Energy awards cellulosic ethanol projects

Uncle invests $114million in bio-ethanol refineries

By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 1/30/2008 8:53:00 AM

The Energy Department this week awarded $114 million in grants to build four small-scale bio-ethanol refineries in Missouri, Oregon, Colorado and Wisconsin, hoping to demonstrate efficient production of cellulosic ethanol from wheat straw, wood chips and corn stover (stalks, cobs and leaves).

The Associated Press says grants were issued to ICM Inc., of Colwich, Kan., which will build a facility in St. Joseph, Mo.; Lignol Innovations Inc., of Berwyn, Pa., which will build in Commerce City, Colo; Pacific Ethanol Inc., of Sacramento, Calif., which will build in Boardman, Ore.; and Stora Enso North America of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., which will build in Wisconsin Rapids.

Neil Koehler, CEO of Pacific Ethanol, the largest producer of the fuel on the West Coast, says in a statement that “new methods to convert a variety of biomass resources into ethanol…will allow our country to replace a significant proportion of imported oil with U.S. produced renewable resources and reduce CO2 emissions by millions of tons annually.