Earlier this month at the company’s TurningPoint Ethanol Demonstration Plant they confirmed the second of the two new technologies that Fulcrum will use for the large-scale production of transportation fuel from garbage that would otherwise be landfilled. The company is developing technology that would convert garbage into fuel, and along the way address a whole host of problems from national energy security to global warming and other forms of environmental degradation.
Their process involves multiple steps to convert “municipal waste” first into “synthesis gas” and then conversion of that gas into ethanol. If the process works it would be a renewably sourced fuel whose feedstock is available everywhere. That point itself offers a cure for the energy security problems inherent in relying on fossil fuels available only from unstable unfriendly countries. Also because it’s carbon content does not come from fossil fuel sources, when this ethanol is burned it does not increase carbon concentrations in the ecosphere. Contrarily burning fossil fuels increases the carbon concentrations in the ecosphere, hence burning fossil fuel worsens climate change and other environmental degradation whereas burning renewably sourced ethanol does not.
For any fuel production process to be viable it must meet a very important goal. Does it have a positive “Energy Return On Investment” (EROI)? In other words does the resulting fuel have more energy content than the energy expended to create the fuel? Fuels with a negative EROI are not worth putting into production because there is a net loss of energy. The production process they describe involves several steps which could be energy intensive. Their press release discusses the process as being efficient and utilizing catalysts.
An economist.com article discusses the plant Fulcrum is building near Reno Nevada. In its initial configuration it will have a 10 million gallon per year production capacity and be expandable to perhaps 95 million gallons per year. And the company has identified sites for other plants and claim a tremendous total potential production.

Waste not, want not: Ethanol from rubbish is the latest biofuel
FULCRUM BIOENERGY ANNOUNCES NEXT GENERATION ETHANOL BREAKTHROUGH
- Amazon investing in Rivian, GM possibly to follow - February 15, 2019
- Pres. Trump selling Paradise to coal baron who donated money to his campaign - February 13, 2019
- GM, Amazon, looking to invest in Rivian, no sign of GM/Tesla EV truck joint venture - February 12, 2019
- Tesla’s goals may require rumored joint venture with GM on electric pickup truck - February 12, 2019
- Green New Deal outline proposed in US Congress - February 7, 2019
- Nissan delays 60 kiloWatt-hour Leaf, but moves forward with EV energy ecosystem plans - November 28, 2018
- Rivian unveils an all-electric pickup truck for the “adventure vehicle” market - November 27, 2018
- GM cancels Chevy Volt production while Tesla Model 3 sales go through the roof - November 26, 2018
- American climate refugees living in tents and cars after Paradise destroyed by fire - November 21, 2018
- Ghosn to be kicked out of Nissan, arrested for securities/compensation fraud - November 19, 2018