Plans Announced for First Switchgrass Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in U.S.

Construction will begin by the end of the year on the nation’s first switchgrass cellulosic ethanol facility.

The joint project between the Mascoma Corporation, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the University of Tennessee represents one of the largest commitments of capital yet made in support of the cellulosic biofuels industry.

Mascoma and The University of Tennessee plan to jointly build and operate the five million gallon per year cellulosic biorefinery, expected to be operational in 2009.

The business partnership and plans for the facility are a result of Tennessee Governor Bredesen’s Biofuels Initiative, a research and business model designed to reduce dependence on foreign oil and provide significant economic and environmental benefits for Tennessee’s farmers and communities.

It includes a $40 million investment in facility construction and $27 million for research and development activities, including incentives for farmers to grow switchgrass funded by the State and The University of Tennessee. The large-scale demonstration facility will be located in Monroe County, Tennessee.

The University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture will support the establishment of switchgrass as an energy crop. Initial research conducted by the University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture indicates that Tennessee is capable of generating over one billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass alone.

The facility is complemented by research efforts at nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In June, Oak Ridge was awarded $125 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund the Bioenergy Science Center, a research collaborative to address fundamental science and technology challenges to commercially producing cellulosic ethanol.

The Tennessee project is Mascoma’s third cellulosic biorefinery. Mascoma has begun construction on its first facility, a multi-feedstock demonstration-scale biorefinery located in Rome, New York. And in July 2007, the company announced plans to build one of the nation’s first commercial scale biorefineries in Michigan, using wood as a feedstock.