Logos Technologies Inc. and EdeniQ Inc. will use $20.5 million of U.S. DOE funding that came under the DOE’s Integrated Biorefinery Program to retrofit and build a Corn-to-Cellulosic Migration pilot plant at EdeniQ’s headquarters in Visalia, Calif. The retrofit is slated to be completed by the end of the year.

Logos and EdeniQ were selected by the DOE to receive the $20.5 million back in December 2009 to jointly develop the CCM pilot project. The commitment of the remaining $17.7 million in federal cost share reflects that Logos and EdeniQ have satisfied all of the conditions associated with the design and engineering of the retrofit to EdeniQ’s currently operating pilot plant. Previously, in April 2010, the DOE released $2.8 million in federal cost share for the initial “budget period 1” portion of the cooperative agreement.  

EdeniQ’s role in the project will be providing the CCM pilot plant, technology development, engineering and commercialization planning. Logos, headquartered in Arlington, Va., is responsible for project management, engineering support and project life-cycle analysis. Prior to its announced venture with EdeniQ, Logos expanded its portfolio of capabilities to produce cost-effective liquid biofuels by acquiring Pennsylvania Sustainable Technologies LLC. The PST technology, according to Logos, “compliments other Logos initiatives in affordable green energy such as advanced nuclear-reactor and nuclear-fuel research and engineering.”

Meanwhile, the goal of the CCM project, according to EdeniQ’s Vice President of Business Development Peter Kilner, will be to validate EdeniQ’s ongoing development of second-gen enzymes and yeasts for saccharification and fermentation of cellulosic materials such as corn stover, switchgrass and woodchips into cellulosic ethanol, which will serve as a model for the company’s scale-up efforts. Once complete and startup is initiated, the new pilot facility will be capable of processing 2 tons of cellulosic biomass per day.

“What’s involved in this overall endeavor is that, one, we’re expanding the scale for the facility to process 2 tons per day of biomass into cellulosic ethanol at scale and, two, to have it completely integrated with the recycle streams so that it’s a fully-integrated biorefinery rather than a once-through conversion process,” Kilner said.

He said construction and fabrication work by Grand Rapids, Mich.-based engineering and design firm Andy Egan Inc. has begun, with a majority of the construction and fabrication of the new biorefining equipment expected to be conducted by Andy Egan in Michigan, then shipped to Visalia for bolt-on assembly.

“It will be less expensive to do skid-mounted processing modules that would be fabricated in Michigan and them ship the equipment to California, rather than assemble all the equipment in California,” Kilner said.

While EdeniQ’s immediate goal is focused squarely on the production of cellulosic ethanol, Kilner added that the company does see potential for the technology to produce other biofuels and chemical intermediates in the future.

“Our process is a very efficient, low-cost process,” Kilner stated. “We do see, in the long-term, greater opportunities such as providing sugars from cellulosic biomass that could be converted, not only into ethanol, but also into other chemicals and fuels as well.”