Verenium to start building first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant  

Cleantech.com reports that construction of the first cellulosic ethanol plant will start later this year - Verenium to start building first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Verenium announced today that it plans to begin building the world's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the second half of the year.

Florida plans to give Verenium a $7 million grant toward the estimated price tag of $250 million to $300 million for the facility to be built in Highlands County. Verenium said construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months.

Once commissioned, the plant is expected to have an annual capacity of 36 million gallons of ethanol a year produced from biomass, such as grass. The company estimated the facility will create 140 jobs.

Broomfield, Colo.'s Range Fuels said it has secured a conditional commitment for an $80 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

CEO David Aldous told the Cleantech Group that the money is the final, critical step needed to complete the plant in Soperton, Georgia, which is already under construction (see Range Fuels' Mitch Mandich breaks ground). The plant is expected to be mechanically ready in the first quarter of 2010, with volume production to begin in the second quarter.

The initial phase of the Soperton facility is expected to produce less than 10 million gallons of ethanol and methanol a year using 125 dry tons a day of biomass feedstock from the nearby timber industry.

The first phase was scaled back from the original projections of 20 million gallons of production by late 2009 (see Range Fuels gets cellulosic production plant go-ahead). It was expected to be the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility. ...

Other startups might beat Range Fuels to market with commercial cellulosic ethanol facilities, including Montreal, Canada-based biofuel and biochemical maker Enerkem, which plans to start production of 1.3 million gallons a year at its biomass-to-ethanol facility within the next month (see Utility poles make cheap ethanol feedstock for Enerkem).

Aldous said Range Fuel's goal is now to be the first cellulosic ethanol facility to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol and methanol a year. He declined to say when that would be, noting that the time frame for the two final phases depends completely on the company's access to capital through traditional fund-raising or strategic partners.