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Scoular pulls out of ethanol project
Published 9/26/2007 in News : Business By Stephanie Farley
Sunflower Electric Power Corp. is searching for another partner to construct an ethanol plant for its proposed integrated bioenergy center after announcing Tuesday that The Scoular Co. will not build the ethanol facility.
Scoular, an agricultural marketing company located across North America that, according to its site, is involved in the biofuel industry and creates solutions related to buying, selling, storing, handling and transporting agricultural products worldwide, announced intentions in January to construct a proposed ethanol plant, estimated to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a year, for the Sunflower Integrated Bioenergy Center, which is set to be located at the Holcomb site.
On Tuesday, Sunflower and Scoular officials stated the decision for the company not to construct the center's ethanol facility was a mutual one, with Clare Gustin, Sunflower's vice president for member services and external affairs, stating, "we have enjoyed our work together but believe it is in everyone's best interest for Scoular to find a different site that more closely meets their needs."
But while Scoular won't build for Sunflower, Finney County Economic Development Corp. President Eric Depperschmidt said the FCEDC was working with Scoular, hoping to still bring the company to Finney County and if not here, then keep it in southwest Kansas. He said the FCEDC was helping Scoular look for alternative sites in the county that would meet the company's needs.
The proposed bioenergy center is a joint venture between Sunflower and the National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization (NISTAC), a not-for-profit organization formed in 1994 under the sponsorship of Kansas State University and the state via Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp. to commercialize technology in the state and country. According to Sunflower, the center, when completed, will "be a unique and leading edge facility for the production of various biofuel and agricultural products in a highly integrated facility."
The idea behind the facility is that different subsystems, such as the ethanol plant, a dairy, biodiesel plant, algae reactor and the Holcomb power plant would work together in a self-sustaining environment benefiting from the efficiencies of integration such as reuse of water, consumption of co-products, roads, railways and use of power plant flue gas.
"It's a new thing," said Sunflower spokesman Steve Miller of the center's concept and technology, adding that it's the uniqueness of the project that led to both Sunflower and Scoular to "part as friends" and go their separate ways.
Randy Hellerich, Scoular's director for renewable fuels development, said the center was "a great project, but the integrated nature of the bioenergy center created unique project development challenges that we were unable to overcome."
Miller said some might see the change as a negative, but he and Gustin both stated it wasn't surprising, especially when working on "an innovative project" like the center. Miller said he didn't doubt Scoular would have made a great partner but that the company had obligations to its stockholders, Sunflower has obligations to its customers and NISTAC and K-State also have obligations to fulfill -- and all could see it wasn't going to work.
He said Sunflower would continue searching for a partner that could work within the bioenergy center's integrated style, adding the corporation had several interested in the project.
When Scoular was still in the picture, Sunflower estimated the ethanol facility's groundbreaking could occur this fall. Now, Miller said, a projected timeline for the center may evolve around algae testing being conducted by Massachusetts-based GreenFuel Technologies Corp. at the Holcomb site. GreenFuel's emissions-to-biofuels process uses naturally occurring algae to capture flue gas CO2 emissions, meaning that if the process is a viable option for Sunflower at Holcomb, it could be used to reduce CO2 emissions and as a source of renewable fuel.
Miller said GreenFuel had completed the first phase of testing and was working on a report of its findings, with the second phase involving isolating the strains of algae that best grow in western Kansas and produce the outputs desired by Sunflower.
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