Qteros To Pilot Ethanol Process

Biotech start-up Qteros plans to locate the first phase of its cellulosic ethanol pilot plant at a site belonging to chemical maker Solutia in Springfield, Mass. The unit, scheduled to go on-line in September, will mechanically and chemically pretreat plant material and also conduct the large-scale growth of the company's Q microbe. Qteros says that the microbe, Clostridium phytofermentans, further breaks down plant material with its own enzymes and then ferments the resulting sugars into ethanol. A second phase, planned for the second quarter of 2010, will use the microbe to make 60,000 gal of ethanol per year.