Biofuels from Lignocellulosic Biomass - Sustainable Biotechnology: Sources of Renewable Energy - page 41

investment for commercial scale, while poor results in the next 2-3 years may place
a prohibitive restriction on future investment.

7.2 Major Industries and Technology Providers

Currently, over a dozen companies have demonstrated strong interest in explor-
ing advanced R&D and/or pilot-scale facilities, with a view to building future
commercial-scale plants. The following are a few examples, showing the range of
locations, technologies, and feedstocks:
Abengoa Bioenergy, Inc. ( http://www.abengoabioenergy.com ) began to build the
world's first commercial lignocellulosic ethanol plant in Babilafuente (Salamanca),
Spain in 2005. With $76 million in funding from the DOE, the company is planning
to build a lignocellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas by 2011, which will evaluate the
use of corn stover, wheat straw, and other agricultural biomass.
BlueFire Ethanol , Inc. ( http://www.bluefireethanol.com ) recently received DOE
funding of $80 million to build a 19 million gallons per year lignocellulosic
ethanol plant in California. They plan to use urban trash (post-sorted MSW), rice
straw, wood waste, and other agricultural residues as feedstock, combined with a
concentrated acid process.
Coskata, Inc. ( http://www.coskata.com ) is exploring the integration of ther-
mochemical and biochemical conversions: syngas is generated by gasification of
lignocellulosic biomass and then converted into ethanol from the gas phase by anaer-
obic fermentation [61]. The company claims this technology can produce more than
100 gallons of ethanol per dry metric ton of feedstock with production cost of less
than $1/gallon. There is no indication of when such numbers will be achieved in a
practical large scale operation.
DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC .( http://www.ddce.com ) is a joint-
venture between DuPont and Genencor (a subsidiary of Danisco). The company
is cooperated with University of Tennessee to build a pilot lignocellulosic ethanol
facility (PDU, 0.25 MG/y) in Tennessee by 2009. The plan is to combine
DuPont's proprietary mild alkaline pretreatment and fermentation technologies with
Genencor's enzymatic hydrolysis methods to convert corn stover and sugarcane
bagasse into ethanol.
Etek Etanolteknik AB ( http://www.sekab.com /) is located in Sweden and has
set-up a pilot lignocellulosic ethanol plant with a capacity of about 400-500 L
of ethanol/day (

2 ton dry substance/day). The plant has been functional since
2004, using the two-step dilute-acid hydrolysis process in combination with enzy-
matic hydrolysis. Feedstocks include cereal straws, organic waste, wood clippings,
or forestry residues.
Iogen Co. ( http://www.iogen.ca /) is located in Canada and has more than a
decade of experience in ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials. The com-
pany currently runs a demonstration lignocellulosic ethanol plant using a modified
steam-explosion pretreatment technology (dilute acid) and enzymatic hydrolysis,

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