Project Update: Sundrop Fuels Aligns Itself With Another Big Player for Inaugural Site

We first brought you the story of Sundrop Fuels in December, after the advanced biofuels company announced plans for its first commercial project near Alexandria, La. The Colorado-based startup is significantly backed by big names, including strategic partner Chesapeake Energy Corp., with additional investments from Oak Investment Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers. 

Now Sundrop Fuels will be working with another big name in the industry as it continues forward progress on its inaugural project in Rapides Parish, La. The gasification-based advanced biofuels company has signed a licensing agreement with ExxonMobil to use its patented methanol-to-gas technology at its facility.

Sundrop Fuels announced plans for its alternative fuels project in Nov. 2011. With plans to break ground by the end of the year and a goal of being in production by 2014, the company's first commercial plant is designed to produce up to 50 million gallons of renewable gasoline per year. 

Adding ExxonMobil to the mix strengthens Sundrop's safety net because it means that one more major company has a stake in the project's success. The methanol-to-gasoline process was developed in the 1970s and successfully commercialized for a large-scale natural gas-to-gasoline plant in the 1980s in New Zealand. The Louisiana project would mark the first time the MTG process is used for the production of biofuels.

The success of the Louisiana project is crucial for Sundrop Fuels, which needs a commercial installation of its RP Reactor to prove its radiant particle heat transfer gasification technology. The company hopes to use this project as a stepping stone for future massive-scale biofuels plants that can produce more than 300 million gallons of renewable, drop-in biofuels annually. 

Better BTU Project Blog: Liquid Fuel: The Holy Grail of Biomass - Dec. 2011

Further Reading:

Alt-fuels Firm Sundrop to Use ExxonMobil Process at Rapides Parish Site – The Town Talk; June 30, 2012

Sundrop Fuels to Use ExxonMobil MTG Technology for Nation's First "Green Gasoline" Production Facility – Virtual-Strategy Magazine; June 27, 20120

Better BTU Brings You the Updates

Over the past two months we’ve blogged about five different projects in the realm of biomass, using various forms of gasification. As promised, we’ve continued to monitor these projects and will bring you periodic updates so you can give your Google search bar a rest. So sit back, and read up!

Taylor Biomass Energy: Taylor’s plans for a waste gasification facility in Montgomery, N.Y. have experienced several snags over the past two years but an article in the Times Herald-Democrat announced that the company has finally secured feedstock agreements.

CEO Jim Taylor (Second from the Left) with the Orange
County Chamber of Commerce in July 2011. Courtesy: OCC

Published on Jan. 24^th, the paper reports, “at least seven Orange County municipalities have now signed 20-year contracts” with Taylor Biomass Energy to haul their trash to the facility upon completion.

The news represents a big a win for CEO Jim Taylor whose previous negotiations with the county ended in August over the question of an escape clause. At that time, the City of Newburgh was Taylor’s only guaranteed customer for the proposed plant.

The latest announcement says that Cornwall, New Windsor, Goshen, Walden, Montgomery and Cornwall-on-Hudson have now joined Newburgh as future customers of Taylor Biomass Energy.

While the feedstock agreements are a good sign, Taylor still has a long way to go before it can open doors on a new facility. Although Sen. Charles Schumer has publicly supported the project, Taylor still needs to secure private funding for the $145 million facility in order to qualify for the federal loan guarantee he’s after.

Additionally, Taylor Biomass Energy is waiting for the outcome of a permit dispute it has with the state. A New York Supreme Court judge “invalidated the project’s permits and approvals” in September. The company won a stay after appealing the decision that allows for construction to continue but is not out of the woods yet.

Read more about Taylor Biomass Energy

Municipalities Sign On With Taylor Biomass - Times Herald-Democrat (1/24/12)

Sundrop Fuels: The Colorado-based company is moving forward with plans for its inaugural facility in Boyce, La. The Louisiana State Board Commission gave “preliminary approval to the issuance of $450 million in bonds by Rapides Parish officials to equip a new facility,” as reported by The Times-Picayune on Jan. 20^th.

The latest timeline has the pilot plant near Alexandria, La. on line by 2013 with a full plant functioning two years later.

Read more about Sundrop Fuels (discussed mid-article):

State Bond Commission approves Citizen Insurance Bond Refinancing - The Times-Picayune, Jan. 20, 2012

S4 Energy Solutions: Our guest blogger first put S4 Energy Solutions (named because of plasma is the fourth state of matter) on our radar back in November. The company opened the first commercial plasma gasification facility in the U.S. at the site of the Columbia Ridge Landfill in Arlington, Ore. The project is featured in February’s issue of Wired magazine.

A diagram of the S4 plasma gasification process.
Courtesy: S4 Energy Solutions. 

Plasma gasification has been a hot topic in the renewable energy field but has proved “too energy- and capital-intensive for real-world use on everyday trash,” according to magazine writer David Wolman. But S4 cofounder Jeff Surma is convinced he can make the process work on a large scale and has received millions in financial backing from Waste Management, that owns the landfill in Arlington.

Read More about S4 Energy Solutions:

High-Powered Plasma Turns Garbage Into Gas - Wired, February 2012

Liquid Fuel: The Holy Grail of Biomass

Imagine a world where the conflict in the Middle East doesn’t determine the price of filling up your car in America. According to Sundrop Fuels, it could be a reality sooner than you think.

Image courtesy of Waste Management World. 

Although only in business for three years, Sundrop Fuels is already making big strides in the advancement of “green gasoline.” Based in Colorado, the company produces advanced biofuels by gasifying cellulosic feedstock. The result is a clean renewable form of fuel that can be used in combustion engines, such as automobiles. 

And now Sundrop has a site for its inaugural facility. The company announced on Nov. 22, 2011 that it has purchased 1,200 acres of land near Alexandria, La. to build its first production facility. Aiming to be running at full speed by 2014, Sundrop Fuels estimates it will be able to produce close to 50 million gallons of “green gasoline” annually.

Unlike similar projects in the liquid fuel experiment, Sundrop Fuels hasn’t received federal loans to subsidize its project. The state is allowing the sale of tax-exempt private activity bonds and will offer standard performance-based incentives for the 150 new jobs the plant will bring to Alexandria, but both of these initiatives involve no risk to the taxpayer. This comes as a relief to many who are familiar with the $156 million loans the now-defunct Range Fuels received for its failed project in Mississippi.

So where is the money coming from for this $450-500 million facility? Chesapeake Energy Company became a 50 percent stakeholder in the company in July with a $155 million investment. Oak Investment Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have also made $20 million investments and hold spots on the company’s Board of Directors.

While the forward motion on the project is exciting, many experts in the industry feel we are still at least a decade out from seeing any measurable results. The recent announcement of Range Fuel’s bankruptcy also serves as a reminder that we are still in the pioneering stages of this industry.

Better BTU Take: Big bets by big guys makes this a project worth following. 

Sundrop Fuels Press Release