Engineering the Future of Circular Packaging in the US Heartland

Iowa is the largest producer of corn, pork and eggs in the US. And Mason City — a town about halfway between Des Moines and the Twin Cities — is a hub of agricultural innovation, thanks to its many farmers and the impressive work of one bioconversion company.

New Energy Blue has chosen Mason City as the base for a new processing facility that will turn corn stover, the stalks and leaves left over from field corn harvest, into second-generation (aka cellulosic) ethanol — nearly half of which it will ship to Texas for conversion into bio-circular ethylene — a bio-circular version of the hydrocarbon gas that is commonly used to produce plastic.

The Mason City biomass refinery, named New Energy Freedom, will open in 2026 and process 360,000 dry tons of corn stover per year.

“Since we’re making cellulosic ethanol out of corn stalks, what better place than where there’s abundant corn — and that’s North Iowa,” said Thomas Corle, CEO and Chairman of New Energy Blue.

The 80-acre Mason City site is an excellent location for the plant — not only because of ample crop production; but also, easy road, rail and utility access.

How corn stover becomes ethanol

The Freedom refinery will produce 21 million gallons of second-generation ethanol a year and 150,000 tons of clean lignin. Its conversion process is automated and computerized from start to finish. The biomass is shredded mechanically, then cooked in thermal steam reactors. When mixed with special enzymes in large, agitated tanks, the botanical structure breaks down into cellulose and hemicellulose (C5 and C6 plant sugars) — which are then fermented with yeast. The lignin, which binds the cellulose fibers and gives every plant its structure, is separated during the process and released from the sugars. After fermentation, the resulting alcohol is distilled and dehydrated — leaving ethanol.

“We have a clean, benign process. We don’t add caustic acid and high ammonias to our pre-treatment process, which makes it different than other bioconversion technologies,” Corle said.

“For example, our lignin is cleaner and doesn’t need a post-washing — which saves fresh water. It’s ready to be dried to the specification needed to improve the end-product production. Sometimes we will run the lignin through an extruder to pelletize it and make it more practical for shipping.

“We are also working on clean downstream processes to replace many oil-based products in chemical productions such as polymers, lubricants and the bitumen binder in road pavement and roof shingles,” he added. “For seven years, in three different climates across Europe, lignin has been successfully tested as a replacement for bitumen in road surfacing.”

How ethanol becomes bio-circular plastic

In 2023, a Dow and New Energy Blue collaboration began with an agreed offtake on a portion of the second-generation ethanol, which New Energy Blue will process into bio-circular ethylene and pipe to Dow to produce low-density plastics for Dow customers’ brands. This collaboration aims to make the New Energy Freedom project in Mason City a potential game-changer in the plastics industry. And it continues to play a pivotal role in Dow’s approach to building materials ecosystems that value, source and transform waste into circular products.

Dow remains in close discussions with New Energy Blue on project progress, such as secured permitting and completed engineering design work in 2023 for New Energy Freedom.

New Energy Blue’s refining process will be certified by ISCC PLUS — an International Sustainability and Carbon Certification program with a focus on the traceability of raw materials within the supply chain. This allows Dow to effectively prove carbon reductions and comply with rigorous sustainability standards — including criteria related to environmental, social and ethical aspects of production — while offering customers another option to address their goals to increase non-fossil content in their products.

“Our supply chain stretches from Mason City to Port Lavaca in Texas, which is where our New Energy Chemicals facility will convert our second-generation ethanol into ethylene and send it by pipeline to Dow’s Gulf Coast manufacturing operations,” Corle said. “So, Dow can support applications such as lightweight materials used for transportation, cosmetics packaging, consumer products like shoes, and food packaging.”

The important role of legislation

Recent legislation has made the Mason City facility even more commercially attractive.

“Federal regulations, going back to the Clean Air Act of 2007, provide strong mandates for blending with gasoline 15 billion gallons of first-generation fuel ethanol and 36 billion gallons of next-generation or cellulosic ethanol we will be producing,” Corle said. “Those low-carbon gallons we produce are worth more than conventional ethanol when they replace gasoline in states like California, Oregon and Washington. And in 2023, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, environmental provisions went into effect that give us tax advantages.”

Corle and his team have made some impressive environmental-savings calculations, too. In addition to creating cleaner air and water by displacing gasoline, turning corn stover into bioenergy and bioplastics should notably reduce CO2 and methane in the atmosphere. A lifecycle analysis of the company’s first five projects predicts savings of well over one million tons of CO2 every year.

“Because of our clean, closed-loop design, we are classified as a low air emitter — so we expect our refineries to be expeditious to permit and to build out across the Midwest, where crop residues are abundant,” Corle said.

In collaboration with Dow, New Energy Blue is in a prime position to address the expected growth in demand for bioethylene — which will help Dow continue to service its portfolio of customer brands that want bio-circular options. Corle says the company plans to build four new biomass refineries over the next five years — either in Iowa or neighboring states — at twice the capacity of Freedom to feed the expanding demand for agricultural waste-based options.

This agreement will also help economically support local farmers, from whom New Energy Blue will purchase corn stover. Currently, farmers have limited revenue-generating options for removing corn stover. New Energy Farmers was created as a farmer-owned business to supply the Freedom refinery and expand biomass supplies across the Midwest. Dow’s supply agreement with New Energy Blue will create additional value for farmers by opening new uses for agricultural waste and a new income stream for the farmers. Promoting better farming practices is not only better for the farmer but also for our planet — as this process can leave more carbon in the soil, instead of deep turning the soil and releasing it into the atmosphere.

USDA estimates around 140 million acres of corn and wheat were planted in 2023 — with 115 million across the Midwestern US alone, according to Corle. Given that total, he believes a potential 500 biomass refineries will be required to use the excess corn stover or wheat straw that will be available after the grain harvest each year.

“That would mean more than 130 million tons of CO2 kept out of the atmosphere every single year,” he said, hinting to how we’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to closing the loop on agricultural waste and bio-circular plastics. “Wherever biomass grows in abundance — and access to fuel and chemical markets is logistically feasible and economical — we can likely site a biomass refinery.”

The potential doesn’t just apply to corn stalks and small-grain straws, but also sugar bagasse — the waste left over from sugarcane processing. New Energy Blue is already working on future energy grasses that can grow in arid, non-food-producing lands to create new sources to feed these biomass refineries, while restoring water retention in the soil and bringing it back to life to produce future food crops.

As Corle put it, “There is no end to the world’s need. What’s necessary is for the world to recognize it. It’s an exciting future, and it’s all of our responsibility to heal this planet for future generations.”