The equity investment was led by I2BF Global Ventures, an existing investor; Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Angeleno Group, Flint Hills Resources Renewables, The Westly Group, Cyrus Capital, and Nimes Capital also continued to support Edeniq.

The funding will support the roll-out of Edeniq’s PATHWAY Platform, which increases ethanol yield at existing plants by three to six percent through a more complete conversion of starch and cellulosic corn kernel fiber into ethanol.

The platform combines the Cellunator—a proprietary mixing and milling device that liberates additional starch present in corn—with an enzyme cocktail to break down corn kernel fiber in the slurry, releasing cellulosic sugars into the fermentation process. Corn kernels contain about 10% cellulosic fiber that currently remains unconverted in a typical ethanol plant. Converting the corn fiber at these facilities is the first step and the fastest path to migrate toward cellulosic ethanol production in the US, the company said.

Edeniq owns and operates a fully integrated two ton per day pilot plant in Visalia, California, which is currently in operation converting cellulosic feedstock into low-cost cellulosic sugars.

Edeniq and Usina Vale are currently constructing a 20 ton per day demonstration plant to produce cellulosic sugars from sugarcane bagasse, the fibrous by-product of sugarcane juice extraction. The plant is co-located with Usina Vale’s ethanol and sugar production suite in Sao Paulo State, Brazil.

Edeniq recently announced the company has entered a partnership with Global Bio-chem. The two companies plan to integrate their technologies in a commercial demonstration plant at Global Bio-chem’s facility in the Jilin Province of China. Construction has been initiated on the plant, with a target to produce 50,000 metric tons per year of sugars from corn stover.