North Dakota has denied the permit for the controversial Summit Carbon Solutions Pipeline that would have transported carbon captured by Iowa’s ethanol plants across 320 miles of the state to bury it in the ground. The Iowa Utilities Board is scheduled to hold a hearing on Aug. 22 regarding Summit’s proposal to build a 700-mile hazardous liquid pipeline across Iowa, capturing carbon dioxide from about 30 ethanol plants to bury it in North Dakota. North Dakota may revisit its decision, but if it doesn’t, building a pipeline across Iowa to nowhere is a folly.
There is also more folly to it — I have submitted testimony to the Iowa Utilities Board that an alternative exists that will likely render the pipeline obsolete before it is even completed. While many oppose the pipeline for a variety of reasons, the best reason to put the final nail in the coffin of the pipeline is that there is a better alternative — the production of the low-carbon fuel “green methanol” at the location of existing ethanol plants that can be shipped via rail or truck.
The process is environmentally friendly because it captures carbon before is released into the atmosphere. Also exciting are byproducts that can be sold as commodities rather than transported by pipeline and buried as waste.
The production and demand for green methanol fuel is through the roof. The shipping industry, led by shipping firms like Maersk, the largest in the world, and shippers like Amazon, have focused on green methanol as their future low-carbon fuel.
My company, CapC02 Solutions, is developing our first green methanol production facility on-site at an ethanol plant in partnership with Adkins Energy in Lena, Illinois. We plan to build more facilities across the Midwest.
Methanol is used in thousands of everyday products, including insulation, gutters, roofing, paints, carpets, tires, plastics, fertilizers, cosmetics, and even Lego bricks. Methanol can also replace diesel fuel. The traditional method of manufacturing methanol is fossil-fuel intensive, but ethanol can be made “green” by using captured biogenic C02 emissions and renewable energy.
When green methanol is burned, it adds no new C02 to the atmosphere, making it a net-zero fuel. Methanol burns with no waste products, and even if spilled causes no environmental damage. In addition to replacing carbon-intensive traditional methanol in consumer products, green methanol can easily be used as a transportation fuel because conventional diesel engines can be inexpensively modified to run on green methanol.
The production of green methanol allows ethanol plants to immediately leverage their C02 waste by turning it into a marketable product that produces additional revenue for the ethanol plant. Instead of simply disposing of C02 emissions as a waste product, green methanol allows ethanol plants to create a new co-product while still reducing the carbon index of ethanol. Each ethanol plant emits an average of 260,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. That CO2 could produce 60 million gallons of green methanol with a market value of $214 million. Putting that CO2 into a pipeline and throwing it away literally throws away the future of the ethanol industry.
In addition to creating a second income-producing product, ethanol plants that employ carbon capture and utilization are eligible for federal tax credits. Furthermore, the lower carbon index of green methanol makes it eligible for premium prices in low-carbon fuel markets.
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Green methanol is a next-generation innovation in renewable energy, perhaps as historically significant as the invention of the plow, the tractor, and seed genetics. Green methanol is a crucial next step in moving toward more advanced biofuels like sustainable aviation fuel. Investing in pipelines rather than green methanol is the equivalent of investing in slide rule technology when the future is computing.
Jeff Bonar is CEO of CapCO2.
www.thegazette.com
There is also more folly to it — I have submitted testimony to the Iowa Utilities Board that an alternative exists that will likely render the pipeline obsolete before it is even completed. While many oppose the pipeline for a variety of reasons, the best reason to put the final nail in the coffin of the pipeline is that there is a better alternative — the production of the low-carbon fuel “green methanol” at the location of existing ethanol plants that can be shipped via rail or truck.
The process is environmentally friendly because it captures carbon before is released into the atmosphere. Also exciting are byproducts that can be sold as commodities rather than transported by pipeline and buried as waste.
The production and demand for green methanol fuel is through the roof. The shipping industry, led by shipping firms like Maersk, the largest in the world, and shippers like Amazon, have focused on green methanol as their future low-carbon fuel.
My company, CapC02 Solutions, is developing our first green methanol production facility on-site at an ethanol plant in partnership with Adkins Energy in Lena, Illinois. We plan to build more facilities across the Midwest.
Methanol is used in thousands of everyday products, including insulation, gutters, roofing, paints, carpets, tires, plastics, fertilizers, cosmetics, and even Lego bricks. Methanol can also replace diesel fuel. The traditional method of manufacturing methanol is fossil-fuel intensive, but ethanol can be made “green” by using captured biogenic C02 emissions and renewable energy.
When green methanol is burned, it adds no new C02 to the atmosphere, making it a net-zero fuel. Methanol burns with no waste products, and even if spilled causes no environmental damage. In addition to replacing carbon-intensive traditional methanol in consumer products, green methanol can easily be used as a transportation fuel because conventional diesel engines can be inexpensively modified to run on green methanol.
The production of green methanol allows ethanol plants to immediately leverage their C02 waste by turning it into a marketable product that produces additional revenue for the ethanol plant. Instead of simply disposing of C02 emissions as a waste product, green methanol allows ethanol plants to create a new co-product while still reducing the carbon index of ethanol. Each ethanol plant emits an average of 260,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. That CO2 could produce 60 million gallons of green methanol with a market value of $214 million. Putting that CO2 into a pipeline and throwing it away literally throws away the future of the ethanol industry.
In addition to creating a second income-producing product, ethanol plants that employ carbon capture and utilization are eligible for federal tax credits. Furthermore, the lower carbon index of green methanol makes it eligible for premium prices in low-carbon fuel markets.
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Green methanol is a next-generation innovation in renewable energy, perhaps as historically significant as the invention of the plow, the tractor, and seed genetics. Green methanol is a crucial next step in moving toward more advanced biofuels like sustainable aviation fuel. Investing in pipelines rather than green methanol is the equivalent of investing in slide rule technology when the future is computing.
Jeff Bonar is CEO of CapCO2.
Opinion: The future of renewable fuels isn’t Pipelines — it’s green methanol
Aerial view of Adkins Energy LLC, an ethanol and biodiesel plant in Lena, Illinois. The plant has agreed to host …
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