The commitment was made to ZeaChem Boardman Biorefinery, LLC (ZBB) through the Biorefinery Assistance Program. ZBB plans to operate a 25 million gallon per year biorefinery to be constructed on an industrial site in northeast Oregon, along the Columbia River.

“In his State of the Union address, President Obama outlined his vision for a new era for American energy—an economy fueled by homegrown and alternative energy sources that will be designed and produced by American workers,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This project and others like it will help to establish a domestic advanced biofuels industry that will create jobs here at home and open new markets in the Pacific Northwest and across America.”

The biorefinery will use high-yield cellulosic fermentation technology to produce advanced biofuels. The feedstock will consist of approximately 30 percent agricultural residue, such as wheat straw and corn stover, and 70 percent woody biomass from a local hybrid poplar farm. An existing 250,000-gallon per year cellulosic integrated demonstration plant at the site is currently generating operational data that will provide information needed for the commercial scale project, which will be located on an adjacent site. An estimated 51 percent or more of the biorefinery’s output will be advanced biofuel, and the remainder will be high-value biobased chemicals, such as acetic acid and ethyl acetate.

“This is a very exciting and innovative project and we are very pleased to see ZeaChem moving into the commercial stages of cellulosic ethanol production,” said Brooke Coleman, Executive Director of the Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC). “The advanced and cellulosic ethanol industry is breaking through in a challenging financial climate, which speaks to the evolution of the technology and the value proposition offered by the most innovative liquid fuel and chemical producers in the world.”

POET has announced a joint venture with Royal DSM to commercially demonstrate and license cellulosic bio-ethanol based on their proprietary and complementary technologies. POET–DSM Advanced Biofuels, LLC, is scheduled to start production in the second half of 2013 at one of the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plants in the United States.

The two partners will produce cellulosic ethanol from corn crop residue through a biological process using enzymatic hydrolysis followed by fermentation. The first commercial demonstration of the technology will be at Project Liberty, which is currently being constructed adjacent to POET’s existing corn ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The initial capacity is expected to be 20 million gallons in the first year, growing to approximately 25 million gallons per year.

DSM and POET will each hold a 50% share in the joint venture, which will be headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The initial capital expenditure by the joint venture in Project Liberty will amount to about $250 million. The closing of the joint venture is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

As a result of the joint venture project, POET has also announced its intent to decline the $105 million loan guarantee it was awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in September. POET will officially decline the guarantee prior to drawing any funds when the joint venture closes.

Listen to some comments from DSM Managing Board Chairman/CEO Feike Sijbesma and POET CEO Jeff Broin and questions from media during a telephone press conference today: POET-DSM press conference

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a conditional commitment for a $25 million guaranteed loan under the Biorefinery Assistance Program for Fiberight to build a biorefinery in Blairstown, Iowa.

The loan will be used to construct a 55,000 square foot facility that will produce cellulosic ethanol by converting municipal solid waste and other industrial pulps into advanced biofuels, as well as using conventional renewable biofuel derived from seed corn waste. When operational, the facility is expected to produce approximately 3.6 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year. The process will use a cellulosic microbe to produce up to 15 percent more ethanol than traditional fermentation technology, and reduce energy inputs in the fermentation and distillation process. Fiberight estimates the project will create 38 jobs and save 16 jobs.

”Advanced Biofuels are going commercial – and the innovation behind turning trash into biofuels demonstrates how our industry can create jobs and solve our nation’s energy needs,” says Adam Monroe, President of Novozymes North America. ”Novozymes is proud to be a partner to this project, supplying the enzymes to turn household and office waste into advanced biofuels. We applaud the federal government for its leadership in helping bring biofuels to market.”

Biotech company Novozymes is one of Fiberight’s partners in the project. ”Advanced Biofuels are going commercial – and the innovation behind turning trash into biofuels demonstrates how our industry can create jobs and solve our nation’s energy needs,” says Adam Monroe, President of Novozymes North America.

Under the conditional commitment, Fiberight must meet specified conditions before the loan guarantee can be completed. Other funding comes from the State of Iowa. Fiberight also received a $2.5 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund in 2010. The company will work with the Benton County landfill to supply a portion of the feedstock for the project. The total project cost is estimated at $59.5 million. Fiberight, LLC was incorporated in 2007 for the purpose of converting an existing ethanol facility into a cellulosic ethanol facility in Blairstown.

The dedication ceremony involved Mayfield pulling the lever on a front-end loader to dump a pile of pulverized sugarcane stalks, officially delivering the first shipment of feedstock to the facility, which will now be known as the Stan Mayfield Biorefinery Pilot Plant. The plant is located in Perry, Florida and is a cooperative venture between the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and Buckeye Technologies Inc. The facility will be operated as a UF/IFAS satellite laboratory researching the use of inedible plant material to produce fuel ethanol, such as sugarcane waste.

When fully operational, the biorefinery will produce up to 400 gallons of fuel ethanol and 5,000 pounds of organic acids for bioplastics each day. Some of the researchers’ goals include testing a wide variety of feedstocks, such as crop residues and yard waste, and finding ways to save money on production costs.

Stan Mayfield was a member of the state House of Representatives from 2000 until his death in 2008 and was instrumental in securing a $20 million appropriation from the Florida Legislature to fund the biorefinery. A UF graduate, Mayfield was a strong advocate of renewable fuels, environmental protection and economic growth.

“In a very difficult financial and policy environment, the first wave of commercial advanced ethanol production facilities are under construction in a number of states across the country,” said Advanced Ethanol Council Executive Director Brooke Coleman. “Diversifying America’s fuel supply with increasing amounts of clean, domestically produced renewable fuel requires us to keep our eyes on the prize and not be distracted by the noise and misdirection coming from naysayers protecting the status quo.”

Coleman acknowledges that targets for cellulosic ethanol under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) have had to be revised downward from initial expectations, but says the RFS is working to help diversify the nation’s fuel supply.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required by Congress to adjust the RFS cellulosic biofuel blending volumes based on forecasted future available supplies. For both 2011 and 2012, EPA reduced those volumes by over 90 percent to provide relief for regulated parties and simultaneously implement the very type of credit system the oil industry requested to address the inherent market uncertainties of deploying new fuel technologies in the marketplace.

ZeaChem is further developing its integrated biorefinery through implementation of a second project to add the capability of using cellulosic biomass on the front end and converting ethyl acetate into ethanol on the back end. This separate “bookends” project is currently underway and supported by a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Once operational in 2012, it will result in the production of up to 250,000 gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol.

“Beginning operations at the core facility is another indication that ZeaChem continues to successfully execute its strategic roadmap,” said Jim Imbler, president and chief executive officer of ZeaChem. “Our phased development approach minimizes risk by allowing us to produce marketable products as we scale up our biorefining operations. We will continue to build out our biorefinery platform to produce a broad portfolio of sustainable and economical chemicals and fuels derived from cellulosic biomass.”

In addition to this work, ZeaChem, headquartered in Lakewood, Colo., has been named, “This Week’s Colorado Company to Watch,” for the company’s work in growing their business of building bio-refineries that produce advanced biofuels and bio-based chemicals.

The collaboration between DuPont and the bio-based firm NexSteppe will be working on new feedstocks for renewable energy, including sweet sorghum and high biomass sorghum hybrids.

Under the agreement, DuPont has made an equity investment in NexSteppe, and through its Pioneer Hi-Bred business, will provide knowledge, resources and advanced technologies to help the company accelerate the breeding and commercialization of new hybrids of these crops in the United States and Brazil.

“We’re using science-based innovation and collaboration to develop scalable, sustainable feedstock options for the biobased industries,” said John Bedbrook, vice president for DuPont Agricultural Biotechnology. “Collaborations like this one with NexSteppe will provide new opportunities for growers to address the rising demand for secure, environmentally sustainable and affordable alternatives to fossil fuels.”

“Sorghum is a crop with significant genetic diversity and great potential that has received relatively little research attention and funding,” said Anna Rath, NexSteppe founder and CEO. “Combining DuPont’s world-class research and development capabilities with our industry knowledge, experienced team and singular focus, we will be able to rapidly improve the crop to produce feedstocks tailored to the needs of the biofuels, biopower and biobased products industries.”

Sorghum has many advantages as a feedstock. It is naturally tolerant to both drought and heat and can grow in marginal rainfall areas with a short growing season and the ability to work in crop rotation systems. Sweet sorghum can be used as a complement to sugarcane in existing Brazilian sugar to ethanol mills, and as a feedstock for advanced biofuels and other biobased products produced from sugars. High Biomass Sorghum is a high-yielding crop that can be used as a feedstock for biopower and cellulosic biofuels. DuPont, through its Industrial Biosciences business, operates and develops industrial processes that use sugar as a feedstock.

BASF, through subsidiary BASF Biorenewable Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG led a $50 million financing round in the technology firm Renmatix Inc.

Renmatix has developed the patented Plantrose™ platform whereby industrial sugar can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass (wood, cane trash or straw). In the Plantrose technology, biomass is split into cellulose and sugar in supercritical water at high temperature and pressure in a two-step process.

Industrial sugars are important renewable resources for the chemical industry and can be used, for example, to produce biofuels or basic chemical products and intermediates by fermentative processes. The availability of industrial sugars in sufficient quantities and at favorable cost is therefore important for the competitiveness of the products.

The Kinross facility will use Mascoma’s proprietary CBP technology platform, which has been developed by Mascoma over the past five years, to convert hardwood pulpwood into ethanol. Hardwood pulpwood is a selectively harvested, naturally regenerated feedstock and is an underutilized, abundant resource in the surrounding area. Construction of the Kinross facility is anticipated to start in the next three to six months and is expected to be completed by year-end 2013. Kinross Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, a joint venture formed by Mascoma and Valero, will develop and operate the Kinross facility.

“We are excited to apply our proprietary consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) technology platform to produce cellulosic ethanol on a commercial scale and thereby provide a low-cost, sustainable alternative to petroleum-based products,” said Bill Brady, President and CEO of Mascoma.

“EPA has essentially reduced the mandate for cellulosic, recognizing the fact that there aren’t supplies out there to meet it,” said USDA chief economist Joe Glauber.

Back in 2007, Congress set a goal of 500 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol to be produced in 2012, but only a very small fraction of that is now expected to come to fruition with a target of just 8.65 million gallons. “The big question that’s been out there for years is ‘when will cellulosic ethanol become profitable?’ said Glauber. “I don’t think anyone sees that coming anytime soon, although a few of these plants are expected to come on line in the coming year, so we’ll see.”

In order to project cellulosic biofuel production for 2012, EPA tracked the progress of over 100 biofuel production facilities, the methodology of which is clearly outlined in the official 97-page final rule document. Companies that EPA determined were likely to produce significant quantities of cellulosic biofuel in 2012 include (with projected ethanol-equivalent gallons):

KiOR – a Mississippi-based renewable crude oil project (4.8 million)
INEOS Bio of Vero Beach – waste to biofuel (3 million)
Fiberight – a waste-to-biofuel project in Blairstown, IA (2 million)
American Process, KL Energy and ZeaChem for a total of less than a million gallons combined.

EPA noted the importance of setting a cellulosic standard that was realistic, yet still encouraged investment in the technology. “Thus while any standard we set for cellulosic biofuel standard for 2012 will have some uncertainty in terms of actual attainment, our intention is to balance such uncertainty with the objective of promoting growth in the industry.”

EPA has set the “advanced biofuels” target for 2012 at 2 billion gallons, much of that being comprised of imported sugarcane ethanol from Brazil.

Read EPA’s full explanation of the RFS2 requirements justification.

The final 2012 overall volumes and standards are:

Biomass-based diesel (1.0 billion gallons; 0.91 percent)
Advanced biofuels (2.0 billion gallons; 1.21 percent)
Cellulosic biofuels (8.65 million gallons; 0.006 percent)
Total renewable fuels (15.2 billion gallons; 9.23 percent)

The percentage standards for four fuel categories are required by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA).

In a letter to Congressional leaders, the Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC) asked for a multi-year extension of the Cellulosic Biofuels Producer Tax Credit (PTC) and the Special Depreciation Allowance for Cellulosic Biofuel Plant Property, both of which are set to expire December 31, 2012.

AEC Executive Director Brooke Coleman noted in the letter that the incentives “are vital to the ongoing development of the domestic advanced ethanol industry. To ensure stability in the marketplace, and prevent unnecessary job losses, Congress should provide long‐term extensions of these provisions (5+ years).”

As new ethanol biorefineries are beginning construction, the AEC emphasized the importance of consistent federal policy to this kind of multi-billion dollar investment.

The AEC is asking Congress to extend these important tax incentives this year as part of a final tax extenders package as they are set to expire next year. “As Congress considers the extension of a number of tax provisions for the clean energy sector, we would also like to highlight the importance of timing. The mere prospect of the expiration of the PTC and Special Depreciation Allowance for cellulosic biofuels in 2012 will start to affect projects that take 18 months to build, and could drive our industry into a series of ‘fits and starts’ that has dampened investment in other domestic clean energy sectors for decades.”

In a written statement prepared for the House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee On Energy and Mineral Resources, Adam Monroe encouraged the committee “to explore renewable fuels: new technology and innovation already making an impact on our energy supply and economy. American biofuels are reducing energy costs and creating jobs. They can also help realize savings that can be directed to our infrastructure needs. These savings can be directed towards America’s other pressing problems – in this case, the Committee’s concern about our roads, bridges, tunnels and other aging infrastructure.”

“For America to meet its energy challenges, we believe it is critical to view renewable fuels for cars, trucks and other vehicles as integral links in the country’s fuel supply. The technology and cost-savings they create are here – all we need now is continued public support,” Monroe concluded.

“Companies are interested in producing ethanol from woody biomass such as pine, but it is a notoriously difficult material for fermentations,” said Joy Doran-Peterson, associate professor of microbiology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Their research, published online in Biotechnology for Biofuels, shows that the pine fermented with the new yeast can successfully withstand the toxic compounds and produce ethanol from higher concentrations of pretreated pine than previously published.

Read more from UGA news and see a video about this research below:

Broin talked with farm broadcasters at last week’s National Association of Farm Broadcasting meeting last week in Kansas City to provide an update on Project LIBERTY, a cellulosic ethanol plant project in Emmetsburg, Iowa. “When we got into this research ten years ago, it was a long shot,” Broin said in an interview with Jody Heemstra of KWAT Radio in Watertown, SD. “Today, we’re actually less than $3 on production costs so we’re competitive with gasoline and we’re very excited about that.”

Broin says they have cut enzyme costs by about a third and are planning to use the lignin from a grain ethanol plant next door to power both plants. “We’ll have a 25 million gallon cellulosic plant next to a 50 million gallon grain plant and there will be virtually no fossil fuel used to power those facilities,” Broin says.

Listen to all of Heemstra’s interview with Broin here: Jeff Broin, POET CEO

In addition to the shorter name, the company has a new leadership team for the business. Steven J. Mirshak has been named business director, DuPont Cellulosic Ethanol. He was most recently the president of DuPont Tate and Lyle Bio Products, a joint venture between DuPont and Tate and Lyle in Loudon, Tenn. DuPont also named Keith Gibson as the plant manager for the planned cellulosic ethanol facility in Nevada, Iowa. Gibson joins DuPont Industrial Biosciences from Iroquois Bio-Energy Company, LLC, where he served as the general manager and president. At Iroquois, he was instrumental in the company formation, operation, financing, and marketing of ethanol.

DuPont is applying expertise from its Pioneer Hi-Bred seed business to work with corn farmers and Iowa State University to establish best practices for securing high-quality, cost-effective corn stover for its planned biorefinery. At the same time, DuPont continues to make advancements in its Vonore, Tenn., demonstration facility in preparation for scale up to commercial operations. The area is also the focus of test harvests of switchgrass by DuPont’s partner Genera Energy LLC. Currently, the Vonore facility can produce 250,000 gallons of ethanol per year while plans for the Iowa facility are set to produce 27.5 million gallons per year.

Some 100 farmers are waiting for word on the status of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) in the 2012 federal budget before delivering the bales to POET’s 22-acre biomass storage site in Emmetsburg, where the commercial cellulosic ethanol biorefinery is being constructed.

The biomass harvest is 5,000 tons more than last year and represents an additional 15 contracts with area farmers. POET has a target of 285,000 tons of biomass per year for Project LIBERTY to produce 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year starting in 2013.

“Biomass harvesting is moving along as planned, and I’m confident we’ll have a large and consistent supply of corn cobs and light stover once Project LIBERTY is running,” POET founder and CEO Jeff Broin said. “Both the farmers and POET Biomass personnel have learned a lot in the last few years about best practices in biomass harvesting, and that experience will pay dividends.”

The goal of these early harvests is to streamline the process for harvest, storage and delivery of biomass to Project LIBERTY. Approximately 300-400 bales will be part of ongoing biomass storage research, and up to 1,500 bales could be used for additional research.

The study, published in the international journal Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, concludes that “the production of ethanol from lignocellulose-rich materials such as wood residues, waste paper, used cardboard and straw cannot yet be achieved at the same efficiency and cost as from corn starch” and that it will be 2020 at the earliest before it can become competitive. The study did identify many opportunities for reducing costs and improving income within the lignocellulose-to-ethanol process, and provides insight into the priority areas that must be addressed in coming years.

Reasons for the higher cost of cellulosic ethanol include that the cost of building large scale ethanol-producing facilities will likely be higher for second generation ethanol compared to first generation technologies due to the need for significant and costly pre-treatment, according to the study’s lead author Jamie Stephen, who works in the Department of Wood Science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

“Researchers and companies are going to have to concentrate on reducing the cost of pretreatment and increasing the output of the digester in order to reduce the costs of the lignocellulose-to-ethanol process,” says Stephen. Another reason costs are higher is that lignocellulose is made of multiple kinds of sugar, while corn starch consists of pure glucose. Corn starch can be reduced to glucose with low-cost amylase enzymes, while pre-treated lignocellulose requires a cocktail of cellulase enzymes. Providing these enzymes is one of the major costs of the whole process, but you currently need 12 times more cellulase than amylase protein to generate the same amount of ethanol from woody biomass.

Finally, while the input to sugarcane- and corn starch-based systems is fairly constant, the feedstocks that go into lignocellulose systems are much more variable. Different species of tree produce wood that has different properties, and waste paper and agricultural wastes will have many different types of material in them. To get maximum efficiency, each type of biomass needs to be processed under different conditions, which introduces another challenge for anyone wanting to make ethanol from these materials.

Read the study here.

In a letter to Senate and House ag leaders this week, the Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC) urged them to include important rural energy initiatives currently being administered by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) in .

Specifically, AEC would like to see the USDA Loan Guarantee program for biorefinery projects extended while improving some provisions to increase participation by lending institutions. Also, reform of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) to increase cost effectiveness, encourage energy crop production and include efforts to preserve the environmental benefits of land coming out of conservation programs. Finally, AEC encourages lawmakers to support USDA’s efforts to build out ethanol refueling infrastructure under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) to facilitate market access that is critical to the ongoing development and deployment of advanced ethanol fuels.

“The next generation of the U.S. ethanol industry is just beginning to break ground on first commercial projects across the country, and while the Energy Title currently accounts for less than 1 percent of total budgetary outlays for the 2008 Farm Bill, many of these programs will be critical to existing and future advanced ethanol development projects,” wrote AEC Executive Director Brooke Coleman in the letter. “We are aware that the funding available for the new Farm Bill will be reduced significantly …. and look forward to thinking creatively with you about comprehensive solutions that cut cost but continue to provide meaningful value to an emerging advanced ethanol industry.”

Additionally, members of the AEC expressed interest in working with lawmakers to modify the Repowering Assistance program to help existing biorefining operations deploy advanced ethanol technologies and feedstock utilization. Many emerging advanced ethanol technologies will provide value to existing ethanol production facilities by diversifying feedstocks and improving efficiencies as well as creating new opportunities as stand alone facilities.

The AEC is made up of leading companies in the world’s advanced ethanol industry in conjunction with the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA).

A jury in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin determined that Novozymes patent is valid and ordered Danisco to pay damages of more than $18 million for infringement. The jury also found Danisco’s infringement to be willful but the jury’s decision is still subject to the judge’s affirmation and possible appeals.

Novozymes’ patent covers certain alpha-amylase enzymes for use in the biofuel and starch industries. The infringing products have primarily been used to produce ethanol from corn starch in the United States. Novozymes filed the lawsuit against Danisco in May 2010. Danisco was acquired by DuPont earlier this year.

A research team discovered that when corn stover is processed to make ethanol, three distinct parts of it – the rind, pith and leaves – break down in different ways.

Cellulosic ethanol is created by using enzymes to extract sugars from cellulosic feedstocks, such as corn stover, grasses and woods, and then fermenting and distilling those sugars into fuels. Stover’s pith, the soft core that makes up more than half the weight of a corn stalk, is the easiest for enzymes to digest, according to the findings in two papers published in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering. Rind is the most difficult, while leaves fall in between. Significant amounts of lignin, the rigid compound in plant cell walls, make the cellulose resistant to hydrolosis, a process in which cellulose is broken down into sugars.

Read more here.

“ZeaChem is building a portfolio of advanced biofuels and bio-based chemicals derived from cellulosic biomass,” said Jim Imbler, CEO of ZeaChem. “As our 250,000 gallon demonstration plant nears completion in Boardman, Ore. and we develop our first commercial scale biorefinery, we are honored to be named in the 2011 Global Cleantech 100.”

Another advanced biofuels company that made the list for the second year was LanzaTech, a New Zealand-based firm working on the conversion of a nonfood feed stocks into bioethanol. LanzaTech was also named “Company of the Year Asia Pacific” for 2011.

A number of solar companies also made the list, including SolarCity and eSolar of California.

According to company officials, the facility has completed over 15,000 run hours of operation and successfully converted wood biomass and municipal solid waste into fuel-grade ethanol.

“The data and operating experience cultivated at this pre-commercial scale facility has conclusively demonstrated that the Coskata technology is ready for commercial production today,” said Coskata President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Roe. “With an industry leading yield of more than 100 gallons of ethanol coming from a dry ton of wood biomass, we look forward to working with industry partners to rapidly deploy this leading conversion technology and help the country meet the Renewable Fuels Standard.”

The technology at the Pennsylvania facility will be used at the company’s first commercial-scale facility in Alabama, for which Coskata recently received a conditional loan guarantee from USDA.

“I think they’re basing conclusions on old information that’s not as accurate as it once was,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a press conference on another subject Tuesday afternoon. “I think it’s unfortunate that reports based on, in my view, outdated information are suggesting that we ought to just give up the ghost.”

“We’re not going to give up on this industry,” Vilsack continued. “This industry’s too important to the United States, it’s too important to rural America, it’s too important to our future in terms of national security and it’s too important to the whole innovative culture we’re trying to accelerate in this country.”

Listen to Vilsack’s comments here: Tom Vilsack comments on NAS Report

“The formation of this new coalition proves that momentum is continuing to build behind biofuels. Consumers deserve to have a choice with their fuel and our economy needs the jobs,” said Adam Monroe, President of Novozymes North America. “Novozymes is proud to be working with these forward-thinkers to give consumers more choices when buying a car and filling it up. By freeing our country from costly foreign oil, we are helping consumers and our economy at the same time.”

Novozymes, which specializes in enzymes for converting biomass into biofuels, is one of 22 advanced biofuel and alternative energy companies involved in the coalition, which also includes Abengoa Bioenergy, Battery Ventures, Propel Fuels, and Qteros.

POETThe loan guarantee and financing allows POET to construct Project LIBERTY, a 25 million-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa.

“This project represents a pioneering effort to make broad scale deployment of cellulose ethanol a reality,” said Secretary of Energy Chu making the announcement on Friday. ”Producing the next generation of biofuels can not only reduce America’s oil dependency, it can also create vast new economic opportunities for rural Americans.”

POET estimates the project will fund approximately 200 construction jobs and 40 permanent jobs and generate around $14 million in new revenue to area farmers who will provide the corn crop residue.

The first commercial cellulosic ethanol plants will demonstrate that the 1 billion tons of biomass available in the United States can be a major force in overcoming the country’s reliance on foreign oil, POET CEO Jeff Broin said. “Financing has been a key hurdle to getting the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant up and running. We’re excited to show the world the tangible results of a decade of work by our researchers and engineers,” said Broin.

Project LIBERTY will be located next to the existing grain ethanol plant, POET Biorefining Emmetsburg, and will share roads, land and other infrastructure. Additionally, the cellulosic plant will produce biogas as a co-product, enough to completely power itself and eliminate the majority of the natural gas required to operate the adjacent grain ethanol plant.

Molecular biologist Zonglin Lewis Liu with ARS’ National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria found a biorefinery yeast that successfully ferments plant sugars from cornstalks, wheat straw, and other rough, fibrous, harvest-time leftovers into cellulosic ethanol. According to Liu, the yeast overcomes some of the troublesome compounds in these materials that are created during dilute acid pre-treatment of the crop leftover. The compounds tend to damage yeast cell walls and membranes, disrupt yeast genetic material such as DNA and RNA, and interfere with yeast enzymes’ fermentation abilities, ultimately reducing potential cellulosic ethanol yields.

In research that began in 2003, Liu and his colleagues have worked with dozens of strains of S. cerevisiae, a yeast species already used to make ethanol from plant starch to speed up the microbe’s natural adaptation to the hostile environment created by the inhibitors.

Meanwhile, other research being done at the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center in Pennsylvania is looking at a commercial enzyme that helps extract water from an ethanol byproduct used to make dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS). This could significantly reduce the amount of electricity, natural gas, energy and water needed for production of grain ethanol and its marketable byproducts.

The study was conducted at Center Ethanol Company in Sauget, Ill., a commercial facility that produces 54 million gallons of ethanol and 172,000 tons of DDGS every year from corn. In the study, the scientists added one pound of an experimental dewatering enzyme for each 1,000 pounds of corn. The enzyme was supplied by Genencor, a major developer and manufacturer of industrial enzymes that is now part of DuPont Industrial Biosciences. After the grain had been fermented into ethanol, the researchers transferred the leftover slurry of corn solids and water, called “stillage,” into a centrifuge, where much of the water was extracted.

Data from these trials were used to calibrate an existing economic model of ethanol production. The resulting estimates indicated that using the enzymes to dewater the stillage would reduce overall facility water use by 10 percent, reduce electricity consumption by 2.4 percent and reduce natural gas consumption by 12 percent. The model indicated that these reductions would in turn reduce the emission of greenhouse gases equivalent to approximately 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year from a mid-sized ethanol facility producing around 50 million gallons of grain ethanol annually.

More than 20 worldwide leaders in the effort to commercialize next-generation transportation fuels today announced the new campaign, called FuelChoiceNow. Among the companies that have joined the effort are Abengoa Bioenergy, Battery Ventures, Propel Fuels, and Qteros.

“The purpose behind FuelChoiceNow is to promote consumer choice at the pump,” said Susan Hager, vice president of corporate communications and government affairs for Qteros. “The advocacy group does not promote one alternative fuel over another, we’re here to advocate for consumer choice.”

The group intends to educate and urge lawmakers to enact policies that promote open fuel markets in the United States. “Today in the United States, the transportation fuel market is not an open market, it’s not competitive,” Hager said. “What we’re advocating is room for innovation and new technologies for consumers to choose from.”

FuelChoiceNow has launched a website, along with a Facebook fan page and Twitter account, to encourage a grassroots effort toward expanding fuel choices.

Listen to or download interview with Susan Hager here. Susan Hager of Qteros

Geneticist Ken Vogel (pictured) was one of a team of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists who developed the grading process that costs only about $5 a sample rather than the $300 to $2,000 per sample that conventional analytical methods cost.

The process uses near-infrared sensing (NIRS) to measure 20 components in switchgrass biomass that determine its potential value to biorefiners. These components include cell wall sugars, soluble sugars and lignin. With this information, 13 traits can be determined, including the efficiency of the conversion from sugars to ethanol. This is the first time NIRS has been used to predict maximum and actual ethanol yields of grasses from a basic conversion process.

ARS is now working with the Near Infrared Spectroscopy Consortium (NIRSC) to commercialize the process for use at biorefineries.

Read more from ARS here.

So how else have these efficiencies improved the ethanol industry? They have directly contributed to ethanol ability’s to lower greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from gasoline on a well-to-wheels basis (or better known as lifecycle analysis), explained Cooper. He said that six recent reports show that corn ethanol reduced GHG’s by 28-53 percent using current technologies. He continues by highlighting that GHG reductions will continue to improve as technology improves.

Simultaneously, GHG emissions are getting worse for the oil industry. This is due to the fact that oil is getting harder to extract and oil shale and tar sand technologies create more emissions than predecessor technologies.

Cooper concluded by saying that both American farmers and ethanol producers are investing in technology that will continue to lower their carbon footprint while at the same time producing more food, feed and fiber than ever before with less resources.