E3 in the News
Technology Opens New Path to Fuel
Mead plant hailed as 'revolutionary'
A new ethanol refinery uses pioneering technology in an effort to cut greenhouse gases and increase efficiency.
Omaha World-Herald
June 29, 2007
MEAD, Neb. -- A pioneering ethanol refinery called "Genesis" was hailed Thursday as a model for improving the environment and fighting global warming.
"This is a tremendous success," said David Tuft of the Natural Resources Defense Council of Washington, D.C.
Tuft joined officials of E3 BioFuels-Mead LLC, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman and local officials in celebrating the launch of the refinery near Mead, which will be able to produce 25 million gallons of ethanol a year.
The refinery includes a 28,000-head cattle feedlot, from which comes the manure that is used to make methane to power the plant. As a result, the plant uses almost no fossil fuels to produce the energy, and carbon emissions from the manure are minimized.
Company officials said it is the first "closed-loop" system in the world.
The system dramatically cuts greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat and cause global warming, Tuft said.
He said the Natural Resources Defense Council wants Congress to adopt financial incentives to help people develop biogas systems like the one incorporated at the E3 Mead plant. Biogas is a natural gas substitute manufactured from cow manure.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, whose trustees include former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey, wants greenhouse gas emissions cut by 50 percent. Tuft said the Mead plant could easily meet that threshold, although the council had not yet done its own study.
"We think we have found a better way" to make ethanol, said E3 Chairman Dennis Langley of Shawnee, Kan.
Using the same amount of energy, a closed-loop system can produce more than 15 times more fuel than a gasoline refinery or a traditional ethanol plant, Langley said.
"This is a revolutionary step forward," he said.
He said E3 wants to double the size of the Mead plant and develop 15 more plants nationwide in the next five years.
Heineman said the innovative plant "will move Nebraska to the forefront in the renewable-fuels arena."
The plant sets a new standard for ethanol and the nation, Heineman said.
Nebraska is poised to become the No. 2 ethanol-producing state by the end of the year, surpassing Illinois and trailing only Iowa, said Heineman, chairman of the National Governors' Ethanol Coalition.
Nebraska will average one grand opening a month for new ethanol plants between now and the end of the year, Heineman said.
"Ethanol," he said, "is the greatest economic development tool for Nebraska and other rural states in the last 25 years."