Cellulosic ethanol demo plant being built

Leslie J. Allen

Automotive News | April 25, 2008 - 4:41 pm EST

Cellulosic ethanol producer Coskata Inc., which recently entered a partnership with General Motors, says it will build a demonstration plant in Pennsylvania capable of producing 40,000 gallons a year. The facility, about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, is expected to begin delivering ethanol in early 2009. The fuel will be made from a variety of non-food materials, including woody biomass and agricultural and industrial wastes. GM will use the cellulosic ethanol in testing flexible-fuel vehicles at its proving grounds in Milford, Mich. Coskata will produce the ethanol at the Westinghouse Plasma Center in Madison, Pa. Using the center’s gasification technology, Coskata would take materials containing carbon and produce synthesis gas, or syngas. Proprietary microorganisms then turn the syngas into ethanol. The center is operated by Westinghouse Plasma Corp., a subsidiary of Alter Nrg Corp. Separately, Coskata announced in February that it will commission a full-scale commercial plant capable of producing 50 million to 100 million gallons of ethanol a year by 2011. Coskata is based in Warrenville, Ill., near Chicago.