Pilot plant in New York starts producing cellulosic ethanol
Mascoma logo
Mascoma Corporation has built a pilot plant in Rome, New York to begin producing cellulosic ethanol from materials like wood chips, corn stover, sugar cane bagasse and grasses. The plant has an annual capacity of 200,000 gallons, but a commercial scale plant is currently being developed in Kinross, Michigan. For the full story, as well as Mascoma’s full press release, head on over to Autobloggreen!
Mascoma is one of two companies that got equity investments from General Motors in early 2008. The other company being Coskata. Coskata’s claim is that they can create cheap cellulosic ethanol from basically any carbon-containing material, virtually anywhere in the world. I’m not sure if this method of ethanol production will actually catch on, but both companies have stated that they will be able to produce the fuel from mostly waste products. This should reduce the fear that most people have about turning corn into ethanol. So not only will they be producing a cleaner fuel, it will be made here in America, and it will be helping to remove the amount of waste that ends up in landfills.
Tags: Coskata, General Motors, GM, Mascoma Corporation
One Response to “Pilot plant in New York starts producing cellulosic ethanol”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:34 am
[...] have been one of the biggest proponents of E85 capability and production, even going so far as to invest in a start-up that claims it can make E85 from switch grass. To not include E85 capability initially on the Volt seems to me like a mistake. The Volt has a [...]