Recs: 0 Re: Pan Gen Global
Biomass-to-energy is a concept that has been around from time immemorial. The use of biomass for transportation purposes really began in earnest when the railroads first opened the West, with trains burning wood as their primary fuel. Soon this was replaced with a fossil hydrocarbon (coal) that was much easier to mine and transport. Coal was then replaced by other hydrocarbons, gasoline and diesel. Another phase of displacement, with bio-fuels supplementing the combustion of fossil hydrocarbons, is well on its way to becoming a fact of life. Ethanol will be the “oxygenator” for unleaded gasoline creating much cleaner burning combustion and fewer tailpipe emissions. Today Brazil leads the world’s industrialized nations in production of ethanol fuel.
Pan Gen Global is a British Corporation with a regional office in California. Our first facilities will be located in the heart of the Sacramento Valley’s rice producing area and Arkansas. California produces about 18% of the rice grown in the United States; about 550,000 acres annually. Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Missouri also produce large quantities of rice. In California an acre yields approximately 8000 pounds of rice, 5000 pounds of waste rice straw and 1000 pounds of waste rice hulls.
Pan Gen Global will produce ethanol, silica/sodium oxide and lignin from waste rice straw, waste rice hulls and other cellulosics. Our facility will consume approximately 130,000 tons of waste biomass annually, producing 12.5 million gallons of ethanol and 16,800 tons of silica/sodium oxide.
Ethanol sells as a commodity priced (as of June '06) at $3.36 per gallon. California imports approximately 950,000,000 gallons annually. Silica/sodium oxide is a widely used ingredient with applications in the paper industry, by detergent and soap producers and for the production of gels , catalysts and zeolytes.
The Pan Gen Global processing facility will be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2008.
