Project: Advanced Biorefining of Distiller’s Grain and Corn Stover Blends Pre-

Commercialization of a Biomass–Derived Process Technology

DOE Award No: DE-FC36-03GO-13142

Biomass Program Bi-Annual Peer ReviewWashington, DC

Patrick Mulvihill Integrated Biorefinery Platform

November 16, 2005

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Timeline

Start: May, 2003Finish: June, 200850% Complete

Budget

Total: $36.1 MM DOE: $17.7 MM ABRD & Partners: $18.4 MM

Funding received in FY04: $3.90 MMFunding for FY05: $2.11 MMFY06 Request: $5.30 MM

Stage Gate Status

Step One: Stage ThreeStep Two: Stage Two

Overview

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Barriers:Identified several process

changes and improvements that increase the yield from the current dry-mill process in Step 1.

Made significant progress in reducing expected capital and operating costs for biomass conversion and increasing co-product values for Step 2.

Development of a C5-fermenting organism underway.

Partners:Novozymes optimizing enzymes

for hydrolysis of oligomeric & polymeric saccharides.

NREL providing analytical methods development and ASPEN support

NatureWorks developing C5-fermenting yeast.

Novus and Kansas State developing improved co-products and characterizing their value.

SunOpta and Auburn University working on pre-treatment improvements.

Overview

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Step 1 Residual Starch

Improve the economics of the dry-milled corn to ethanol process

• Increase the yield of EtOH from storage carbohydrate• Enhance the value of the co-products generated for

animal feeds and other uses

Current Goals and Objectives

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Develop an economic process to convert corn stover to ethanol

• By optimizing the hydrolysis and enzymatic conversion of cellulose to D-glucose for yeast fermentation

• By optimizing the yield of C5 sugars and developing a biocatalyst to convert these sugars to EtOH

• By recovering lignin and other co-products with enhanced value

Step 2 Biomass

Current Goals and Objectives

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Fits well with our long term strategy in developing sustainable ethanol production from renewable resources:

• The technology and products are compatible with our current cereal ethanol production

• The technology can be readily integrated into cereal ethanol production to improve the overall process economics

• Constructing a biomass fractionation pilot plant to develop engineering design data for commercial demonstration in the second phase

• Our time line will put us in an excellent position to design and build a demonstration CS to EtOH plant starting in FY2008 based on the technology being developed

Strategic Fit

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• Identify the most promising technologies likely to break through the commercial barriers.

• Integrate biomass conversion with cereal ethanol production to reduce risks and improve overall process economics (e.g. reducing the capital costs)

• Develop high-value co-products that positively impact the process economics.

• Collaborate with key industrial partners (e.g., enzyme companies) to develop effective solutions to the technical barriers.

• Apply sufficient resources to each key technology to increase the probability of a successful outcome.

• Follow the Stage Gate method to manage the project.

Project Approach

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• Obtain 2.9 gal. EtOH / bu. corn yield with process changes– Based on 90 % conversion of the storage carbohydrate– Minimize changes to existing dry-mill process (constraint)– ROI must meet/exceed ABC present hurdle rate (constraint)

• Obtain co-product worth twice the value of present dry DDGS– Present price of DDGS is $75/ton– Increase nutritional values over that of current DDGS

Step 1 Residual Starch Targets

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• Efforts to increase co-product value beyond that of DDGS may not be technically successful in achieving sufficient protein or the proper physical properties or protein composition.

• The economics of manufacture or unacceptance in the marketplace of the new co-product could result in a failure even if the technical goals are met.

• Could be precluded from selling the new co-product due to intellectual properties issues.

Residual Starch Targets: Risks to Development

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Task: 1 Preliminary investigation - completed

Task: 2 Detailed investigation - completed

Task: 3 Pilot Plant engineering design - completed

Tasks: 4.1 to 4.16 Pilot plant process construction & Process validation – completed

Tasks: 4.17 to 4.22 Evaluate other grains, expand pilot plant, evaluate improved co-products and prepare economic and viability evaluation

Task: 5 Roll out & pre-commercialization

Step 1 Residual Starch Targets

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• Residual Starch PP completed and more than 120 experimental trials conducted on corn.

• Best performing trials gave co-product crude protein values (NH4

+ corrected) of about 35 % dry basis. • Trials with other grains have commenced. • Downstream processing equipment (distillation,

centrifugation, drying) installed.• Analytical characterization of co-products being carried out

by Novus.• ASPEN NREL model modified to match Abengoa process

flows.• Novozymes identified several enzymes with potential to

improve the EtOH yield but PP testing did not achieve the expected results.

• Project on schedule and budget.

Residual Starch Accomplishments

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• #7 (Pilot Demo of High EtOH Dry-Mill Technology and new RSCP): – Financial analysis has shown that the yield improvement of

itself is not sufficient for economic justification– a co-product higher in value than DDGS is necessary and

animal feeding studies will be needed to confirm.

• #8 (Pre-Commercial Demo of Hi-EtOH technology):– Rollout the technology to an existing plant and produce

sufficient quantities of RSCP for market evaluation and customer feedback.

– Conduct feeding studies to assist market penetration.– Perform financial analysis with improved inputs.

Residual StarchRemaining Milestones & Metrics

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• Task 4.18: Test other grains in PP• Task 4.19: Install downstream unit operations in PP to

produce co-product and assess impact of various process steps on co-product characteristics.

• Task 4.20: Utilize Novus’ and Kansas State’s analytical and animal nutrition abilities to evaluate impact of process improvements and enhancements on co-product value.

• Task 4.21: Animal feeding studies based on the best markets identified in the preceding steps.

• Gate 4 Review

Residual StarchFuture Plans and Partners

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• Develop a process for fractionating biomass to reactive components for further conversion to ethanol, chemicals and feed co-products.

• Develop a biocatalyst for fermenting xylose to EtOH (NatureWorks).

• Select improved enzymes and optimize the process for increased yields of fermentable sugars (NZNA).

• Enhance the value of the co-products produced from the process.

• Process integration at pilot scale to develop engineering data for commercial demonstration.

Biomass Conversion Targets

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• Failure to demonstrate a cost effective fractionation technology.

• Failure to obtain high values for co-products.• Lower than expected performance of xylose-fermenting yeast• Cost of enzyme is still too high

Biomass Conversion Targets:Risks to Development

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Tasks: 6 to 7 Preliminary investigations of pretreatment technology & corn stover pretreatment - completed

Task: 8 Biocatalytic development for improved biomass fermentation (NatureWorks under contract to ABRD)

Task: 9 Method develop. enzyme screening (NZNA) - completed

Task: 10 Enzyme application screening (NZNA)

Task: 11 Application testing for plant operation

Task: 12 Bench scale biomass fractionation - completed

Task: 14 Rapid analytical method development (NREL, NZNA)

Task: 15 Process development

Step 2 Biomass Tasks

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Task: 16 Engineering design (ABRD)

Task: 17 Economic, financial and market Evaluation (ABRD)

Task: 18 Procure and install pilot plant equipment (ABRD)

Task: 19 Integrated pilot plant testing - (by ABRD under contract NatureWorks)

Task: 19.1 Market evaluation of biomass-derived products

Task: 19.2 – 19.4 Pre-commercial demo plant design

Task: 20 Project Management

Step 2 Biomass Tasks

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• Bench scale fractionation study essentially completed.• Xylose co-fermenting yeast: Contract with NatureWorks

negotiated• NZNA has completed enzyme application screening.• NZNA has achieved 80% ethanol yield and 4%

concentrations on pretreated corn stover (PCS). • NREL has developed NIR rapid methods for CS feedstock

and pretreated CS.• AspenPlus Process Model developed• Pilot Plant Process Development & Design: Early

engineering design of biomass fractionation pilot plant has been completed. Long-delivery equipment have been ordered.

• Preliminary design of the first Abengoa commercial biomass ethanol demonstration plant completed.

Biomass Accomplishments

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• Next Go/No Go decision point in December, 2005• Bench scale fractionation study completed.• Optimized enzymes and process developed.• Co-products preliminary analyses completed.

Biomass Stage 3 Gate Review: Critical Milestones

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• Develop a process economic model for the hybrid process.• Construct the biomass refinery pilot plant at York, NE and

conduct process development trials.• Auburn Univ. providing guidance for the fractionation.• NREL providing analytical development support and ASPEN

modeling support.• NatureWorks is developing the biocatalyst for xylose

fermentation.• NZNA is assisting in the enzyme selection and application

and integration with the process to enhance performance and achieve the economic objectives.

• Novus is assisting in the evaluation of the co-products.

Biomass Future Plans of Abengoa & Partners

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• The Residual Starch plan is to enhance the value of Step 1 co-products by modifying their characteristics by process and equipment changes to obtain:– Higher nutritional value– More desirable physical properties– Better handling characteristics

• For Biomass (Step 2) fractionation is expected to result in a lignin product of higher value and the nutritional value of the feed co-product could match that of current DDGS.

Market & Partners

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• Process and unit operations are conducted at bench or pilot scale and analysis conducted by Novus to first assess the market potential.

• The pilot plant is run to produce sufficient quantities for feeding studies by selected agricultural universities or Novus to confirm the advantages.

• Market dynamics assessed by Novus.

Market Analysis

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• Open window of opportunity over next 3 years• Competitors

– Residual Starch: Broin– Biomass: Iogen, DuPont

• Abengoa building biomass wheat straw demo plant in Spain.– Committed to making the biorefinery an economic success– Experience will translate to a successful US demo CS plant

• Building York biomass PP which is a critical scale up step that cannot be bypassed when dealing with processes containing liquid-solids streams and introducing multiple new technologies.

Abengoa Competitive Advantage to Implement Technology

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• Biomass-to-EtOH is an excellent fit with Abengoa’s existing dry-mill grain to ethanol business.

• Our project time line would put us in an excellent position to design and build a demonstration CS to EtOH plant starting in FY2008 based on the technology being developed.

Biomass to EtOH Strategic Fit

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• Abengoa project is on track to deliver a pilot-tested process with attractive economic potential by 2008.

• Market values of co-products expected to have significant impact on the success of a commercial process.

• Abengoa is committed to developing profitable biorefineries and would be a logical choice for DOE cost-sharing to demonstrate a commercial prototype.

Conclusions