So I had a presentation last Wednesday at the Renewable Materials Conference in Germany, and in one of my slides, I talked about “The Force”. I did not realize how really strong the Force is until I heard this news from Dow Chemical today announcing their supply agreement with New Energy Blue for bio-based ethylene that will be manufactured from agricultural residues such as corn stover (stalks and leaves). This will be Dow’s first agreement in North America to use agricultural residues for plastic production.
Dow’s use of bio-based feedstocks from New Energy Blue is expected to be certified by ISCC Plus, an international sustainability certification program with a focus on traceability of raw materials within the supply chain. While Dow intends to mix agriculture-based ethylene into its existing manufacturing process, ISCC Plus’s chain of custody certification would allow Dow’s customers to account for bio-based materials in their supply chains.
New Energy Blue will build a biorefinery called New Energy Freedom in Mason City, Iowa, which will process 275 ktpa of corn stover and produce commercial quantities of second-generation ethanol and clean lignin. Nearly half of the ethanol will be turned into bio-based ethylene feedstock for Dow products. Dow will have supply options for the next four future New Energy Blue projects. All five projects are expected to displace over one million tons of GHG emissions every year, according to the press release. Since corn stover reportedly releases CO2 as it decomposes, the project would also help reduce carbon emissions from agriculture by reusing this otherwise wasted carbon.
New Energy Blue’s forthcoming Iowa processing plant would source corn stover directly from local farmers. By the way, if you remember Inbicon, which opened a demo biorefinery in Denmark in 2009 that processed wheat straw-based ethanol for five years, New Energy Blue purchased the exclusive rights for Inbicon Americas’ technology license from Ørsted, and has since then performed feasibility studies for the application of this license in multiple US Midwest sites (where agricultural residues are plenty).
I will report more about this project announcement for next month’s Tecnon OrbiChem Bio-Materials report.
