The 10 Top Biofuels Stories of the Year

3. Tranquility Base Here. The Crescentino project has landed.

Editor’s Note: They called them crazies in Crescentino, but the joke was on the critics when the “moon shot” opened on time, and on budget. After some months of commissioning, the plant has commenced shipping product and the company’s development attention is shifting to its North Carolina project. But in mid-September of last year, not only were all Beta eyes on Crescentino; the industry as a whole was gazing in wonder.

The first thing you notice about the Beta Renewables cellulosic ethanol plant in Crescentino is the size and scope. Tucked away in the sprawling, agriculture-rich plain that lies just south of the Italian Alps in the vicinity of Torino, the towering columns dominate the surrounding landscape like the gantryways of Kennedy Space Center’s launch pads, lording it over the Florida flatlands at Cape Canaveral.

After the long “five years away” era of cellulosic biofuels, where systems fit on benches, or in small shacks that held pilots, the Digest had recently profiled large-scale demonstrations started coming along at locations like Boardman, Oregon (ZeaChem), and Rome, New York (Mascoma), Kalundborg, Denmark (Inbicon) and Sherbrooke, Quebec (Enerkem). They were a startling expansion in size.

This year, the 8 million gallon INEOS Bio facility in Vero Beach, Florida has been completed and is going through its commissioning process now. It is awesome in its own right.

But to see a 20 million gallon cellulosic biofuels project, up close and in person, is like seeing the Saturn V rocket for the first time. The Titan that powered Project Gemini, the Redstones and Atlases that powered Project Mercury, look like midget rockets launched out of backyards by comparison.