DuPont Danisco and University of Tennessee Partner to Build Cellulosic Ethanol Pilot Plant

23 July 2008

DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC (DDCE) and the University of Tennessee (UT) Research Foundation, through Genera Energy LLC, are partnering to construct a pilot-scale biorefinery and R&D facility for cellulosic ethanol in Vonore, Tenn. The pilot facility will develop the commercial package for DDCE’s cellulosic ethanol technology.

DuPont and Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, formed the 50-50 global joint venture DuPont Danisco in May to develop and commercialize a low-cost technology solution for the production of cellulosic ethanol. (Earlier post.) In the US, DDCE initially planned to focus on scaling up an optimized technology package for corn cobs by integrating the proprietary DuPont pretreatment and ethanologen technologies with the innovative enzyme technology of Genencor, while DuPont continued to analyze the collection and storage of cellulosic feedstocks.

The Tennessee project will utilize UT’s expertise in cellulosic feedstock production and co-product research, as well as its work with Tennessee farmers to develop the first dedicated cellulosic energy crop supply chain for cellulosic biorefineries utilizing switchgrass. The facility design will incorporate the flexibility to operate on two different non-food biomass feedstocks: corn stover, cobs and fiber; and switchgrass.

The pilot plant and process development unit (PDU) will be located at the Niles Ferry Industrial Park. The plant capacity will be 250,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually. Site preparations are scheduled to begin this fall, and ethanol should be available from the pilot plant by December 2009.