194 



AARC 



Alternative Agricultural Research & Commercialization Center 



Florida Farm Wastes Could Fill 



Your Tank 



t 



The marvels of genetic engineering 

 applied to problem piles of agricultur 

 al waste materials could create an eco 

 nomical new source of ethanol. 



BioEnergy International | 



of Gainesville, Florida, a sub- 

 sidiary of Quadrex Corporation 

 already has patented its own 

 process using genetically engi- 

 neered bacteria to produce ethanol from 

 woody plant materials. The next step is to 

 develop a commercially viable system specif- 

 ically designed to produce high-quality fuel 

 ethanol from mixed waste paper and agri- 

 cultural materials, including corn stover (the 

 dry stalks and leaves left after the corn is 

 harvested). BioEnergy 's conversion technol- 

 ogy uses a diluted acid hydrolysis pretreat- 

 ment. followed by enzymatic hydrolysis to 

 produce ethanol. 



BioEnergy plans to ultimately invest 

 S3 5 million in this "biomass-to-ethanol" 

 project to process waste paper and corn 

 stalks to ethanol. The project is receiving an 

 additional 5625,000 in outside investment, 

 including S 100.000 being contributed 

 from the revolving fund of the Alternative 

 Agricultural Research and Commercial- 

 ization (AARC) Center, a branch of the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture. 



The repayable AARC Center invest- 

 ment is earmarked for testing and validating 

 various aspects of the use of feedstocks com- 

 bining newsprint and corn stover. Part of the 

 AARC funded work will examine the fermen- 

 tation of sugars from these combined feed- 

 stocks. The technical challenge is converting 

 woody materials into sugars in a cost-effective 

 way The subsequent procedures for convert- 

 ing the sugars to ethanol are part of a well- 

 established process. 



The company proposes to enter the current 1 -billion-gallon-per-year U.S. market for ethanol. This 

 market is expected to expand steadily due to the pollution-reduction requirements of the Clean Air Act. If 

 all goes according to plan, the first Florida plant will be operating within 4 years and will provide 63 full- 

 time jobs. Each plant would utilize the waste materials from SO. 000 acres of corn or from similar acreages 

 of wheat, straw or vegetable crops. BioEnergy forecasts show that the new technology could produce 30 to 

 SO billion gallons of ethanol per year from agricultural materials that are considered wastes today 

 BioEnergy also will sell the carbon dioxide generated as a by-product. 



iLJsrranon by Ed Coufet 



BioEnergy International L.C., FL 



Sponsor's Contact: John F. Gerber, (904) 378-971 1 

 Raw Material: Biomass - Agricultural Waste 



Material - & Mixed Waste Paper 

 Product: Fuel Ethanol 



AARC: $100,000 



Cooperators Contributions (est.): $150,000 



USDA-AARC CENTER • 12th & C St. S.W. • Washington, DC 20250 

 Telephone: (202) 401 4860 • Fax: (202) 401-6068 



Printed on recycled paper using soybean-based ink 



