Weaning the country off its addiction to petroleum is a lofty dream many renewable fuel companies undertake. Last Friday, the folks at Hillsborough, NJ-based Primus Green Energy revealed their plans to ease our reliance on traditional gasoline, as it opened the doors to its demo plant. The eleven-year-old company developed technology that coverts biomass, such as specially prepared wood waste pellets, and natural gas into high octane gasoline and jet fuel.
Primus’ technology converts material such as wood waste and miscanthus grasses and turns it into a mixture that can be used in unmodified, standard engines. The biomaterial is superheated and gasified to unlock its hydrogen and carbon monoxide, mixed with natural gas, scrubbed of impurities, and then processed into liquid fuel. The company says its bio-gasoline does not suffer some of the constraints of corn-based ethanol, which can require more land to grow crops for fuel compared with miscanthus grasses.
Primus says its technology can produce 93-octane gasoline and can also be used to create specialty chemicals such as toluene and xylene. The company raised $12 million in March from its backer, IC Green Energy, which has so far put a total of $40 million into Primus. IC Green Energy is a unit of Israel Corp., one of the largest holding companies in that country.
Robert Johnsen, CEO of Primus, says the company expects to complete the demonstration plant in Hillsborough by the fourth quarter of this year, and plans to start construction in 2013 on a commercial plant, which will cost at least $150 million. Johnsen believes he can commercialize Primus’ fuel at prices competitive with petroleum—$65 per barrel for its bio-gasoline versus $83 per barrel of crude oil.
Johnsen sees the airline industry as a source of potential partners who may want lower cost sources of fuel for jets. He says his company has also shown its technology to at least one American automaker, which tested Primus’s gasoline for compatibility with its engines.
In spite of enthusiasm for the technology, Johnsen says raising funds for commercialization may require some creativity on his part. “There was a window in
