Appomattox Bio Energy

Located in Hopewell, Virginia, USA, Appomattox Bio Energy is planning for start-up and production in 2011. The plant is designed to produce 62 million gallons per year of motor fuel grade ethanol (MFGE). It is the first commercial scale ethanol plant in the United States designed to operate on barley feedstock. It is truly a multi-feedstock plant, however, capable of running on barley, dehulled barley, hulless barley, wheat, corn or milo.

The selected barley feedstock is a high-starch barley cultivar developed by Virginia Tech University. This specialized cultivar provides an advantage to local/regional farmers as a superior ground cover to double crop soy beans. It also produces a premium ethanol coproduct animal feed for non-ruminates such as hogs and poultry known as Barley Protein Meal (BPM) feed. The zero-discharge plant will also produce a pelletized barley hull coproduct to be used as fuel pellets for process heat in the ethanol plant or as a green energy fuel for domestic or export markets.

The plant's location near two coal-fired power plants enabled Appomattox to receive waste steam from these utilities to provide economical and more sustainable energy for the ethanol plant.

KATZEN provided to Appomatox Bio Energy our process design package, construction and commissioning liaison, operator training, and start-up services.