BioFuels Journal

Lakewood, CO—ZeaChem Inc., a developer of biorefineries for the conversion of renewable biomass into fuels and chemicals, today announced the first fermentation results of acetic acid, an intermediate in the ZeaChem process.

The results demonstrated successful process scaling to a level that is 10,000 times greater than standard lab scale.

Fermentation units were scaled from 0.5 liter to 5,000 liters.

The positive results are a direct outcome of ZeaChem’s collaboration with Hazen Research, Inc., an industrial research and development firm in Golden, CO.

Hazen has constructed and is hosting the initial front-end process unit and providing infrastructure and operations support.

Start of construction at Hazen was announced on November 18, 2009 and the first fermentation runs exceeded commercially acceptable acetic acid concentration levels.

The fermentation process also exceeded ZeaChem’s time goals for achieving the concentration level.

The results demonstrated successful fermentation of greater than 50 grams of acetic acid per liter in less than 100 hours. These results have been repeated and verified. "ZeaChem has met and exceeded its concentration and rate fermentation targets," said Jim Imbler, president and chief executive officer of ZeaChem.

"We now have sufficient evidence, based on mixed sugars, to indicate that our results are scalable to industrial production levels. Our process, using naturally-occurring acetogen bacteria and existing processes, exceeds the commercially viable threshold for fermentation. ZeaChem is meeting its milestones and continuing to move forward in deploying cellulosic biorefinery technology."

Acetogens have been shown to be powerful organisms in other industries such as wastewater treatment before ZeaChem began utilizing them for bio-based chemicals and fuels production.

Naturally-occurring acetogens are highly robust and, unlike yeast, produce no carbon dioxide (CO2) during the fermentation process, allowing ZeaChem to realize a significant efficiency and yield advantage.

ZeaChem has successfully used acetogens to produce acetic acid at the lab scale in over 1,000 fermentation trials using mixed sugars as well as hydrolyzate derived from cellulosic biomass. ZeaChem is now seeking hydrolyzate supply to replicate these scale-up results. "In our experience, these 10,000 times scale-up results verify the ability to scale to commercial fermentation," said Geoff Stephenson, P.E., Principal Process Engineer at Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc.

Acetic acid, the product of ZeaChem's front-end fermentation unit, is the first step in the hybrid biochemical and thermochemical process for creating cellulosic ethanol and bio-based chemicals.

The next step will be to concentrate and purify the ZeaChem produced acetic acid into a salable product, using an energy efficient, non-distillation based process.

ZeaChem intends to scale to a commercial biorefinery upon successful operations at the 250,000 gallon-per-year facility, which is proposed to be built in Boardman, OR.

The core technology of the facility will begin to come online in 2010.

Biography

Jim Imbler is the president and CEO of ZeaChem, a developer of biorefineries for the conversion of biomass into fuels and chemicals with unprecedented efficiency.

Imbler is an accomplished senior executive with experience in directing multi-billion dollar energy, petroleum, refining, chemical, and trading operations. In addition, he is an entrepreneur who has led new businesses in startups focused on commodities, business services, and software.

He has been president and CEO of FuelSpot, a venture-backed Internet trading platform for fuels; Fuels Management, a coal upgrading business; and CEO Equity, a leveraged buyout firm.

Jim was also SVP of Business Development for Evergreen Energy, a publicly-traded company with technology for upgrading coal.

Prior to these assignments, he was president of the Koch Petroleum Group, where he was responsible for the refining, pipeline, energy and petroleum, asphalt, and trading businesses.

He started his career with FMC, where he held a variety of engineering and management positions.

Jim holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Kansas.

For more information, call 303-279-7045.

See Related Websites/Articles:

• ZeaChem, Inc.
• Podcast with ZeaChem on Construction of Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Construction Start

more PODCASTS...