Integrating with coal-fired power plants
Our first Inbicon Biomass Refinery will be configured to integrate with a new coal-fired power plant in the U.S. Midwest and use wheat straw as the feedstock. The power plant will send waste steam to the biomass refinery to cook the straw and break down the cellulosic fibers.  The refinery will send its lignin co-product to the power plant to replace some of the coal, producing  renewable electricity. The lignin our process produces is so clean the power plant can burn it without further treatment and without risk of boiler scaling.   

This energy exchange dramatically increases the efficiency of both operations and reduces their carbon footprints. In fact, U.S. power plants will be able to double their efficiency.

At a time when government carbon cap proposals have the attention of North American utilities and power generation companies, this energy integration and green-power creation make sense for everyone involved.  

Integrating with existing grain-fed ethanol plants
We’ve got a vision of how grain ethanol and cellulosic ethanol can co-exist side by side and help each other succeed. It’s a practical plan to stimulate the economic health of the entire industry. 

As we engineered the 20 Mgy model, we discovered some exciting synergies when adding a New Ethanol stream to your existing 100 Mgy grain-ethanol plant. By using co-generation, the Inbicon Biomass Refinery can produce enough clean lignin powder to generate all the steam and electricity it needs to process the biomass. Beyond that, it may produce enough extra thermal and electrical energy to offset the grain plant’s utility costs nearly 50%.

The highly favorable energy balance can make the old ethanol new again. The combined operations are more competitive, respond to social concerns, make environmental gains, qualify for government grants and loans, and open up the potential for selling carbon credits in the countries with cap-and-trade legislation.

Ongoing R&D
Learning never stops. Having opened a demonstration-scale plant at Kalundborg and designed a commercial-scale plant for the U.S. does not mean we won’t keep improving the Inbicon Biomass Refinery. Both Kalundborg and the U.S. operations will be part of a feedback loop to increase our practical and technical knowledge and give us new insights. From this learning, combined with ongoing research and development at our pilot plant, mixed with the roundtable discussions we engage in at our new tech campus-all these will help us keep sharpening our edge.