Mascoma says they’ve achieved a 60% reduction in cost for their consolidated bioprocessing technology (CBP).
Mascoma Corp., a well-known firm pursuing the advanced production of cellulosic ethanol, announced today what they’re calling “major scientific advances” that will enable them to produce lower cost, lower carbon fuel from sustainable sources.
This is a true breakthrough that takes us much, much closer to billions of gallons of low cost cellulosic biofuels. Many had thought that CBP was years or even decades away, but the future just arrived. Mascoma has permanently changed the biofuels landscape from here on.
-Dr. Bruce Dale, Scientific Advistory Board of Mascoma
Mascoma’s value-proposition is to elminate as many steps as possible in the processing of non-food cellulosic feedstocks to produce ethanol. The consolidation of the process—which involves enzymatically breaking apart cellulose into sugars, and then fermenting the sugars into alcohol—dramatically reduces overall cost. CBP eliminates the need for added and costly enzymes to process pretreated lignocellulose into ethanol.
The 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals
One of the world’s most prestigious and established biofuels meetings, the 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals, is currently underway May 3-6 in San Francisco, with more than 800 scientists expected to attend sessions on topics ranging from commercialization of biofuels and their long-term sustainability to emerging technologies and turning algae into fuel.
Jay Keasling of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California visited Stephen Colbert last night, explaining that the same yeast that we use to produce beer and bread will soon be fueling our cars and planes.
We must transition from fuel from food and haste to fuels from wood and waste. Although the economics do not yet favor major production, pilot plants are taking wood and paper waste and converting it to fuel. Other cellulosic material is even more promising. Some grasses , energy crops, and hybrid poplar trees promise zero-emission fuel sources. These plants absorb CO2 and sequester it in the soil with their deep root systems.
The increased investments must reach the start up companies producing second and third generation biofuels. While investing billions in the sector it must be ensured that the food crops are not diverted to meet the extra 5 percent demand.
Courtesy of Reuters, here is a list of cellulosic ethanol plants currently operating or under construction in the US. We’ve been following a number of these companies over the last year, and I’ve linked each company name to either something we’ve written about them or their company website.
The Florida-based plant would be 25 times larger than Verenium’s existing (and operational) cellulosic ethanol facility in Louisiana, which began operation earlier this month and is expected to produce 60+ million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year when at full capacity. This new, larger facility is schedule to break ground in 2010 and commece operations in 2012.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have come up with a straightforward two-step process to convert cellulose — the ubiquitous energy-rich molecules found in all plant material — into a furfural biofuel.
To make this simple process reality, Ron Raines and his graduate student, Joseph Binder, developed a special mix of solvents and additives with an extraordinary capacity to dissolve cellulose.
“This solvent system can dissolve cotton balls, which are pure cellulose,” says Raines. “And it’s a simple system—not corrosive, dangerous, expensive or stinky.”
With $62.2 billion of the latest Economic Stumulus Package slated for environmental initiatives the days of the Big Oil and Big Coal “Fat Cats” are numbered…
