2. Gusher! KiOR starts production of US cellulosic biofuels at scale Editor’s Note: Turns out that good news on cellulosic biofuels pulls readership, too — this story on KiOR’s start-up of biocrude production drew a lot of eyeballs. The start-up has been elongated, and some KiOR observers have become frustrated with the pace from mechanical completion to producing fuels at or near capacity. But those quibbles were far from sight when readers heard the news last November that KiOR production was starting up. “With a roar like a hundred express trains racing across the countryside, the well blew out, spewing oil in all directions.” Well, the startup of biocrude production at KiOR’s Columbus plant arrived with less drama than the above-described gusher at Spindletop in 1901. And James Dean was nowhere to be found, in a rain of oil that spread across the flickering screen in Giant. But the news from Columbus, Mississippi, that cellulosic biocrude production has started up, on schedule, on budget, and at scale — it’s a shocker for the skeptics, not to mention any short-sellers for KiOR. Cellulosic biofuels, at scale, at parity, — “five years away” for so long that the phrase was assigned to a dustbin also containing President Hoover’s 1932 statement that “prosperity is just around the corner” — has arrived in the United States, via a new generation of catalytic technologies developed by KiOR. At its Columbus-based 500 ton per day plant, KiOR is processing renewable oil that is on-spec for hydrotreating into gasoline and diesel. With scale-up, total cost per gallon drops to $5.95 by 2013, $3.73 per gallon in 2014, and the magic sub-$3.00 figure in 2015 when it is expected to reach $2.62 per gallon at full-scale.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 18:17:41 +0000
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