Plant to convert electricity poles to ethanol enters startup phase
Montreal-based Enerkem Inc. says it is entering the start-up phase for its first commercial-scale plant, which in this case is designed to convert old utility poles into five million litres of cellulosic ethanol every year. The plant, based in Westbury, Quebec, began construction in October 2007 and its core — the “conditioned synthesis gas island” — was completed in December. The plant is now in its advanced commissioning stage and production of conditioned syngas will soon begin. The gas will be used as a chemical feedstock initially to make methanol, which will be converted into ethanol using a separate module. “Once these gas-to-liquid modules are bolted to the syngas island, Enerkem will become the first producer of liquid fuels and green chemicals to commercially use renewable, non-food, negative-cost feedstock,” the company said. “The Enerkem thermo-chemical process uses one tonne of waste to produce 360 litres (95 gallons) of ethanol,” the company said. That’s enough fuel for a car to travel 2,500 kilometres.
Last June, you’ll recall that Enerkem, in partnership with Greenfield Ethanol, announced it is building a plant in Edmonton that will convert municipal solid waste into cellulosic ethanol. This is a company to watch.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
January 14th, 2009 at 6:13 am
[...] that Tyler Hamilton has news about developments that don’t seem to show up elsewhere. He has news of a Plant to convert electricity poles to ethanol. Montreal-based Enerkem Inc. says it is entering the [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 6:16 am
Ethanol from waste is going to be the big thing this year. We will finally see that it can be done, and we can wave goodbye to the wasteful corn process.
Even better, Enerkem can produce better fuels such as synthetic diesel using its process.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:44 am
[...] this year, Enerkem also entered the start-up phase for a small plant in Quebec that converts old power utility poles into ethanol. Again, a good [...]
March 31st, 2009 at 3:06 pm
[...] this year, Enerkem also entered the start-up phase for a small plant in Quebec that converts old power utility poles into ethanol. Again, a good [...]
April 4th, 2009 at 11:43 am
[...] this year, Enerkem also entered the start-up phase for a small plant in Quebec that converts old power utility poles into ethanol. Again, a good [...]