News: Progress toward running cars on plants

Before leaving office, Gov. Pataki (NY) helps make it a good week for cellulosic ethanol.

Mascoma Corporation of Cambridge, MA received a $14.8M award from NYSERDA to build a 500,000-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol pilot plant in Rochester, NY. The company is teaming up with Genencor and will be getting support from International Paper Co., Cornell University, Clarkson University, and the NRDC. The plant will be able to test processing of multiple feed stocks such as wood, switch grass, paper sludge, and corn stover.

In addition, the state provided SUNY ESF and Catalyst Renewables Corporation of Dallas, TX with a $10M grant to build a 130,000-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol facility in Lyonsdale, NY near Syracuse. The feedstock for this facility will be wood.

The efforts of these companies, universities, and of NY state is bringing US commercial cellulosic ethanol closer to reality. Currently, the only other plant of this kind is Iogen's Canadian facility in Ottawa, Ontario. They use agricultural feedstocks such as wheat, oat, and barley and can make up to 3 million liters or almost 800,000 gallons of ethanol per year.