Mascoma to build first switchgrass cellulosic ethanol plant

Mascoma Corporation, a developer of advanced low-carbon energy biotechnology, recently announced that it intends to establish America's first operating facility producing cellulosic ethanol utilizing switchgrass as feedstock. The project represents one of the largest commitments of capital yet made in support of the cellulosic biofuels industry. Some new details about the plan have become available.

Mascoma and the University of Tennessee plan to jointly build and operate the five million gallon per year cellulosic biorefinery. Construction is expected to begin by the end of 2007 and the facility will be operational in 2009. The business partnership and plans for the facility are a result of the Tennessee Biofuels Initiative, a research and business model designed to reduce dependence on foreign oil and provide significant economic and environmental benefits for Tennessee’s farmers and communities. It includes a $40 million investment in facility construction and $27 million for research and development activities, including incentives for farmers to grow switchgrass funded by the State and the University of Tennessee. The large-scale demonstration facility will be located in Monroe County, Tennessee.

We are excited about our partnership, the first to produce biofuels from switchgrass, and the opportunity in the future, to expand our production to commercial scale. Along with the new DOE Bioenergy Research Center at nearby Oak Ridge, Tennessee will have a one-two punch addressing our nation’s need for low-carbon, domestically produced energy. - Bruce A. Jamerson, CEO Mascoma

Mascoma's focus is on genetically engineering thermophilic ethanol-producing bacteria in order to facilitate the transition of cellulose ethanol processing to a Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP) configuration. CBP comes down to reducing the number of biologically mediated bioconversion steps into a single process. It is widely recognized as the simplest, lowest cost configuration for producing cellulosic ethanol.

Mascoma’s lead organism for thermophilic 'Simultaneous Saccarification and Fermentation' (tSSF) is Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum. This organism has been modified to produce stoichiometric quantities of ethanol from a xylose feed. This strain is attractive for use in a tSSF configuration as the elevated fermentation temperature can substantially reduce cellulase requirements in an industrial processing operation.

The University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture will support the establishment of switchgrass as an energy crop. Initial research conducted by the University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture indicates that Tennessee is capable of generating over one billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass alone. The U.S. as a whole has the resources for a supply of a billion tons of lignocellulosic biomass (maps, click to enlarge).

Biofuels made from cellulosic biomass, either obtained from dedicated non-food energy crops or from agricultural and forestry residues have a much stronger energy balance than first-generation fuels made from, for example, corn. Cellulosic ethanol's 'energy return on energy invested' (EROEI) is up to 4 times higher than corn based ethanol (graph, click to enlarge). The fact that these fuels do not compete with food is obviously a major advantage:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: ethanol :: cellulosic :: switchgrass :: energy crops ::

Mascoma's facility is complemented by research efforts at nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In June, Oak Ridge was awarded $125 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund the Bioenergy Science Center, a research collaborative to address fundamental science and technology challenges to commercially producing cellulosic ethanol.

The Tennessee project is Mascoma’s third cellulosic biorefinery. Mascoma has begun construction on its first facility announced in 2006, a multi-feedstock demonstration-scale biorefinery located in Rome, New York. This project is being developed in partnership with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

In July 2007, the company announced plans to build one of the nation’s first commercial scale biorefineries using wood as a feedstock. This project is located in the State of Michigan and is being developed with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and partners including Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University.

Graphs credit: UT Biofuels Initiative.

References:
University of Tennessee: UT Board Approves Biofuels Business Partnership - September 19, 2007

University of Tennessee, Office of Bioenergy Programs: From Grow to Go for a New Bioeconomy.

Dr. Kelly Tiller, "UT Biofuels Initiative" [*.pdf], Presented at the Public Hearing on the Niles Ferry Biorefinery Location, Vonore, TN, - August 16, 2007

UT Office of Bioenergy Programs: Switchgrass as a Future Energy Crop [*.pdf].

Biopact: University of Tennessee and Mascoma team up to build cellulosic ethanol biorefinery - September 21, 2007