The Spanish energy company Abengoa opened the world’s largest cellulosic refinery in Hugoton, about 90 miles southwest of Dodge City, Kansas, said Biofuels Digest. The plant has a capacity of 25 million gallons a year of ethanol a year, produced from corn stover, wheat straw, milo stubble and switchgrass. It is the second of three large U.S. plants coming into production in close order. Poet-DSM opened a $275 million cellulosic plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, in early September.
“The refinery’s nameplate capacity makes it, for the time being, the world’s largest cellulosic biofuels facility, topping the 21 million gallon capacity of the GranBio facility in Alagoas, Brasil. The plant is expected to hold the “world’s largest” title until the DuPont … plant opens in Nevada, Iowa, early in the new year,” said Biofuels Digest.
With cellulosic ethanol becoming available, there may be more attention to the federal mandate for use of biofuels. EPA has yet to announce if it will lower the target for 2014. The oil industry says the fuel market is nearly saturated at the traditional 10 percent blend of corn ethanol into gasoline.
“I am less concerned about exactly what production volume target EPA sets for 2014 or 2015 than with how they reset the policy in the timeframe 2016 to 2022 and beyond,” wrote Jeremy Martin of the Union of Concerned Scientists in a blog for the National Geographic. “Establishing policy stability over the next 5 to 10 years is what will support the next round of investment. And strong regional policies like the California Low Carbon Fuels Standard and related clean fuels policies in Oregon and Washington can accelerate the trend further, drawing investment in clean fuels technology from around the world to the US and to these states in particular.