Press releases
Cars to run on fuel from household waste within two years
July 19th 2008, Fayetteville.INEOS now has technology to produce commercial quantities of bio ethanol fuel from landfill waste. Second generation bio ethanol reduces greenhouse gases from car use by 90% and doesn’t use food crops in the production process.
Cars to run on fuel from household waste within two years
“This is a breakthrough technology” says INEOS Bio CEO
INEOS, one of the world’s top three chemical companies, announced today that it is aiming to produce commercial quantities of bioethanol fuel from biodegradable municipal waste within two years.
INEOS new technology will produce bioethanol in huge quantities from municipal solid waste, green waste, animal waste and agricultural residues amongst other things.
According to Peter Williams, INEOS Bio CEO, “Consistent with changing policy, in regions such as North America and Europe we see around 10% of the gasoline or petrol being replaced with second generation bioethanol. We believe our technology will make a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and the world’s need for fossil fuels.
INEOS Bio Ethanol releases up to 90% less net greenhouse gases than petrol. One tonne of dry waste can be converted into about 400 litres of ethanol, which can be blended with or replace traditional fuels to substantially reduce vehicle emissions.
The technology – already proven at pilot plant scale – uses a simple three-stage process. The waste is first superheated to produce gases. Then, through a patented process, the gases are fed to naturally occurring bacteria, which efficiently produce ethanol. Finally, the ethanol is purified to make the fuel ready to be blended for use in cars.
Car companies have already developed engines that can run efficiently on both bioethanol and conventional fuels. Up to now, the challenge has been that bioethanol has been manufactured primarily from food crops and this has raised concerns on price and availability.
Peter Williams says, “The fact that we have been able to decouple second generation biofuel from food is a major breakthrough, and we expect our technology to provide a low-cost route to renewable fuels”.
Dr Geriant Evans is the Technology Transfer Manager for the UK’s National Non Food Crops Centre. He says: “This technology really ticks all the boxes. It turns waste into biofuel; it reduces greenhouse gases and doesn’t rely on food crops. We need this produced on a global scale as soon as possible. It’s a revolutionary technology”.
Governments, NGO’s and Municipal Authorities are already welcoming second generation Bio Fuels such as INEOS Bio Ethanol, which will contribute to both reducing greenhouse gases and the ever-growing waste disposal problem.
The process was developed in Fayetteville, Arkansas where Dan Coody is Mayor. He recognises the enormous potential. “We’re proud that this technology has been developed here and it is definitely a technology that we’d like to employ in the City of Fayetteville. It will help us reduce our landfill, reduce our CO2 emissions and our reliance on foreign fuels all at the same time”
With the technology proven at pilot scale, the next challenge is to bring second-generation bioethanol into commercial production. INEOS aims to do this within two years.
Peter Williams, INEOS Bio CEO says: “We expect to announce the location of the first commercial pilot plant fairly shortly and we will quickly roll out this technology around the world. We aim to be producing commercial amounts of bioethanol fuel, for cars, from waste within about two years.
ENDS
For more information, interviewees, VNR / B Rolll, graphics and stills, please contact :
Richard Longden, (t) +44 7710 371998 (e-mail) richard.longden@ineoscapital.com
Mark Killick, (t) 00 44 207 978 7667 / 00 44 7836 634449 (email) mark@mediazoo.tv
Sion Taylor, (t) 00 44 207 978 7667 / 00 44 7768 372714 (email) sion@mediazoo.tv
Feisal Ali, (t) 00 44 207 978 7667 / 00 44 7855 958885 (email) feisal@mediazoo.tv
Hannah Price (t) 00 44 207 978 7667 / 00 44 7793 914480 (email) hannah@mediazoo.tv
Note To Editors :
• INEOS Bio is a new INEOS business. It was created on July 1st 2008 to commercialise and license a highly innovative thermo-chemical and bio-chemical technology for the production of biofuel, renewable power and chemical intermediates from a wide range of low-cost carbon materials. Our initial focus will be the commercialisation of the World’s leading second generation bioethanol technology process to serve the global renewable transport fuels market.
• Central to the INEOS Bio technology is a highly selective, highly efficient, proprietary biochemical conversion of synthesis gas to bioethanol. The use of a bacterial biocatalyst is the essential key to unlocking the value chains from low cost carbon through synthesis gas to fuel. 
A process of continuous innovation has transformed a simple concept into a World leading bioethanol process. The biocatalyst used for the biocatalytic conversion far out-performs any known conventional catalyst.
• The INEOS Bio second generation bioethanol technology efficiently converts a wide range of low cost, organic materials, including household and commercial wastes into bioethanol for use as a renewable road transport fuel or petrochemical intermediate. The INEOS Bio process comprises three main steps:
o Gasification of the prepared organic carbon material using oxygen to produce synthesis gas, a mixture of CO, H2 and CO2. The hot synthesis gas is quenched and cleaned. Heat is recovered to generate renewable power.
o The cleaned, cooled synthesis gas is passed into a fermentation process, where it is consumed by anaerobic bacteria (the biocatalyst) and turned into ethanol. The fermentation broth contains a carefully controlled mixture of nutrients to deliver a reliably high yield of ethanol production. The bacteria achieve a very high selectivity to ethanol. The high yield and high selectivity translate to an outstanding process efficiency and leading production economics. The off-gas from the fermenter is used to produce additional power and heat.
o The ethanol solution is purified to make anhydrous ethanol (>99.7% ethanol). This is subsequently blended into gasoline (e.g. at 5% ethanol concentration for E5 or at 85% ethanol concentration for E85 as required for the local renewable road transport fuel market).
• Two independent life cycle assessments on the production of INEOS Bioethanol from waste biomass both indicate that GHG savings of > 90% vs. petrol should be achieved. This magnitude of GHG saving is significantly higher than the best performing bioethanol today (sugar cane ethanol made in Brazil delivering a maximum GHG saving of 70%).[Reference ?]
• It is expected that the INEOS Bio technology, producing clean bioethanol will form an important part of the overall INEOS biofuels strategy. As a technology business this sits well alongside INEOS Enterprises, which has more than 10 years experience in the biodiesel sector. The Balleycourt biodiesel facility is centrally located in the heart of France's second largest vegetable oil producing region, the site currently transforms 110,000 per annum of rape seed oil for supply to customers in the fuel distribution and chemical industries.
• INEOS is the world’s third largest chemicals company and a leading manufacturer of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and oil products. Comprising 19 businesses, with a production network spanning 70 manufacturing facilities in 14 countries. The company produces more than 40 million tonnes of petrochemicals, 20 million tons per annum of crude oil refined products (fuels). INEOS employs 16,000 people and has sales of around $44bn.