Closed-loop ethanol plant to eliminate need for fossil fuels in production

A few weeks ago, as part of a longer post on the current state of ethanol, I excerpted an article featured in Wired written by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. Vinod had seen an something he liked.

A company called E3 Biofuels is about to fire up the most energy-efficient corn ethanol facility in the country: a $75 million state-of the-art biorefinery and feedlot capable of producing 25 million gallons of ethanol a year. What’s more, it will run on methane gas produced from cow manure.

Today, more details were provided into this intriguing technological advance.

E3 BioFuels will launch the first-ever closed-loop ethanol plant in Mead, Nebraska, in December.

Company officials say the facility’s processes will eliminate the need for fossil fuels in ethanol production altogether. Dennis Langley, Chairman and CEO of E3 BioFuels, says the Genesis plant will begin production in December 2006 as the first-ever closed-loop system for distilling commercial quantities of ethanol using methane gas recaptured from cow manure instead of fossil fuels.

The closed-loop system — derived from an exclusive patent co-owned by an affiliate of E3 BioFuels — combines a 25-million-gallon ethanol refinery, beef cattle feedlot and anaerobic digesters to maximize energy efficiencies unavailable to each component on a standalone basis. The system eliminates the potential for manure to pollute watersheds, and it enables the wet distillers grain from ethanol production to be fed on-site to cattle without energy-intensive drying and transportation costs.

Langley said E3 BioFuels plans to build 15 more such plants near feedlots and dairy farms, of increasing size, within the next five years.

The melding of feedlots and ethanol production seems like it could great potential, with room for questions.