The US Department of Energy (DOE) will fully fund $20.5 million in federal cost share under DOE’s Integrated Biorefinery Program for Logos Technologies Inc. and EdeniQ, Inc. to build a Corn-to-Cellulosic Migration (CCM) pilot plant at EdeniQ’s headquarters in Visalia, California.
In December 2009, DOE selected Logos and EdeniQ to receive, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $20.5-million cooperative agreement for the Corn-to-Cellulosic Migration (CCM) Project. The goal of the CCM Project is to focus the migration of billions of dollars of capital deployed in today’s corn ethanol industry toward cost-effective production of cellulosic ethanol from corn stover, switchgrass, and woodchips.
In April 2010, DOE had released $2.8 million in federal cost share for the initial Budget Period 1 portion of the cooperative agreement. The commitment of the remaining $17.7 million in federal cost share reflects that Logos and EdeniQ have satisfied all of the conditions associated with the design and engineering of the retrofit to EdeniQ’s currently operating pilot plant, the companies said.
The $17.7 million of committed funds will immediately be put to work to complete the engineering and construction of the additional equipment used to retrofit the plant and to fund the ongoing development of the second-generation enzymes and yeasts for saccharification and fermentation. The retrofit is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011. After plant start-up, the biorefinery will process 2 tons of cellulosic biomass per day.