Russ Zeeck, COO of Next Step, explained that the industrial-scale production of pellets from corn stover is a step forward in unlocking corn stover’s potential as an affordable source of renewable energy.
Zeeck said: “Corn stover – all the leaves, cobs and stalks leftover after the corn is harvested – is America’s most abundant source of sustainable biomass. But, converting it into a fuel that can be economically shipped and stored at scale has proven elusive. Traditional pelletising processes don’t work on corn stover, but the proprietary, patent pending processes we’ve developed over the past few years do.”
Loup Valley Alfalfa president and CEO Jon W. Manasil said that his 65-year old pelleting and feed mill operation has long been interested in a way to pelletise corn stover, but, until testing Next Step’s process last week, had not identified a suitable technology.
Next Step reportedly plans to sell corn stover PowerPellets to coal-fired power plants and cellulosic bio-refineries, worldwide. Coal-fired power plants in the US and abroad can add PowerPellets to their current operations to comply with carbon-reducing laws and regulatory incentives.
Next Step president Kevin Dretzka explained that a key benefit of PowerPellets is that they ship and store exactly like grain.
Dretzka said: “By solving key shipping and storage issues, we give our customers – utilities and bio-refiners – confidence in an affordable, deep supply of biomass. In the case of coal-fired utilities, this confidence immediately opens up a huge market: coal-fired power plants can co-burn PowerPellets today – with no meaningful changes to their current operations – to realise significant and valuable reductions to their carbon footprints.”
Next Step plans to complete its first PowerPellet plant by late 2010. A typical plant will produce 175,000 tons of PowerPellets annually.
