Starting a new cellulosic ethanol industry takes a lot more than building new plants.  It requires building a whole new business around gathering biomass from farmers’ fields and delivering it to the plants.

Biomass handling presents an extreme logistical challenge.  At each North American site, for example, Inbicon expects to convert 460,000 tons of biomass per year of either wheat straw or corn stover in a 20 MMgy biomass refinery.  This will require procuring, baling, transporting, stacking, covering, storing, and delivery to the plant.  It will then be conveyed, bale by bale, using highly mechanized and computerized equipment, 24 hours a day, 350 days a year.

A task this large and complex requires specialized machinery, synchronized logistics, a reliable infrastructure, qualified personnel, and a well-planned business model.  Inbicon will import its parent company’s knowledge and expertise for North American use.

In North America, Inbicon will use either wheat straw or corn cobs and stover. Though the first project is likely to be a wheat straw, the abundance of corn production will make cobs/stover the preferred feedstock in the development of the U.S. Midwest.

Several projects in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas also show promise for sugar bagasse.

Although Inbicon will help put a system in place for biomass handling, it has no intention of setting up a North American company for the purpose of feeding its biomass refineries. Here’s just one example of how others can step in and be part of a growing new industry.