeh said the outlook could improve. Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality is developing a Low-Carbon Fuel Standard that would require all fuel distributors and suppliers to combine petroleum fuel with a certain amount of low-carbon fuel, such as biodiesel or ethanol. At a national level, ethanol producers are lobbying for a federal mandate of an ethanol blend to be increased from 10 percent to 15 percent. With many corn ethanol facilities shutting down, cellulosic ethanol producers could gain a foothold, Atiyeh said.

Until then, Beatty said he is exploring other industrial applications where he could make his ethanol on a small scale. His company isn’t where he thought it would be today, but he’s still confident that cellulosic ethanol has a bright future.

“I’m an optimist by nature,” Beatty said. “Everything has taken longer and cost more than I thought it would. With a mix of small customer applications, and some new ideas, the company will move forward.”