In Washington, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released a map and commentary on its website this week — indicating the spread of commercial-scale cellulosic biofuels, while cautioning that “EIA’s forecasts and projections to date have proven to be too optimistic, as volumes have been below expectations.” EIA went on to state: “Looking forward, important challenges [...]
ZeaChem Announces Successful Production Of Cellulosic Ethanol
ZeaChem Inc., developer of highly-efficient biorefineries, today announced that it has produced commercial-grade cellulosic chemicals and ethanol at its 250,000 gallons per year (GPY) biorefinery in Boardman, Ore. Among the first operational cellulosic biorefineries in the world, this demonstration facility showcases the scalability of ZeaChem’s biorefining process and serves as a key stepping-stone toward large-scale [...]
Ace, Sweetwater Plan To Produce Cellulosic Ethanol From Woody Biomass
Ace Ethanol will team up with Sweetwater Energy Inc. to produce next-generation ethanol at its plant in Stanley. The Stanley plant opened in 2002 as Wisconsin’s first large-scale corn ethanol production facility. It has 48 employees and can produce about 50 million gallons of ethanol per year. Ace and Rochester, N.Y.-based Sweetwater will team up [...]
Feds Plan To Liquidate Range Fuels Ethanol Plant
Federal officials who backed Range Fuels Inc., a Broomfield-based biofuel company, plan to liquidate its $100 million plant in Georgia, according to news reports. The Bloomberg news service reports that the Soperton, Ga. factory is to be liquidated after Range defaulted on a federal loan and failed to produce cellulosic ethanol, a fuel made from [...]
Chrysler Teams With ZeaChem
Chrysler Group and ZeaChem Inc. have announced they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU initiates the formation of a strategic alliance to accelerate the development and market adoption of advanced cellulosic ethanol by bringing together a leading global auto manufacturer and an innovative bio-based fuels and chemicals production company. The primary [...]
Novozymes, Lignol Partner to Make Biofuel
Novozymes, the world’s leading producer of industrial enzymes, and Lignol Energy Corp., a leading company in the cellulosic ethanol sector, today signed a research and development agreement to make biofuel from wood chips and other forestry residues. The partners aim to develop a process for making biofuel from forestry waste at a production cost down [...]
First To Finance The Second Project
Financing is currently the biggest hurdle to building the first generation of pilot scale and industrial cellulosic ethanol plants, say two industry CEOs in a recent Minnesota Public Radio interview. According to Arnold Klann, of BlueFire Ethanol, which is trying to build a cellulosic ethanol plant, “What we’re hearing from all the lenders, and we’ve [...]
Verenium Awarded DOE Funding
Verenium Corp., a pioneer in the development of next-generation cellulosic ethanol and high-performance specialty enzymes, has been awarded an additional $4.9 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to fund ongoing activities at its demonstration-scale facility in Jennings, Louisiana. This cooperative agreement is an extension of the grant previously awarded to the company in [...]
Buckeye, Myriant to Build Plant
The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Buckeye Technologies Inc. and Myriant Technologies LLC (formed by BioEnergy International, LLC) have announced plans for a research and demonstration plant that will explore ways to make environmentally friendly versions of petroleum products by harnessing byproducts from various cellulosic ethanol production technologies. Florida Legistlature has [...]