Coproduct
The Ethanol Industry’s COMMERCIAL CAPTURE CO2 from corn ethanol plants is a great candidate for capture and sequestration because it is so clean. That also makes it a versatile and critical product for myriad commercial and industrial uses. By Katie Schroeder
New and improving methods of reducing the carbon intensity (CI) scores of corn ethanol are enabling producers to tap into markets that place a premium on low-carbon biofuel. Carbon dioxide
pipelines, which seek to aggregate CO2 from Midwest ethanol plants for permanent geologic sequestration—and cut CI scores in half—is an attractive option for ethanol plants that don’t already capture CO2 for commercial use. For the those that do, the jump to sequestration may be complicated by their already vital role as merchant CO2 suppliers. Sam Rushing, president of consulting firm Advanced Cyrogenics and frequent 24 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2022
contributor to Ethanol Producer Magazine, is an expert on the myriad commercial uses for CO2. He explains that 40 to 45 percent of the CO2 on the U.S. market comes from ethanol production. Rushing’s company helps producers find ways to “monetize what would otherwise be vented to the atmosphere” or, in the near future, sequestered. He says Advanced Cryogenics helps corn ethanol producers find the right use for their CO2, whether that be for captive or merchant use. “It’s all about sustainability as well, trying to come up with programs and sources and destinations that would be sustainable throughout time,” Rushing says. Ethanol giant POET actively captures and sells ultra-high purity CO2 to the beverage industry for carbonated drinks, the
food processing industry for refrigeration, municipalities for water treatment, and more, under the POET Pure brand, according to Doug Berven, POET’s vice president of corporate affairs. “It’s the right thing to do for the environment, to capture it and utilize it wherever we can, rather than venting it,” Berven says. As of mid-April, POET captures CO2 at roughly a dozen of its bioprocessing plants, more than a third of its fleet. While CO2 is not exclusively captured by the ethanol industry, ethanol producers have a unique selling point, in that CO2 captured from the process is renewable whether it is sequestered or not. Berven explains that the CO2 produced at POET has 65 to 85 percent less greenhouse gas
