It may be too soon to tell, but operations from a KiOR biofuels plant –converting wood chips into crude oil — aren”t expected to produce a significant negative environmental impact on Columbus, said company officials and area experts.
“Since this is new technology, I am not sure what existing facility you would compare it to,” noted Robbie Wilbur, communications director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, noting the company has not yet applied for permits for the Columbus facility, but likely will need an air permit, a storm water construction permit, if they disturb more than five acres of land, and potentially a permit for the city”s wastewater treatment system.
“For the pollution that may generate from a biofuel plant, (MDEQ) provides permits,” said Prem Parajuli, a Mississippi State University expert in biofuels and biomass. “The state has water quality standards and air quality standards and (the company) should not go beyond that line. I don”t think it”s a big environmental factor.”
KiOR, of Houston, Texas, agreed to invest $500 million to build three facilities in Mississippi and create an estimated 1,000 jobs.
Eight plants in Southeast
At the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link”s quarterly luncheon, Wednesday at the Columbus Country Club, Columbus-Lowndes Development Link CEO Joe Higgins noted the company plans to build eight plants in the Southeast, five of which will be in Mississippi.
And though the deal — six months in the works — might sound “too good to be true,” it”s not, said Higgins, adding that KiOR “cracked the code” on technology under development for years.
About 50 workers will be employed at the first facility, a $110 million investment to be located on a 22-acre site at the Port of Columbus.
“In general, this will be a chemical processing facility, except that its feedstock is wood chips for the surrounding areas,” explained Dr. Sumesh Arora, director of strategic biomass solutions at Mississippi Technology Alliance. “There will be a fair amount of truck traffic in and out of the plant; the projections for the Columbus plant are 100 trucks per day. This number has to be looked at within the framework of what a typical paper mill — or more specifically, the truck pattern of the closed Domtar (coated groundwood paper mill) — was.
“Woody biomass is inherently a low-sulfur feedstock, hence the fuel produced from it is also low in sulfur,” he continued. “Sulfur is an element which leads to the formation of various sulfur oxide gases that are considered to be pollutants. Using wood for producing energy is also considered to be carbon-neutral, since you are releasing carbon that was absorbed from the atmosphere by the trees, prior to harvesting. It is carbon that is already a part of the environment, as opposed to carbon that is newly released into the environment, when burning fossil fuels for energy.
“Water is one of the byproducts of this process, so some steam may be vented at times, although the company hopes to capture their waste heat and steam for supplying heat back into the process or using the gas that is generated as a byproduct to make electricity.”
Company officials claim KiOR”s renewable crude production process can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases and emissions and production does not have all the environmental risks associated with some conventional crude oil processes, according to the company website.
Process sulfur-free
Milton Sundbeck of West Point, owner Southern Ionics, the chemical company which produces the aluminum chemistries KiOR uses to produce its catalyst, also owns KiOR”s demonstration plant and the land it occupies just outside of Houston, Texas.
Sundbeck, after the Link”s quarterly meeting, reiterated the sulfur-free aspect of KiOR”s crude production process.
“Most crude oil in the world has quite a bit of sulfur that has to be removed. Sulfur also winds up in fuel. So eliminating sulfur in crude eliminates emissions from vehicles that burn fuel,” said Sundbeck.
Also, Sundbeck said KiOR”s biocrude is “low on oxygen and it”s a very light crude. It doesn”t have a lot of asphalt or heavies in it.”
KiOR officials also noted KiOR”s renewable crude process has more than 70 percent lower emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.
KiOR”s demonstration plant can produce 15 barrels of renewable crude oil substitute per day, converting wood and other biowaste into fuel. The Columbus facility will be 50 times the size of the demo plant.
A representative from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said the Texas agency has not experienced any problems from the demo facility.
Dispatch Staff Writer Jason Browne contributed to this story.
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