11 companies racing to build cellulosic ethanol plants

[HoosierRon]

(Of course, I reported this last November, putting GMi on the cutting edge of cellulosic ethanol news...)

11 Companies Racing to Build U.S. Cellulosic Ethanol Plants

There are almost a dozen companies racing to build the first next-generation cellulosic ethanol plants in the United States over the next few years. The plants will be built all over the U.S. and will churn out biofuels made from waste, plant byproducts and woody energy crops.
...
Verenium: The company is in the final stages of testing and evaluating its demo facility, which can produce 1.4 million gallons per year. Construction on the pilot plant began in February 2007.
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Coskata: The company is currently producing cellulosic ethanol in its labs and plans to scale up a pilot project in Madison, Penn., to a 40,000-gallon-per-year demonstration facility that will start delivering ethanol by early 2009
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Range Fuels: Range Fuels has been testing its technology in pilot-scale units for the past seven years. The company began construction in November 207 of its first 20 million-gallon-per-year phase of a commercial ethanol plant in Soperton, Ga., with plans to finish sometime in 2009.
...
POET: POET is a longtime corn ethanol producers that will be using its existing infrastructure to move into cellulosic ethanol production. The company is expanding its 50 million-gallon-per-year corn-based ethanol facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa, to include a cellulosic plant. The entire plant will produce 125 million gallons per year, 25 million of those for cellulosic ethanol.
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DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC: The joint venture plans to have its first pilot plant online by 2009 and its first full-scale commercial demonstration plant operational by 2012.
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Mascoma: Mascoma and the University of Tennessee are jointly building a switchgrass-fed demo refinery in Monroe County, Tenn., that will produce 5 million gallons per year and will be operational in 2009.
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ZeaChem: The company has a test facility at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., where it says it has successfully brewed its first liter of ethanol from poplar trees. ZeaChem is working with forest manager GreenWood Resources to build a 1.5 million gallons a year test facility near Portland, Ore.
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SunEthanol: The company says it aims to have a pilot plant in operation in 2009 and is reportedly also building a 2.5 million-gallon-per-year demonstration facility.
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BlueFire Ethanol: The company is working on a 3.1 million-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol facility that will be delivered in a joint effort with contractors MECS and Brinderson and located at a Lancaster, Calif., landfill.
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Abengoa Bioenergy: Owned by Spanish engineering company Abengoa, the company opened a pilot plant in York, Neb., in October 2007, which cost some $35 million to build. Abengoa plans to spend $300 million to build a cellulosic ethanol production plant in Hugoton, Kan., which will produce 49 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year.
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Iogen: The Canadian company is planning on building a cellulosic ethanol refinery in Saskatchewan that has now entered the due diligence process.
...

[Wolfman01]

I love it. It looks like alot of cellulosic will be going online in about a year.

[HoosierRon]

Originally Posted by plane

Your post is woefully short on real-world details.

That's because I made it all up, which is why I didn't provide a link.

[plane]

That's great news Ron.
The market can absorb every drop of environmentally-friendly North American bioethanol that can be produced.

[tholland]

I am reminded of a recent Kudlow & Co. show where he interviewed the CEO of a company producing biodiesel from coal and household waste....

Kudlow: America is the Saudi Arabia of coal.

CEO: Actually, it's the Saudi Arabia of garbage as well.

It would be an important step if we can make significant use of our garbage for energy... and I believe many of the companies mentioned above can incorporate household waste as an input.

[plane]

Originally Posted by HoosierRon

That's because I made it all up, which is why I didn't provide a link.

Please allow me to rephrase.
All the good news in the world does not necessarily hit the front page of the newspaper.

[JBsZ06]

Good to hear american ingeniuty taking up the challenge..

I believe we can be engergy independant sooner rather than later....

The payoff just has to be big enough..

At 120 dollars a barrel for crude oil it is.

[solman98]

Can't wait.

Now, just need a good reliable E85 conversion kit.

[Ed Arcuri]

Do we have any word as to whether and when GM will add E-85 capability to cars other than the Impala, Lucerne, and HHR? I would hope that they would do so soon, if for no other reason than to enhance their reputation with enviros.
There is another reason: I'd like to buy something other than a truck, Impala or HHR. If we can have a Corvette Pace Car at Indy running E-85, may we not also have one for us mere mortals to buy?
Cheers,
Ed Arcuri

[Stéphane Dumas]

that's a good news to hear, now if only Canada will jump asap in the cellulosic wagon as well.

Btw, I founded by accident some new word to nickname the cellulosic ethanol on Google, they call it "cellunol" (or "celunol"), from cellulosic/cellulose and ethanol (or perhaps even butanol)

[tholland]

Originally Posted by Stéphane Dumas

that's a good news to hear, now if only Canada will jump asap in the cellulosic wagon as well.

If I had a hydrogen vehicle, there's a refueling station fairly close by for that... but I can't buy E-85 locally.