Verenium receives $5.4 million grant from New Zealand for research on cellulosic ethanol from softwoods

In Massachusetts, Verenium said that the company, in partnership with Scion and AgResearch, has received a three-year, $5.4 million grant from the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology for a new stage in the New Zealand Lignocellulosic Bioethanol Initiative, a trans-Pacific research collaboration. The three partners will evaluate the production of cellulosic ethanol from New Zealand’s softwood forest resource, including pilot-scale trials in pre-treatment and enzymatic processing.

Verenium background

In Thailand, Verenium and Japan’s Marubeni said that they have commenced operations at a 800,000 gallon per year cellulosic ethanol plant in Saraburi. The venture has licensed Verenium’s process technologies, and uses sugar cane bagasse as a feedstock. The plant is co-located with an existing, conventional, sugar cane ethanol plant.

In Louisiana, Verenium said that it had received an unspecified award from the Department of Energy towards its 1.4 Mgy demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant  in Jennings. The grant will assist Verenium to achieve cost and performance goals in support of its move towards commercial scale deployment.

Verenium Chairman Carlos Riva said that the new Farm Law did not provide sufficient loan guarantee support for the needs of the cellulosic ethanol industry, although he praised the new Law as a good start. Riva said that the $320 million earmarked in loan guarantees represented just over the cost of two cellulosic ethanol plants, which have an approximate price tag of $150 million each. Riva said that, although another $150 million may be added to the fund, the US needed to do more to support the development of the 21 billion gallon capacity of the cellulosic ethanol industry by 2022.

Verenium Corporation reported quarterly revenues of $15.2 million in the 1st quarter of 2008, up from $11.3 million in the first quarter of 2007, as it commences start-up at a 1.4 Mgy demonstration scale facility in Louisiana for its cellulosic ethanol from wood waste.

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