VERBIO to transform DuPont’s Iowa cellulosic ethanol plant into a renewable natural gas facility
Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.
DuPont
Industrial Biosciences (DuPont) and VERBIO
North America Corporation (VNA), US subsidiary of German bioenergy company VERBIO Vereinigte BioEnergie AG (VERBIO),
have reached terms for VNA to acquire DuPont’s cellulosic ethanol plant in
Nevada (Iowa, USA) and a portion of its corn stover inventory.
Press release: “VERBIO
to acquire DuPont’s Nevada, Iowa-based cellulosic ethanol plant”, 8/11/2018.
Related post: “Official
opening of the cellulosic ethanol biorefinery of Dupont in Iowa”,
27/10/2015.
DuPont officially opened the biorefinery on October
2015 and reported its plans to sell it two years
after. Following its merger with Dow in 2017, the company
announced a strategic shift within the cellulosic biofuels business and began
to seek a buyer for the plant. Currently, it continues to participate in the overall
biofuels market offering enzymes and engineered yeast solutions that improve
yield and productivity.
Figure 1. Cellulosic ethanol plant of DuPont in
Iowa (extracted from DuPont website). It has been sold to VNA.
VNA intends to install the equipment required
to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) from corn stover and other cellulosic
crop residues at the site. The existing facility offers excellent
infrastructure to construct the RNG plant and there is a solid base of local
farmers from whom to procure the raw materials. VNA is working on plans to
start construction of the RNG plant in spring 2019 and begin commercial
production of renewable transportation fuel by summer 2020.
VERBIO is running four plants in German producing
around 27 million gallons of RNG, 140 million gallons of biodiesel and 87
million gallons of ethanol per year. This would be VERBIO’s third production
facility devoted to this cellulosic technology. In 2014, the company started up
the first one in Schwedt (Germany) and the second one in Pinnow (Germany) is
currently being commissioned.