Company Name
Dupont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC

Company Web Site
http://www.dupontdanisco.com/

Headquarters
United States

Latest News
July 23, 2008
KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 23 (Reuters) - DuPont Co and Genencor, a unit of Denmark's Danisco, said on Wednesday they will break ground this fall on a cellulosic ethanol pilot plant in Tennessee. The pilot refinery has been scaled back from original plans and will produce about 250,000 gallons of ethanol annually instead of the 5 million gallons initially envisioned. But project officials say they believe that will be enough to demonstrate and test the processes and move such ethanol from the laboratory into commercial production.

Ethanol should be available from the pilot plant by December 2009, with commercial-scale production by 2012, the companies said.

The 50-50 partnership, DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, is aligning with the University of Tennessee (UT) Research Foundation, through its Genera Energy LLC, and making use of state funds to construct the pilot-scale biorefinery and a research and development facility for cellulosic ethanol in Vonore, Tennessee.

The companies said the pilot plant will initially process western Tennessee corn cobs into ethanol but plans to shift to switchgrass for conversion to ethanol, working with Tennessee farmers as dedicated switchgrass suppliers. The university has also invested state research dollars toward the development of switchgrass.

"The high cellulosic content of switchgrass makes it an optimal feedstock for ethanol production," said DuPont Danisco Technology Leader John Pierce in a statement. "Its yields today make it more than competitive with other biomass sources, and it has the potential to produce over 1,000 gallons of ethanol per acre in the future."

There are about 1.5 million acres in Tennessee seen as unsuitable for growing food crops but good for switchgrass, officials said.

The cost of producing cellulosic ethanol is still much higher than making corn-based ethanol, and several U.S. companies are in a race to drive down the costs making the fuel for what is estimated to be a $75 billion global market opportunity.

DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol will link DuPont's cellulosic pre-treatment and fermentation technologies with Genencor's enzymes to develop the ethanol production process.

The project will make use of about $40 million in Tennessee state funding. The companies said they planned an initial three-year investment of $140 million.

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May 14, 2008
WILMINGTON, Del., U.S., and COPENHAGEN, Denmark
DuPont and Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, today announced an agreement to form DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, a 50/50 global joint venture to develop and commercialize the leading, low-cost technology solution for the production of cellulosic ethanol --a next generation biofuel produced from non-food sources to address a $75 billion global market opportunity.

The partners plan an initial three-year investment of US$140 million, which will initially target corn stover and sugar cane bagasse. Future targets include multiple ligno-cellulosic feedstocks including wheat straw, a variety of energy crops and other biomass sources.

With food and gas prices surging at double-digit rates, there is an imperative for sustainable biofuels technologies." This joint venture addresses this issue head on," said DuPont Chairman and CEO Charles O. Holliday, Jr. "By integrating our companies strengths and expertise in this new venture, we are significantly increasing the potential to make cellulosic ethanol from multiple non-food sources an economic reality around the world."

"By combining the world-class capabilities of DuPont and Danisco, our joint venture will offer the technology standard for cellulosic ethanol production," said Danisco CEO Tom Knutzen." This joint venture will be a powerhouse of discovery, development and engineering. It represents a major step forward in Daniscos new strategic intent to be a leading force in the field of industrial biotechnology."

Through the scientists and technologies of both companies, DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC will launch an accelerated effort to integrate the unique cellulosic processing capabilities of both companies to economically produce ethanol from non-food sources. The parent companies will license their combined existing intellectual property and patents related to cellulosic ethanol. The goal is to maximize efficiency and lower the overall system cost to produce a gallon of ethanol from cellulosic materials by optimizing the process steps into a single integrated technology solution.

In the United States, the joint venture will scale up an optimized technology package for corn cobs from integrating the proprietary DuPont pretreatment and ethanologen technologies with the innovative enzyme technology of Genencor, while DuPont continues to analyze the collection and storage of cellulosic feedstocks. The global joint venture expects its first pilot plant to be operational in the United States in 2009, and its first commercial-scale demonstration facility to be operational within the next three years. The joint venture will be headquartered in the United States and will be formed after receipt of required regulatory approvals.

The joint venture will license its technology package directly to ethanol producers for deployment in the United States and around the world, as well as through the establishment of regional cellulosic ethanol affiliates. The regional ethanol affiliates will invest in equity interests with strategic partners, including ethanol producers and energy companies, to enable the rapid deployment of the joint ventures cellulosic ethanol technology at commercial scale. The joint ventures technology package can be used both as a bolt-on to an existing ethanol plant --expanding its capacity to accept cellulosic feedstocks --or as the design basis for a stand-alone cellulosic ethanol facility. The joint venture expects to enable production of commercial volumes of cellulosic ethanol by 2012.

Funding
The partners have agreed to an initial three year funding of US $140 million. This will cover the further development of the technology and the construction of pilot plants. The initial plant will be in the USA and based on corn cobs and corn stover as the feedstock.

Technology
The integration of the partners individual technology platforms will combine:

* A differentiated pretreatment process developed by DuPont through its collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that allows for reduced capital costs;

* Enzyme technologies and production platforms enabling high biomass-to-sugars conversion rates developed by Genencor, a leader with world-class capabilities in the discovery, optimization and production of enzymes for cellulose conversion;

* A proprietary ethanologen, also developed through the DuPont-NREL collaboration, based on Zymomonas mobilis. This ethanologen has the ability to convert sugars contained in the feedstock into high yields of ethanol with fewer byproducts, and;

* The companies joint engineering capabilities in process integration and facility design.