Iogen Corporation is preparing final touches on a pilot scale ethanol plant to demonstrate how ethanol can be produced from cellulose plant fibers. Iogen is on target to begin producing 3,100 gallons per day of fuel grade ethanol by the spring of 2002, utilizing approximately 40 tons per day of wheat straw feedstock. The process involves making sugar from cellulose plant fiber. The sugars are fermented and distilled into ethanol. Formerly, ethanol-from-cellulose was impractical and costly to manufacture until Iogen had success in developing and manufacturing industrial enzymes to make ethanol fuel out of agricultural residues. The facility, located in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, has been in the works since October of 1997. With capital assistance from Petro-Canada Iogen has made an investment of $30 million (Canadian) to validate the usage of ethanol-from-cellulose technology. Plans are already underway to find a site to construct a commercial scale facility to produce roughly 50 million gallons per year of ethanol.
