Greenbelt to build a duckweed biorefinery supported by AJY Foundation

By -


Greenbelt Resources Corporation (Greenbelt) announced on May 18 the signing of a Letter of Intent by the Andrew J. Young (AJY) Foundation to build a biorefinery in the southeast USA based on Greenbelt’s proprietary ECOsystem technology.

According to the press release, these are the preliminary data about the planned facility:
Feedstock
Duckweed (lemnaceae).
Products and production capacity
Bioethanol: 500,000 gallons per year.
Protein concentrate that will be sold to organic feed mills and food ingredient manufacturers.
ECOsystem biorefinery cost
$5.0 million (over an estimated $14.0 million total project cost)
Start-up
It is expected to be operational 15 months after breaking ground

The construction of such facility forms part of a bigger initiative called “Duckweed Project” which is aimed to empower small farmers by providing technical knowledge on growing duckweed as a cash crop and selling it as a feed for biorefining. Below, we are going to delve into this interesting initiative and the ECOsystem technology.

The Lempro Duckweed Project

The AJY Foundation is a non-profit public charity that supports research and development on new technologies that have the potential to create sustainable jobs and a more equitable society in rural America, Africa and across the globe. In this pursuit, the Foundation is currently focused upon finding sustainable solutions for food insecurity and malnutrition, reengineering traditional agriculture and medicine and inclusivity in the financial system for the impoverished sections of society worldwide.

In this context, the Foundation is boosting a program related to lemnaceae, a subfamily of plants commonly known as duckweed. It is a small, fast growing, protein rich, aquatic plant that floats on the water’s surface. Duckweed, once processed, can produce food, energy, fuels and fertilizers. Moreover, it can help clean-up water. The AJY Foundation believes that duckweed can play a vital role in the quest for answers to the aforementioned problems. On a local scale, duckweed can revolutionize agricultural landscape by providing an alternative cash crop for the farmers that would revitalize impoverished rural communities with new jobs, training, business and educational opportunities.

Figure 1. Nutrient rich duckweed (extracted from the presentation “Duckweed Project – A nutritious solution for humanity”)

So far, the high cost to fertilize duckweed inorganically has made it prohibitive to grow it commercially for producing protein concentrate and ethanol for market demand. The proof of concept phase, leaded by the inventor and thinker Freddie Hebert, of the Duckweed Project showed that it is possible to fertilize the plant in a self-sustaining way at an affordable cost. Protein concentrate is produced by using the corn ethanol process to remove the starch from duckweed. Recycling of the yeast water, after ethanol and solids are removed, to the duckweed growing area makes it possible to grow it twice its normal size with no outside nitrogen. Duckweed doubles its weight every 24 hours and this process is 100% organic.

A USDA-funded feasibility study conducted by Agregy Renewables on behalf of the AJY Foundation outlines a commercialization plan focused on financing and developing as many as 20 more duckweed biorefineries over an eight-to-ten-year timeframe, initially in the southeast and western USA and then across the globe.

Greenbelt and its ECOsystem technology

Greenbelt is a company focused on delivering modular solutions that enable the localized processing of locally generated waste into locally consumed products. Controlled by proprietary automated controls, Greenbelt’s small-scale, end-to-end modular systems convert wastes (food, beverage and cellulosic residues) into commercially viable advanced biofuels, animal feed, fertilizer and filtered water.

The company owns a test facility in Paso Robles (California), known as PRECO (Paso Robles ECOsystem). It is a system designed to produce half a million gallons of bioethanol from a variety of feedstocks available in the Paso Robles area. PRECO utilizes such feedstocks as waste trub from the nearby Firestone Brewery and winery wastes from the over 310 wineries in the local area. The ECOsystem technology can also be custom-designed to transform other feedstocks of local areas into bioethanol and bioproducts.

The feasibility study of Agregy Renewables found that Greenbelt’s technology “has been proven to be very cost effective and energy and operationally efficient at the small scale of operation for the Duckweed Project (…) recent commercial plant installations including Greenbelt’s test-bed facility in Paso Robles (CA) have shown to be technically viable to convert a wide range of biomass feedstocks to ethanol, animal feed and fertilizer.”

Popular Posts

Mini-plant for production of glucaric acid from glucose starts up successfully

By -
Image
Recent news about one of the DOE’s 12 Top Biobased Molecules. Rennovia Inc. and Johnson Matthey Process Technologies announced on July 16 that they have successfully started-up a mini-plant for production of glucaric acid from glucose using jointly developed technology. In March 2014, these companies embarked on a collaboration to develop, demonstrate and commercialize catalytic process technologies for the production of bio-based glucaric acid and adipic acid. Under the collaboration, Rennovia and JM Process Technologies work together in processes based on Rennovia’s technology for the catalytic aerobic oxidation of glucose to glucaric acid and the catalytic hydrogenation of glucaric acid to adipic acid. The final goal of the collaboration is to license a package enabling commercial production of these chemical products. The successful operation of this mini-plant is a major milestone in the journey to achieve this goal. The facility is located at the Johnson Matthey Process ...
Read more

Biorefinery models - Lignocellulosic biorefinery

By -
Image
Publication date: 25/04/2016 Last update: 25/04/2016 ABOUT THE SERIES OF POSTS “BIOREFINERY MODELS” This post belongs to a series called “ Biorefinery Models ”. This series is devoted to briefly describe the models or concepts of advanced biorefineries which have emerged in the last few years and that are rising currently. These models are simplified representations which enable us to understand in a simple way the structure and characteristics of a general biorefinery type. Some of these models refer to the type of feedstock while other focus on the technologies involved. A biorefinery may resemble these models or be the result of variations and combinations of them. It should be noted that although these paradigms are very useful and instructive, they show limitations in describing and classifying complex systems with high level of integration. In order to define and describe a specific complex case, the blog recommends use the classification proposed by IEA Bioenerg...
Read more

Hidrotratamiento (HVO) – Conceptos, materias primas y especificaciones

By -
Image
English version Sección: BIOCOMBUSTIBLES AVANZADOS Serie: HVO - Hidrotratamiento (HVO) – Conceptos, materias primas y especificaciones - Hidrotratamiento(HVO) – Ventajas sobre el biodiesel convencional y propiedades - Biorrefinerías de Aceites Vegetales Hidrotatados (HVO) – El auge del diésel renovable - Entradas: HVO                El acrónimo HVO significa en inglés “ Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils ” (“Aceites Vegetales Hidrotratados”) o ” Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils ” (“Aceites Vegetales Hidrogenados”). Clave del proceso: Tratamiento con hidrógeno. En el proceso de producción de HVO, el hidrógeno se usa para eliminar el oxígeno de los triglicéridos produciendo una mezcla de parafinas lineales, CO 2 y agua. Posteriormente, el producto de la primera etapa se isomeriza, siempre en presencia de hidrógeno, para ramificar las cadenas lineales con el propósito de mejorar las propieda...
Read more

Biofuels from algae

By -
Image
In my opinion, the production of biofuels and biobased chemicals from algae is one of the most fascinating topics in the sector of the biorefineries and it will be one of the niches of opportunity with highest potential in the medium and the long terms. This post pretend to be a very basic approach to the topic Algae-to-Biofuels through three general key points. Algae 1,2,3,4,5 Algae include a wide variety of photosynthetic organisms capable of transforming light, water and specific nutrients into products that can be used with commercial and industrial purposes. We can say that algae are sunlight-driven factories with potential to convert CO 2 into biofuels, high-value biochemical, food and feed. There are four algae cultivation technologies currently in use for commercial algae cultivation and proposed for algal biofuel production: extensive or open ponds, intensive or raceway ponds, closed photobioreactors in many designs and closed fermenter systems. Algal biof...
Read more

Biobased acrylic acid

By -
Image
Versión en Español Type of post: Fact sheet. Series: Biobased chemicals – Organic acids. Publication date: 05/05/2021. Last update: 05/05/2021. Description - Organic acid with 3 carbon atoms. - It is a clear, colourless, corrosive liquid with a characteristic acrid or tart smell. - Other names: prop-2-enoic acid. Applications - Formation of homopolymers or copolymers which are used in the manufacture of various adhesives, coatings, diapers, detergents, paints, plastics and textiles. The main use of crude acrylic acid is the generation of acrylate esters, followed by the production of polyacrylic acid, used mostly in superabsorbent polymers. - Chemical intermediate in multiple industrial processes. Conventional petrochemical route - Cracking of fossil naphtha to produce propylene / Oxidation of propylene. Main biobased routes - [3-HPA via] Fermentation of sugars to produce 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HPA) / Dehydration of 3-HPA. - [Biobased naphtha via] Cracking of biobased naphth...
Read more