Feedstocks Evolve with the Production of Ethanol

The future of ethanol production in the US is from cellulosic- and algae-based feedstock facilities. By-product CO2 (crude feed) from these plants will be a target of sequestration projects, used as feedstock for liquid merchant CO2 plants, and used in industrial processes such as enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and coal bed methane (CBM) projects.

In the US, the ethanol production is rapidly evolving away from the grain-based, or first generation, feedstock facilities, to second generation biofuels derived from crop byproducts or biomass, and third generation fuels derived from algae (see “Trash to Treasure,” CGI February 2010, p. 30)…