N.Y. Seeks First US Cellulosic Ethanol Plant
US: December 22, 2006
NEW YORK - New York state has given US$15 million in hopes of helping to build the country's first ethanol plant that makes fuel from wood chips, switch grass, and waste from the paper industry.
The demonstration plant is planned to be built in Rochester by privately held Mascoma Corp at a total cost of US$20 million. It would produce about 500,000 gallons per year (1.9 million liters) of cellulosic ethanol, a minuscule amount of fuel compared to the nearly 10 million barrel-per-day US gasoline market.
But it could be a big step in the production of cellulosic ethanol -- a new generation of fuel that environmentalists, politicians and business leaders alike say pollutes less than gasoline and traditional US ethanol made mostly from corn.
Cellulosic backers say the fuel is clean and cheap because switch grass and other cellulosic feedstocks can grow without the fertilizer and other expensive agricultural inputs that corn needs. Cellulosic ethanol also could eventually increase production of domestic fuel.
"This energy production method can reduce our dependence on foreign sources, while benefiting the environment in a number of ways," said New York Agricultural Commissioner Patrick Brennan in a press release.
Makers of the fuel break down the woody bits of plants using engineered enzymes such as fungi. Engineering enzymes to survive the process of making the fuel is one of the hurdles in production of the fuel. Biotechnology company Genencor expects to supply enzymes to the Rochester project that will break down the plant waste.
Mascoma, formed in 2005, has a backing of US$39 million from a syndicate of venture capitalist firms led by founding investor Khosla Ventures, a company led by investor Vinod Khosla. Samir Kaul, a partner at Khosla Ventures, said in a phone interview that by 2009 commercial cellulosic plants in the United States could each make more than 25 million gallons per year of the fuel.
Mascoma expects it will take a year or less to build the plant pending approvals.
Story by Timothy Gardner
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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