Representatives from one of the GM-backed cellulosic ethanol concerns, Coskata, have been visiting the Asia-Pacific region recently to tout their anything-into-ethanol technology. In Thailand, they recommended that the Thai government work to make "Thailand the ethanol manufacturing hub for Asia," according to the Thai newspaper The Nation. Before committing to a Thai location, though, Coskata wants the government to have "clear-cut tax regulations, lower import tariffs for machines, and support in establishing investment." Coskata's chief marketing officer, Wes Bolsen, touted a three- to four-year break-even point for investors who help the company set up an ethanol facility there by 2012.

Here in the U.S., Coskata is waiting on government aid before moving forward on a pilot plant.

[Source: The Nation (Thai newspaper)]

It hasn't been an easy 14 months for Coskata. The cellulosic ethanol start-up made a big splash in January 2008 with the announcement of a partnership with GM. Since then, the company did move forward with its plans to build cellulosic ethanol demonstration plants and raised more money, but there was no way it could be immunized from the overall economic slump. Earth2Tech takes a look at Coskata's current reality and finds that the company CEO Bill Roe recently told attendees at the Wall Street Journal Eco:nomics conference that Coskata's first commercial-scale plant is on hold unless the Department of Energy comes through with a loan guarantee. The good news is that the DOE is indeed moving quickly on handing out money, so perhaps the promise of $1 gallons of ethanol from almost anything will some day be kept.

[Source: Earth2Tech]

Looking back on 2008, it seems that the biggest stories that shaped the automotive landscape had more to do with gas prices and economic conditions than the vehicles themselves. Regardless, there are quite a few new technologies that are just starting to make waves, and many of them are intended to reduce the world's use of petroleum and the resultant emissions. Proof positive can be seen in Motor Trend's list of the "Top Ten Tech Treasures" of 2008. For instance, the first two bits of technology praised by MT are the cellulosic ethanol processes being used by Coskata and Mascoma, while the third has to do with finding a suitable non-food crop for said ethanol. Ethanol not your style? Try methanol, which manages to hold down spots 4 and 5 in one form or another. There's five more entries on the list, and we don't want to spoil them for you, so we'll just mention that all but one have something to do with saving fuel or cutting emissions.

[Source: Motor Trend]

The two ethanol companies that GM has invested in, Coskata and Mascoma, must be making the automaker proud and frustrated this week, as they have very different news to report. Coskata's got some potentially good news: U.S. Sugar might be the next to try and commercialize the plasma/gassification ethanol production process with a plant in Florida. The Florida plant makes sense for U.S. Sugar because the company can use leftover sugar cane material to make the biofuel and because Florida has set its own ethanol mandate. Coskata already has a pilot plant agreement with the Westinghouse Plasma Center and another commercial partner in ICM.

Meanwhile, over at Mascoma, the news is a bit less positive: CNET is reporting that the company is "shedding staff," which in a small company like Mascoma means between 5 and 10 positions are now history.

[Source: Coskata, CNET]

As promised, we got a chance to sit down with Wes Bolsen, the CMO and vice president at Coskata, during last week's Platts Cellulosic Ethanol Conference in Chicago. We wanted a little more information on the $1/gallon number for the Coskata process "cellulosic" ethanol (yes, Bolsen pointed out that it's really carbon ethanol, but he's OK with people using the cellulosic term, even though he prefers to call it "next generation" ethanol). About half of the cost is set aside for feedstocks, the rest is for things like utilities, maintenance, water, and nutrients. The Coskata process does not require buying enzymes, there's no pre-treateament, and there's no high-pressure chamber. Eliminating these items simplifies the process and, therefore, reduces the running cost to less than $1/gallon. I'm not sure if the fee for the microorganisms is included in this estimate or is part of the plant building fee (which is not part of the $1/gallon).

Because the Coskata process does not require sugars/cellulose, it can use input sources like trashed plastic bottles, tires, landfill gas, and steel mill gasses. Bolsen said that some estimates say 40 or 50 billion gallons of fuel could be created each year from these sources. Oh, and if you think ethanol will die out when we move away from liquid fuels, check out Bolsen's idea to use ethanol to produce hydrogen for fuel cellls. Want to hear more? Go ahead and listen in (13 min):



Our travel and lodging for this event was provided by GM.

Thursday at the Platts Cellulosic Ethanol Conference saw three of the cellulosic ethanol plant builders give updates on their strategy for converting biomass to fuel and where their companies are today. The speakers were Wes Bolsen, CMO and vp at Coskata, Christopher Veit, senior marketing manager, biomass, for Novozymes, Inc., and Murray Burke, president and CTO of SunOpta. The short version of each of their speeches: we're doing amazing things, you should really take another look at our technology. The longer versions are spelled out after the jump.

Tomorrow and Friday, GM is hosting a biofuels seminar in Chicago. We'll be bringing you full coverage from the Windy City, but before we head over, we wanted to check up on what Coskata has been up to, considering that our friend Wes Bolsen will be on hand and we'll get an update directly from him. The company hasn't put out any press releases since April, but that doesn't mean nothing has happened.

Greentechmedia mentioned that the biofuel company should be just about finished with a third round of funding, which will probably be a big one. On top of a $25 million demonstration plant being built in Pennsylvania, Earth2Tech writes about a new $400 million Coskata plant in Florida in partnership with U.S. Sugar Corp. Whatever the general discussion is in Chicago, we'll make sure to get the official response from Coskata to these claims that there's simply no way they can make cellulosic ethanol for $1 a gallon. Stay tuned.

[Source: Greentechmedia]

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]

General Motors and Coskata today announced that a pilot plant for cellulosic ethanol will be built in Madison, Pennsylvania. The plant will located adjacent to the Westinghouse Plasma Center in Madison. The plasma torches that Coskata will be using for their gasification process are based on technology that was developed by GM and Westinghouse in the early eighties. At that time the companies developed a plasma furnace used to melt raw materials for cast iron production at GM foundries. The first production application was at a GM foundry in Defiance OH in 1989.

Coskata is using the same plasma torch technology to heat biomass materials to over 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit. That temperature is sufficient to convert almost any organic matter into a gas that is an intermediate ingredient in Coskata's process for producing cellulosic ethanol. Coskata's pilot plant will use Westinghouse Marc-3 plasma torches while the commercial scale plant will use larger Marc-11 torches. The pilot plant will be in operation in Q1 2009 with the first commercial plant following in 2011.

[Source: General Motors]

When Coskata came out of stealth mode in January, the company announced that a 40,000 gallon-per-year commercial demonstration plant using a proprietary microbial cellulosic ethanol production process would be in operation by the end of 2008. Greentech Media reports that the biofuel start-up has begun construction on this demo plant, but we still don't know where. The location should be announced later this month, and the fuel from the plant will be used by GM at the Milford Testing Grounds and, possibly, by NASCAR. Coskata chief marketing officer Wes Bolsen also told Greentech Media that the tiny test lab at the company's Warrenville, Illinois location has helped double the efficiency of the ethanol-producing microorganisms since January. By late 2010-early 2011, a 100-million-gallon-per-year plant should be operational and a number of firms are bidding on the right to build it.

[Source: GreenTechMedia]