Assessment of Conversion Technologies for Bioalcohol Fuel ...

ethanol plants and subsequently licensed to qualified third parties. Abengoa Bioenergy
and has committed $100 million to R&D for the next four years.
Figure A15. Abengoa Biomass-to-Ethanol Technology
Abengoa S.A., all rights reserved
Archer, Daniels, Midland Company, Decatur, Illinois
Organizational Background–Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), founded in
1902, is one’s of world’s largest and most diverse agricultural processors, producing
food ingredients, animal feed, fuels and other agriculturally-derived products in many
countries. ADMhas been the world’s largest producer of ethanol fuel since entering
this market in the late 1970s, and currently operates about 20 percent of U.S. corn-toethanol
production capacity. The company produces ethanol using both the dry-mill
and wet-mill processes, having pioneered development of the wet-milling process and
the varied slate of corn-based products derived as byproducts from ethanol production
in wet-mills, such as corn syrup, high-fructose corn sweetener, corn gluten meal and
others.
ADM began investigating and sponsoring research in the area of conversion of corn
fiber to ethanol via hydrolysis processes as early as 1984. A number of different
process approaches were explored. Currently, ADM is pursuing development of a
hydrolysis-based process for producing ethanol from corn fiber, jointly developed with
the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in
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