Upon start-up, the facility, scheduled to be commissioned in 2013, will convert about 315,000 dry tons per year of crop residue and cellulosic energy crops to 25 million gallons of ethanol, while also generating 25 megawatt (MW) of electrical power, enough to power the ethanol conversion process.
Recognising that obtaining the annual supply of cellulosic biomass was key for the successful operation of the plant, Abengoa took several critical steps early in the project’s conception to ensure a reliable feedstock supply system was in place. This included determining that adequate amounts of biomass were available within an economical transportation distance of the projected facility site, and making sure that this biomass supply would be available during normal fluctuations of weather and different growing conditions.
The company has also ensured that the biomass could be harvested in a sustainable manner over the projected lifetime of the project, in a way that complies with the accepted crop production practices of the area, and engaged in extensive interactions with local producers to ensure that the biomass harvest would meet their expectations, as well as those of Abengoa, in terms of quantity, quality and cost.
Based on these efforts, Abengoa will begin harvesting biomass in the fall of 2011 and will continue in the summer and fall of 2012.
Abengoa has also conducted testing to determine the best procedures for harvesting the biomass in a sustainable manner that meets or exceeds Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) minimum standards for the prevention of soil erosion. From 2008-2010, various technologies for harvesting biomass were evaluated for several other parameters, including harvest efficiency, transportation efficiency and minimizing extraneous material in the harvested biomass.
The construction of the Hugoton, Kansas, plant will start this summer and full commercial operation is expected in the first half of 2013. This facility will be Abengoa’s first second-generation facility and seventh bioethanol facility in the US, bringing the company’s total biofuel production in the country to more than 400 million gallons.
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