Month June 2008

Cellulosic ethanol plant opens

A demonstration cellulosic ethanol refinery capable of creating 1.4 million gallons a year of ethanol from sugar cane waste has opened in Louisiana. It’s built by Verenium who plans new plants producing 20-30 million gallons a year.

Switchgrass for home heating

Switchgrass grows all over the US. It can survive drought, doesn’t need fertilizer or to be grown on cropland. Researchers have designed a stove for $3,000 that can burn the sticky switchgrass in pellet form, a comparable price to efficient…

Ethanol directly from algae

Algenol plans to build a saltwater algae plant in the desert in Mexico. Unlike other methods that require the algae be squeezed to product the oil, they’ve GMO’ed algae to create ethanol directly, and claim the output is dramatically greater…