The magical cost of $1 per gallon of cellulosic ethanol is certainly a hot calling card these days, and one of the most well-known purveyors of this story is Coskata. Coskata splashed onto the scene in January with the big GM announcement, and has stayed in the news by announcing a partnership with ICM and, later this month, will disclose the location of its 40,000 gallons a year demonstration facility.

Bill Roe, the Coskata CEO, gave C-Net's Michael Kanellos an explanation yesterday of just how his company will be able to make this greener ethanol for that low a price. The short version is that Coskata's plan to license it's technology to bigger companies (companies that already know how to effectively build large ethanol plants), it's ability to use pretty much any carbon-containing item as a source for the fuel and it's mixed approach (one that contains both biological and thermochemical processes) to making ethanol all add up to a plan that, at this point, makes cheap cellulosic ethanol seem reasonable. Read the full details over on C-Net.

[Source: C-Net]