ethanol

Cellulosic ethanol - always the bridesmaid?

I have a new set of predictions for ethanol technology, and so far my predictions on ethanol have been dead on. Cellulosic ethanol has been the thin film of the ethanol industry, always the bridesmaid. But perhaps, like with the breakthrough by First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), it's time is coming.

I have written extensively on the topic of ethanol and biofuels, including an early 2006 analysis of the VeraSun (NASDAQ:VSE) IPO right before its pricing that predicted an appropriate price at the time in the range of $2.77 to $8.82 share. The business has grown since … Read more

Range Fuels gets $100 million to build ethanol plant

It's March Money Madness in clean tech these days.

Range Fuels, which says it can produce cellulosic ethanol out of wood scraps, has raised $100 million to build a 100-million-gallon-a-year plant in Georgia, according to VentureWire, which posted the news first. Investors in the round include Khosla Ventures (a previous investor) and an unnamed energy company.

Earlier, the company received grants from the U.S. Department of Energy worth up to $76 million, as well as other venture funds.

CEO Mitch Mandich, a former Apple guy, told us last year that the plant would cost around $150 million. Unlike … Read more

Trash-to-ethanol company gets $19.5 million more

Coskata, a start-up that wants to make ethanol out of tires and other stuff found in the dump, has raised $19.5 million in a second round of funding, according to SEC documents scoured by Private Equity Week.

Earlier this year, General Motors announced it had invested in the company and that Coskata would build a demo ethanol plant by the end of the year that would be capable of producing 40,000 gallons of fuel a year. GM will buy the fuel.

Coskata's ultimate goal is to make fuel for $1 a gallon. (After taxes, subsidies and transportation … Read more

Is vinegar the secret ingredient for biofuels?

To make ethanol, you want to make vinegar first, according to ZeaChem.

The biofuel start-up, which has moved from Colorado to Silicon Valley, says it has come up with a method of making cellulosic ethanol that results in close to 40 percent more fuel per ton of wood chips than competing processes. By 2010 or so, the company hopes to be producing ethanol commercially for 80 cents a gallon at wholesale. That could translate to anywhere from $1.10 to $1.50 at the pump, depending on a host of factors.

How does it work? Most cellulosic ethanol producers convert … Read more

Chevron, Weyerhauser team up for biofuels

There's nothing like 200-plus-year-old companies teaming up for the 22nd Century.

Oil giant Chevron and Weyerhauser, which has been in the lumber business since 1900, have formed a 50-50 joint venture called Catchlight Energy that will focus on developing fuels from cellulose-based biomass, like wood chips. Both companies have been working with various universities, such as Georgia Tech, on biofuel research, and this gives them a way to share information.

Chevron's Michael Burnside has been appointed CEO of the venture.

Some will no doubt boo and hiss this deal. Here we have two of the oldest companies focused … Read more

Cellulosic ethanol upstart Mascoma fills coffers

Mascoma, which makes ethanol from wood chips and agricultural wastes, has raised an additional $50 million, according to a published report.

PEHub, citing a regulatory filing, reported Thursday that the Cambridge, Mass.-based company took in $30 million in equity and $20 million in debt.

The financing was led by General Catalyst Partners, and included existing investors Khosla Ventures, Atlas Venture, Flagship Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Pinnacle Ventures, and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

Spun off from Dartmouth College, Mascoma is among the wave of new companies trying to convert biomass, other than corn, into the liquid fuel ethanol. Its technology uses special … Read more

Indonesian province gets dubious honor for emissions

I was poring through a university research paper Tuesday afternoon on the connection between the use of corn-based ethanol in the U.S. and greenhouse gas levels. That was just a grim appetizer for the big eco-news du jour later in the afternoon.

Turns out that Riau, Sumatra, a province in Indonesia, has the dubious honor of producing more average annual greenhouse gas emissions "from deforestation, forest degradation, peat decomposition, and peat fires between 1990 and 2007" than does the Netherlands. That's due to the local practice of supplying global paper giants and palm oil plantation with … Read more

After damning biofuels study, ethanol advocates fight back

Biofuels advocates on Friday tried to debunk a widely reported Science magazine study that found that corn-based ethanol production in the U.S. actually worsens global warming.

The Renewable Fuels Association publicized a paper published by biomass experts at the Argonne National Laboratory's Transportation Technology R&D Center, in which researchers poked holes in the Science study that was published last Friday.

The original study published in Science found that most models that measure the greenhouse gas impact of biofuels do not take into account land use.

The researchers calculated the effect of emissions from converting existing farmland … Read more

Don't blame high food prices completely on ethanol

It's become a staple of conventional wisdom that increased ethanol production has caused food prices worldwide to skyrocket.

Unfortunately, many experts and crop data say that's not a complete answer. Granted, production of corn ethanol has surged in the U.S. and has boosted pricing pressure. Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute noted in a recent column on Cleantech.com that demand for grain by ethanol distillers jumped from 54 million tons in 2006 to 81 million tons in 2007. That jump of 27 million tons effectively doubled the annual growth rate. Brown said that ethanol creates … Read more