Cellulosic Ethanol Advances

In a sign that a second-generation ethanol industry is emerging, one cellulosic ethanol plant has opened and another has licensed its technology. The Spanish firm Abengoa just opened a 25 million-gal-per-year facility in Hugoton, Kan. Built with the help of a $97 million Department of Energy grant and a $132 million government loan guarantee, the plant uses enzymatic hydrolysis to turn corn stover and other agricultural waste into ethanol. A joint-venture company of DSM and Poet opened the first U.S. cellulosic ethanol plant last month in Iowa. And DuPont expects to open a plant, also in Iowa, by the end of the year. All three companies hope to license their technology. In the first such deal, DuPont has signed an agreement with government officials in Macedonia to provide its technology for a facility there.