New Clean Fuels Plant
Three
United States firms have announced the formation of a joint venture to begin
construction of Alberta BioClean in Canada, a renewable ethers facility. The
facility will be the first to use patented technology to convert North American
barley and butane into renewable ethers used to reduce automobile
emissions.
The plant, to be built in 1997 near Fort Saskatchewan,
Alberta, is a project of Omaha, Nebraska based companies, CalEnergy, ConAgra and
the Kiewit Energy Group. Cal Energy and Kiewit are majority owners of BioClean
Fuels which owns the patented Multiple Oxygenate Production technology that
converts grains and butane to ethanol, methanol and their ether derivatives.
According to BioClean, the process's significant advantage is its capture of
waste gases from other parts of the process to make high-value materials in an
efficient and clean fashion. This reduces raw-material and operating costs and
produces high-quality ethers.
The two-year construction schedule is
expected to create more than 2,000 jobs. The plant will employ more than 150
people and is expected to annually process an estimated 250 million gallons of
butane and 650,000 metric tons of grains.
