Agra Energy achieves TRL 9 with demonstration of FT liquid fuels at Wisconsin facility
Agra Energy announced Oct. 21 the successful demonstration of renewable fuel production at its new facility in New Franken, Wisconsin, producing Fischer-Tropsch liquid fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable naphtha from dairy-farm biogas.
Agra Energy’s technology-licensing collaborator is HYCO1 and the facility uses HYCO1’s patented CUBE™ reforming syngas production technology, including its CORE™ Catalyst*.
The demonstration validates Agra Energy’s technology at technology-readiness level 9 (TRL 9), the highest stage of technology maturity, proven in commercial operation, and opens the door to customer-facility licensing and the build-out of additional Agra Energy plants.
At the heart of the result is the HYCO1 CORE™ Catalyst.
Conventional biogas-to-liquids processes treat the carbon dioxide in raw biogas as a waste stream to be stripped out and vented.
CORE™ Catalyst instead converts that CO2, together with the renewable natural gas (RNG), into syngas for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.
CORE is tunable in real time production allowing the production of targeted 2-to-1 syngas ratios without the need for gas cleanup, saving additional capital and energy for low-carbon fuel production.
Capturing the carbon in that CO2 also adds more than 20 percent carbon monoxide to the syngas yield and therefore to fuel yield, giving technology licensors the highest renewable fuel yield in the industry, according to Agra Energy.
“This demonstration is the moment our technology moves from promising to proven,” said Brad Yacullo, the chief operating officer for Agra Energy. “We are turning a dairy farm’s biogas, including the CO2 that others throw away, into SAF and renewable naphtha at industry-leading yield. With TRL 9 in hand, we are ready to license this technology to customers and to build additional plants of our own. There are so many opportunities to turn livestock waste into low-carbon sustainable fuels that go far beyond just dairy to beef feedlots, food waste and poultry farms.”
Kurt Dieker, the chief development officer at HYCO1, added, “Converting the CO2 in biogas rather than discarding it is what sets this process apart, adding more than 20 percent to yield from biogas to fuels while reducing emissions and carbon intensity of those fuels. Seeing our syngas catalyst perform in another commercial setting at New Franken confirms what it can do for renewable fuel and chemical economics.”
Demonstration highlights include:
Produced SAF and renewable naphtha from dairy-farm biogas at the New Franken facility.
Achieved the industry’s highest yield using the HYCO1 CUBE™ technology and CORE™ Catalyst, which converts the CO2 in biogas along with the RNG, adding more than 20 percent to fuel output.
Validated the technology at TRL 9, proven in an operational commercial environment.
Established the basis for customer facility licensing and internal development of additional plants sized at a targeted 150 to 250 barrels per day, supporting Agra Energy’s goal of contracting 1,000 barrels per day of biogas-derived fuel production capacity in 2027.
Path to commercial scale
With the technology proven, Agra Energy and HYCO1 are advancing on two fronts: licensing their process to customers for their own facilities and developing additional company-owned plants targeting 150 to 250 barrels per day of renewable fuel production each.
Together, these facilities will support Agra Energy’s target of adding 1,000 barrels per day of renewable fuel production capacity from biogas in 2027.
The modular-plant size is designed to sit close to agricultural and other biogas sources, turning distributed waste streams into drop-in liquid fuels.
Agra Energy said it is now seeking project developers and offtake partners for its SAF and renewable naphtha, and capital partners to accelerate the deployment of this technology.
*Editor’s Note: CUBE™ stands for “carbon utilization, best efficiency” while CORE™ is short for “carbon-optimized reforming.”
