Construction works on Red River Biorefinery commences in North Dakota

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Type of post: NEWS.

Although some construction activities already had begun on site, BioMass Solution LLC held the groundbreaking ceremony of the Red River Biorefinery on August 22 (see “Red River Biorefinery breaks ground in North Dakota”, Ethanol Producer, 22/8/2018). The project was developed by the Wisconsin company in close collaboration with Biotechnika.

Location
11-acre (4.5 ha) site in Grand Forks (North Dakota, USA).
Feedstocks and processing capacity
500,000 tons of sugar beet tailings and potato and pasta processing waste.
BioMass Solution has a long-term contract with:
- American Crystal Sugar Co. (sugar beet cooperative).
- Simplot (potato processor in Grand Forks).
- Philadelphia Macaroni Co.
The plant will operate year-round as at least one of the three feedstocks will be on hand at all times. Pretreatment will vary slightly with each raw material.
Products and production capacity
- 16.5 MMgy (62.5 Ml) of ethanol that will generate D3 and D5 RINs. It will be sent to California where the Low Carbon Fuel Standard offsets transport costs, making the market the most favorable.
- A wet animal feed byproduct with higher protein than traditional DDGS. It will be sold locally.
Technology
Sugar beet processing technology developed by Biotechnika.
Construction company
ICS.
Expected start-up
2020.

Figure 1. Representatives from project partner companies and organizations posed with hardhats and shovels at the groundbreaking ceremony for Red River Biorefinery (Lisa Gibson, BBI International).

The process is similar to that of the corn-to-ethanol technology once the feedstock hits the fermentation step. The feedstocks has a higher water content than corn, so hydrolysis and pasteurization are different (including new enzymes for hydrolysis). The temperatures and other process conditions also vary a bit. The overall size of the plant is smaller than traditional US corn ethanol plants.

Jacek Chmielewski (principal of BioMass Solution) and Tomasz Kapela (owner of Biotechnika) agreed that Red River Biorefinery could become a model for other agricultural waste operations in USA.

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