Biofuels Digest’s 2012 Best Project (demonstration) Award: ZeaChem — Boardman, OR

Like INEOS Bio, ZeaChem is a hybrid that features both gasification and fermentation elements. The mechanical completion of the core of its demonstration-scale project was a highlight this year — on budget, on time.

What makes this project even more interesting is that, even after moving through lab to pilot and now demonstration, no one is talking down the potential yields of the system, which aims to produce up to 135 gallons of ethanol per ton of poplar biomass, with local growers aiming for as much as 16 tons of biomass per acre. That’s more than 2,000 gallons per acre, or four times the yields with corn ethanol.

READ MORE: All about the project, here. 

The Complete 2012 Biofuels Digest Awards

Best Project – Thermochemical
Best Project – Fermentation
Best Project – Hybrid
Best Project (demonstration)
Best Project (pilot)

Best Technology Extension
Best New Fuel
Best Retrofit
Process Improvement
Pretreatment Technology

Yield Improvement
Industrial Symbiosis
New Trait
New Feedstock
New Feedstock (Demonstration)

New Feedstock (Trial)
Consumer Product of the Year (biobased)
Consumer Product of the Year (biofuels)
Partnership of the Year
Special Editor’s Award – Comeback of the year

Special Editor’s Award – Sustainable technology
Book of the Year