Investment to Cellulosic Biofuel is increasing

The US Government awarded in Feb 2008 totaling up to $385 million over the next four years to six companies for the research of producing ethanol and co-producing bioproducts and electricity. “The companies that have been selected for negotiations are:

• Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas, for a facility in Colwich, Kansas.
• ALICO Inc., for a facility in LaBelle, Florida;
• BlueFire Ethanol, for a facility located in Corona, California;
• Broin & Associates, for their “project liberty” facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa;
• Iogen Biorefinery Partners, for a facility in Idaho Falls, Idaho; and
• Range Fuels, for a facility in Soperton, Georgia.

With the private sector sharing at least 60 percent of the respective project costs, Department of Energy’s funding will leverage over $1.2 billion in total investment in these biorefineries.”

Source: Department of Energy

Corn based ethanol producers have also invested in Cellulosic Ethanol commercialization

These candidates include one of the conventional ethanol producers- Abengoa. U.S. Department of Energy has also included Pacific Ethanol in a matching award totaling $24.32 million to build the first cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in the Northwest United States. In additions, some conventional ethanol producers are also working to commercialize cellulosic ethanol. They are Poet and Xethanol BioFuels, LLC.

Biofuel Venture Capitalists include more Cellulosic Ethanol related companies in their portfolios.

Below is the list collected and compiled by Package Fact in its report- Renewable Energy Investment in the U.S. published in Nov 2007. 6 out of 21 selected projects in early 2007 were cellulosic ethanol research and production related, consisted a total of $105.4 million investment.