Back in February, Mascoma opened its first pilot plant for the production of cellulosic ethanol. According to General Motors, which invested in Mascoma and its unique method for producing the alcohol, Mascoma's consolidated bioprocessing process has proven successful in a laboratory environment.

Unlike most processes for creating cellulosic ethanol, Mascoma uses a specially developed strain of yeast that cuts a three-step process down to one single step, which allows the ethanol producer to reduce the cost of creating the fuel, improve the plant's throughput and lower the cost associated with building the plant.

Cellulosic ethanol may turn into an important piece of the larger puzzle of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. If nothing else, it's a much better solution than the corn-based ethanol we're currently saddled with. Want to know more about cellulosic ethanol? Click here to read our past Greenlings post on the subject.

[Source: General Motors]

Codexis and Shell are expanding their collaboration on developing non-food based biofuels. Codexis develops what the company calls biocatalysts, the enzymes used to break down cellulose into simple sugar molecules. Codexis and Shell have had a cooperative agreement since 2007 and the expansion will see Iogen Energy participating as well. Iogen is already operating a cellulosic ethanol pilot plant near Ottawa, Canada. The hope is that the work of Codexis will be able to improve the efficiency of Iogen's processes so that costs can be reduced and yields increased.

Other biocatalysts that Codexis is developing go beyond ethanol and might be able to convert biomass directly into the compounds that make up gasoline and diesel fuel. These compounds contain longer carbon chains than ethanol and have greater energy density. By producing something more chemically similar to gasoline or diesel, the fuels could be used in existing vehicles without modification and without some of the corrosion issues that ethanol is subject too.

[Source: Codexis]

Mascoma Corporation's first pilot plant in Rome, New York has now begun to produce cellulosic ethanol. Mascoma is one of two cellulosic ethanol companies that got equity investments from General Motors in early 2008, the other being Coskata. The Rome plant has an annual capacity of 200,000 gallons of ethanol produced from non-food biomass. Mascoma recieved grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York State Power Authority (NYPA) to help pay for the construction of the plant.

Mascoma is currently purchasing wood chips from a local sawmill for feed-stocks but the plant is capable of using a wide variety of materials, including corn stover, sugar cane bagasse and grasses. A commercial scale plant using Mascoma's technology is being developed in Kinross, Michigan.

[Source: Mascoma]

Last year, at the same press conference where American Le Mans Series CEO Scott Atherton announced the Green Challenge, Chevrolet general manager Ed Peper announced that the C6R Corvettes would be running on cellulosic ethanol in the GT1 class. After a year of tearing up the tracks powered by non-food-sourced biofuel, GM Road Racing Group Manager Steve Wesoloski is proud of the team's accomplishments. He also welcomes Michelin on board as the title sponsor of the Green Challenge for 2009. Ethanol obviously remains a controversial fuel, but Wesoloski said, "It's going to be a long time before the auto industry finds the one magic solution. In the meantime we're all looking for answers. This [cellulosic E85] is one. We're saying you don't have to be afraid of ethanol." Lessons learned converting the race car to E85 are being shared with the production side at GM. Now, with a GT2 car under development for its debut later this year, the team is working on weight reduction by using the aluminum chassis of the production Z06 and ZR1 models. Hopefully, some of those weight reduction lessons will also make their way to production GM cars.

Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: American Le Mans Series]

As we know, breaking down long-chain cellulose molecules into individual sugar molecules is problematic on an industrial scale. In nature, of course, this happens all the time thanks to little critters like the Limnoria Quadripunctata, or four spotted gribble. The gribble or sea grub, like numerous other tiny life forms, is able to consume biomass like wood and turn it into something that can more easily be transformed into a liquid fuel.

Scientists have been examining these sea grubs and many other creatures to learn about the enzymes they produce for breaking down cellulose. The hope is that the enzymes can be economically synthesized for use in biofuel production. Simon McQueen-Mason of the University of York in the UK recently came up with the idea of using these particular gribbles and is leading a research effort into them that is getting funding from a £27 million bioenergy program. British science minister Lord Paul Drayson has established bioenergy research centers at six British universities.

[Source: Channel 4]

Verenium Corporation has been awarded a $7 million grant from the state of Florida and it will use the money to build its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant. The money comes through the state's Farm to Fuel initiative, something sure to enrage ethanol opponents. The plant, to be constructed beginning later this year in Highlands County, Florida, is expected to start generating fuel in 2011.

When fully up to speed the facility will employ 140 people and produce 36 million gallons of ethanol annually. The total cost of the refinery is expected to be $250-300 million. Verenium's enzyme-based process for breaking down cellulose into sugar for fermentation will use grasses as the main stock at the Florida facility.

[Source: Verenium]

The company formerly known as Xethanol Corp, is now known as Global Energy Holdings Group. As a renamed and reorganized company, it has dropped its focus on cellulosic ethanol in the face of falling ethanol prices. Instead, the company will take a more wide-ranging approach that includes tapping into landfills to harvest the methane contained within. The methane can be filtered and either used to produce electricity or blended with other natural gas sources. In addition the company will work on biomass including gasification technology and burning the biomass directly for electrical generation. The company will continue to do some work on biomass-to-liquid development as well. A second part of the company called Global Energy Ventures will focus on investments in technology developed by other companies.

[Source: Green Fuels Forecast]

During a conference call this afternoon, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm announced that the U.S. DOE will invest $26 million dollars in the state's first cellulosic ethanol production plant, being built by Mascoma in the Upper Peninsula. Granholm, speaking with a sore voice thanks to a cold, said that this is the first time that Michigan has gotten a DOE grant in partnership with the private sector.

Granholm was joined by Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senator Carl Levin, Congressman Bart Stupak and others, both in Lansing and Washington, D.C., during the call. Mascoma CEO Bruce Jamerson called it a great day for Michigan, Mascoma and the country. Stabenow said that a new federal $1.01 per gallon tax credit for cellulosic ethanol should do for the second-generation biofuel what the previous 54 cent a gallon credit did for corn ethanol. All of the speakers highlighted that this plant will be a job creation engine for the UP, and Levin emphasized that this is a bit of good news amid a lot of bad economic news.

Last month, the Wal-Mart Foundation gave $369,000 to the Arkansas Biosciences Institute for cellulosic ethanol research, specifically biomass-to-ethanol work. For comparison, Wal-Mart earned $351,139,000,000 last year.

While most of the research done at ABI focuses on tobacco-related issues (the institute was formed thanks to the Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act of 2000), the Wal-Mart money will be used to try and get biofuel out of "the state's agriculture and forestry resources," according to Domestic Fuel, which means making ethanol from things like "plant stalks and leaves, agricultural residues and forestry residues."

Wal-Mart has been supporting ethanol for many years and also has a toe in LNG trucks and electric drive vehicles.

[Source: Domestic Fuel]

Canadian cellulosic ethanol producer Iogen has shipped the first 26,000 gallons of an order for Royal Dutch Shell. Iogen recently announced a deal with Shell that would see them cooperate on commercializing cellulosic ethanol production. Iogen has a demonstration plant near the Canadian capitol and produced the biofuel from wheat straw feedstock. Iogen uses a "steam explosion" pre-treatment process that increases the surface area of the raw materials making the enzymes used to break down the cellulose more effective. Iogen produces its own enzymes that are then used in a hydrolysis process to produce glucose. The glucose is then fermented and distilled to produce the alcohol.

[Source: Iogen]