Opening of first Inbicon Biomass Refinery merits royal treatment
Danish prince inaugurates Kalundborg plant that turns harvest leftovers into 1.5 million gallons a year of The New Ethanol.
His Royal Highness Prince Joachim of Denmark
The new Inbicon Biomass Refinery got a royal reception at Wednesday’s grand opening in the Danish port of Kalundborg. His Royal Highness Prince Joachim led the inauguration of the first Inbicon plant to publicly showcase its technology for turning straw into ethanol. He was accompanied by Fritz H. Schur, chairman of the supervisory board of DONG Energy, Inbicon’s parent company; Anders Eldrup, DONG Energy CEO; and other Danish and European Union officials whose organizations provided financial support to the plant.
“We aim to offer a solution to help solve the carbon emission challenge facing the transport sector,” said CEO Eldrup. “Our plant will demonstrate that we are capable of producing second-generation bioethanol from waste products. If our technology is well received by the global markets, new opportunities of export will evolve.”
The new biomass refinery, said Inbicon CEO Niels Henriksen, “will demonstrate not only our patented technology for making renewable fuel but how its integration with an electric power plant can dramatically increase the efficiency of both operations. The combined operations also underscores the two-decade-long commitment DONG Energy has made to the future of clean, renewable energy here in Denmark and abroad.” DONG Energy is a world leader in offshore wind farms.
An early demonstration of Inbicon technology will begin December 7 at the 15th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. “Part of the fleet of cars used for transporting delegates around the city will be running on Inbicon’s New Ethanol mixed with petrol. Moreover, five million litres have been sold to Statoil”, said Henriksen.
“In addition to The New Ethanol,” Henriksen added, “the new Inbicon refinery will produce powdered lignin and C5 molasses. The lignin is used as renewable fuel at any plant using combined heat and power generation, the C5 molasses for animal feed and other purposes. Thus, all elements in the biomass are being utilized.”
At Kalundborg port, the new Inbicon Biomass Refinery is integrated with the adjacent coal-fired Asnæs Power Station, owned by DONG Energy.
Waste steam from power station will break down the straw fibers in the refinery, and lignin from the refinery will replace some of the coal burned by the power plant, producing greener energy.
Present at the opening were also customers from Japan, the United States and Germany, were the first commercial scale Inbicon Biomass Refineries are expected to be built.
Facts about the Inbicon Biomass Refinery
Raw materials:
- 4 t/h equivalent to 30,000 tonnes of straw a year
- Enzymes supplied by Danisco Genecor and Novozymes
Annual production:
- 5.4 million litres of bioethanol
- 13,000 tonnes of lignin pellets
- 11,100 tonnes C5 molasses
Employees:
Costs:
- total construction costs: About 400 million DKK (54 mio. EUR)
Grants:
- Design and construction is supported by the Danish EUDP programme with 76.7 million DKK (10.3 mio. EUR)
- Demonstration is supported by the European Seventh Framework Programme with 67.7 million DKK (9.1 mio. EUR)
- Support from the European Fifth Framework to development of the technology in an earlier stage has previously been granted.