Nearly two months after the announcement by General Motors of its equity investment in Mascoma, the Massachusetts company has announced the location of its first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant. Mascoma CEO Bruce Jamerson and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm announced a plant would be built near Sault Ste. Marie in northern Michigan. Mascoma will be collaborating with Michigan State University and Michigan Technical University to further enhance its processing technology for turning biomass into liquid fuel.

MSU will offer help with the pre-treatment technology for the cellulosic biomass and identifying renewable crops for feedstocks while MTU will help with sustainable forest management practices. The Sault Ste. Marie plant will primarily use wood waste from the forestry industry in northern Michigan as a feedstock. Michigan has passed legislation creating grants for Centers of Energy Excellence. The new law will make Mascoma eligible for a grant of $15 million dollars for the new plant. The plant should be operational by 2012 producing 40 million gallons a year of cellulosic ethanol.

[Source: Mascoma]

Following this morning's announcement that GM was taking an equity stake in cellulosic ethanol developer Mascoma, the two companies held a conference call. Like the earlier Coskata investment, GM researchers will be working with scientists at Mascoma to refine the process that they have developed for converting many kinds of biomass that might otherwise be considered waste.

Mascoma's Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP) system is different than more traditional cellulosic production methods in that when fully developed, no additional enzymes will need to be added. Enzymes are currently the most costly part of the production process. Mascoma has developed microbes that can consume the pre-processed material and produce their own enzymes for breaking down the cellulose into sugars and then fermenting it.

The pre-processing consists of chopping the raw materials and mixing it with water in the presence of some heat. This results in a spongy peat moss-like material that is fed to the microbes. The output of the microbes is ethanol that only needs distillation. Mascoma is still refining the microbes which currently don't produce as much enzyme as needed to complete the process. For the pilot plant that is currently under construction, Mascoma will have to add some enzymes to the process although the amount is much smaller than normally required. By the time a commercial scale plant is ready in about 2010, Jamerson expects that no additional enzymes will be required. The CBP system also doesn't require any of the acids or other chemicals normally required for pre-treating biomass.

Mascoma CEO Bruce Jamerson explained that the process requires about 2-3 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol produced which is more than the Coskata's process but it requires less energy input. The cost of fuel from the process is similar to Coskata's at about $1-1.50 a gallon. Mascoma's agreement with GM is not exclusive and in the future they expect to license the process to other fuel producers. When questioned about why they were investing in multiple processes, GM's Candace Wheeler explained that they were potentially complementary. The lignin left over from the Mascoma process could be fed into the syngas process developed by Coskata, increasing the ultimate yield.

[Sources: General Motors, Mascoma]

General Motors today announced their second equity investment in a developer of cellulosic ethanol technology in recent months. The automaker is buying into Mascoma Corp. Mascoma has developed a single-step cellulose to ethanol process that apparently requires fewer enzymes and other additives. Mascoma has proprietary microbes that are used in its Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP) technology. The CBP process can convert most forms of biomass such as straw, wood, paper pulp, and agricultural waste into liquid fuel. So far, Mascoma has received more than $60 million in federal and state grants for their work. To date Mascoma has been testing their technology in the lab with a demonstration plant due to come on line later this year in Rome, NY. GM President Fritz Henderson is not disclosing how much the automaker is investing. Earlier this year GM invested in Illinois-based Coskata. GM is holding a conference call later this afternoon where we will hopefully get more details. We do know that Mascoma has been trying for a while to have the first cellulosic ethanol plant up and running, with projects announced in Tennessee, New York state and Michigan.

[Source: General Motors]

You probably remember that back in January of this year, General Motors announced that it was partnering up with Coskata to make cheap cellulosic ethanol using a process developed by Coskata which includes the use of microorganisms developed by Oklahoma State University and Oklahoma University. Coskata has apparently broken ground on a new plant that is being built in Pennsylvania. While Coskata appears to be moving along at a fine pace, Auto Observer is reporting that Coskata is not the only cellulosic ethanol provider that the General is interested in being attached to. GM said back in January that Coskata would not be the company's only biofuel partner. So far, everything sounds very "hush-hush" about this new partnership, but GM president Fritz Henderson is expected to make an announcement tomorrow in Washington D.C. We don't have any information on who America's largest automakers is partnering with, but we know that there are plenty of other companies currently working on cheap cellulosic ethanol. You'll know more when we do, so stay tuned.

[Source: Auto Observer]

Switchgrass and sorghum have been promoted heavily in the last couple of years as potential feedstocks for producing cellulosic ethanol. The recently-launched Oklahoma Bioenergy Center at Oklahoma State University has just procured 1,100 acres of land for planting feedstocks. A 1,000 acre plot near Guymon, Oklahoma will be planted with switchgrass within the next six weeks. The remaining land near Chickasha and Maysville will be planted with a mix of switchgrass and sorghum.

The crops from the Guymon fields will be used to feed a cellulosic ethanol plant currently under construction by Abengoa Bioenergy near Hugoton, Kan. The new plant should be operational in 2010. Switchgrass is one of the preferred potential feedstocks for biofuels because of its ability to re-seed itself and grow on marginally fertile land with no irrigation or fertilizer. Oklahoma State has an extensive history with cellulosic biofuels. Researchers at the school developed the process used by Coskata for producing ethanol. The land for this program is being leased from Hitch Enterprises a long-time, family-owned agricultural company in the region.

[Source: Oklahoma Bioenergy Center]

Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel are already available, so why would they show up on our list of future technologies? A one-word answer: cellulose.

Currently, mass-produced ethanol is created by the fermentation of sugar and in the U.S. granulated corn is distilled to make alcohol and combined with gasoline to make E85. Unfortunately, corn is a poor choice when it comes to the creation of ethanol. Alternatives are on the horizon, though, which could potentially make biofuels a much better choice. Cellulosic ethanol could be considered ethanol version 2.0, with large-scale plants currently being set-up which might be able to offer the fuel at very low prices. When the fact that American roadways are already littered with E85-capable vehicles is added into the mix, cellulosic ethanol stands to make a large dent in our petroleum usage.

Discover Number 2.

The flow of cash into cellulosic ethanol is accelerating with Range Fuels being the latest start-up to get an infusion. The Broomfield, Colo. company has received a $130 million round of venture funding. Most of the money will be used for construction of a waste wood to ethanol production facility in Soperton, GA. This follows an investment earlier this year by General Motors in Illinois-based Coskata.

The Range Fuels process uses a thermo-chemical reaction with heat, pressure and steam to produce a syngas from cellulosic biomass. The syngas is then converted to an alcohol blend by passing it over a proprietary catalyst. The alcohol blend is then processed to isolate the ethanol. Range Fuels claims a high energy in to ethanol ratio for their process. Unlike some competing processes, this one doesn't rely on any enzymes to break down the cellulose into simpler sugars. It's not known how the process compares to some others, but investor Vinod Khosla estimates the Range Fuels process will come in at about $1.25/gallon. The investors in this latest funding round include Passport Capital LLC, Blue Mountain Venture Capital LLC, Morgan Stanley and Pacific Capital Group and Khosla Ventures. Khosla is also an investor in Coskata.

[Source: Wall Street Journal - Sub. req'd]

Click the Saleen S5S Raptor

A quarter century after Steve Saleen started building heavily modified high performance Ford Mustangs, the company that still bears his name, if not his direct involvement, unveiled a new concept car at the New York Auto Show. The S5S Raptor is the second ground-up design from Saleen following the S7R that debuted several years ago. The Raptor is the first car from Saleen specifically designed to run on ethanol. During the presentation CEO Paul Wilbur emphasized the use of cellulosic E85, which several cars in the American Le Mans Series are running this season. The Raptor is powered by a new supercharged 5.0L V-8 that produces 650hp when running on biofuel. Saleen is following many other high performance tuners and builders in switching to E85. It allows them to tune the engines for higher performance without having to use expensive high octane racing gasoline blends. The Raptor is currently a concept, but Saleen is evaluating potential customer interest before deciding whether to proceed with production. If Saleen does proceed it could be available within two years at approximately $185,000.


[Source: Saleen]

GM Inside News forum member HoosierRon has posted what he feels is "definitive proof that ethanol is not creating a food corn shortage." He goes on to give real raw data to support his claims. His data concentrates on the amount of corn produced in the U.S. and the amount of ethanol produced in the U.S. His data seems to indicate that there is more corn available for food now than there ever has been before.

This type of data is good to keep an eye on, but it hardly offers definitive proof that ethanol fuel is not raising corn prices. Instead, it shows that there is plenty of corn available for use as either ethanol or food. Additionally, the data does not indicate whether farmers who previously planted other crops are instead choosing to plant corn. None of this is to say that ethanol is creating a food shortage, just that more data is needed before any fair conclusion can be reached.

As is often stated, making ethanol from corn is not very efficient, but hopefully soon we will start seeing cellulosic ethanol take its place as an alternative to petroleum.

[Source: GM Inside News]

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil visited last week a plant near São Paul which is testing a new method to obtain ethanol from sugarcane pomace bagasse (what's left after sugar is extracted). Petrobras, the company that is financing this research hopes to obtain 40 percent more ethanol without harvesting more sugarcane.

Plans are to have a full-working plant in 2011 that is able to process 10 tons of pomace and produce 2,800 liters of ethanol from it per day. Although theoretically the process can use any kind of agricultural waste, the plant is being tuned up to use sugarcane pomace, because there's currently more of that than anything else.

Both Petrobras and the Government of Brazil consider this plant the country's first step towards second generation biofuels.

Related:

• Nebraska opens cellulosic ethanol plant
• Royal Nedalco will open a cellullosic ethanol plant using yeast, not bacteria
• Don't use food to make ethanol, use garbage

[Source: Econoticias]

[Edited: Thanks to Chris for the correction on the correct term for bagasse]

Abengoa Bioenergía has just opened a cellulosic ethanol plant in York, Nebraska. The source material for this plant is "lignocellulose biomass" (we usually call it "wood"). The company has invested more than $35 million in the plant, which will focus on obtaining an efficient process, and the project is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The plant will focus on research, trying to find the best machinery, systems and catalysts to break the cellulose chains for processing, as well as the best plants for the process. Abengoa hopes to create an optimized ethanol manufacturing process.

During the opening of the plant, Abegoa Energía's president, Javier Salgado announced a new $38 million contract with the DOE for designing and developing one of the first cellulosic ethanol manufacturing facilities in Hugoton, Kansas. This plant will process 700 tons of biomass per day to produce 44 million liters of ethanol, as well as electric power and vapor. It includes a second conventional (grain based) ethanol manufacturing plant able to produce 88 million gallons. The final bill for the complex will add more than $300 million.

Related:

• Royal Nedalco will open a cellullosic ethanol plant using yeast, not bacteria
• Cellulosic ethanol summit scheduled for next week
• Is it time? POET wants to bring cellulosic ethanol plant to Iowa

[Source: Abengoa Bioenergía via Econoticias]

If you're doing research into enzymes for cellulosic ethanol production the US Department of Energy wants you. They have published a funding opportunity with up to $33.8 million available. The money is for work on commercializing enzymes for use in breaking down cellulosic feed-stocks into simple sugars. Those can then be processed into ethanol. The goal is to make cellulosic ethanol production cost competitive by 2012. The money is being made available on a fifty percent cost sharing basis and individual projects are eligible for amounts ranging from $5-15 million dollars.

[Source: Department of Energy]

SunEthanol is biofuel technology startup focused on commercializing technology developed by University of Massachusetts researcher Dr. Susan Leschine and her team. Dr. Leschine discovered a bacteria dubbed the Q Microbe. The Q Microbe has the advantage of being able to digest many different cellulosic feed-stocks and combining what would be multiple steps with other bacteria into a single stage process.

The bacteria has the potential to drastically reduce the cost and complexity producing cellulosic ethanol. SunEthanol has just received a first round of venture capital funding from VeraSun Energy, Battery Ventures, Long River Ventures and AST Capital to further their research and development work.

[Source: SunEthanol]

The competition to make cellulosic ethanol commercially is officially on. Woodland Biofuels Inc. announced yesterday that it has received $9.8 Million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Atlantic Canada. Place this news next to Mascoma's similar announcement from a while back, and we've got ourselves a race.

Woodland says it will "build this unique facility to efficiently produce cellulosic ethanol from wood waste. The plant will use Woodland's patented Catalyzed Pressure Reduction (CPRTM) technology, which can be used to produce sustainable fuels from virtually any type of biomass, including wood waste and agricultural waste. The technology generates absolutely no toxic emissions and eliminates the need to use food, such as corn, to produce ethanol." Mascoma is also using wood for its cellulosic plant.

In more ways than one: "Gentlemen, start your engines..."

Related:

• Mascoma Corp to build cellulosic ethanol plant in Michigan

[Source: Woodland Biofuels Inc.]

And now, what many of our readers have been waiting for: cellulosic ethanol. As can be seen from the comments on posts dealing with ethanol production, many people want to take food, specifically corn, out of our gas tanks and back into ourselves. A new plant has been proposed by the Massachusetts-based Mascoma Corp that would create cellulosic ethanol in Michigan. Not only would corn not be used for ethanol at the new plant, the resulting ethanol would most likely be cheaper to produce. Of course, subsidies and tax breaks are part of the plant's proposal, of course. Speaking as somebody who lives near Detroit, the resulting jobs are sorely needed, and the plan also includes developing new technology from local universities.

The technology in question will be needed because the source of the ethanol will be wood. As of this writing, there are a few competing technologies which can use biomass for ethanol, and they need more tinkering to get it all just right. The process uses, in Mascoma's own words, "enzymes, microbes and processes for economical conversion of cellulosic feedstocks into ethanol. " This is new technology that we are talking about, as opposed to the long-standing tradition of making moonshine from grains. But, if they do get it right, the payoff could be worth it. It is also probably worth mentioning here that after the biomass is broken down, it could be used in more ways than just producing ethanol.

Related:

• Termites could be the next frontier in cellulosic ethanol production
• Makin' ethanol from the old poplar tree

[Source: Detroit News]