Arkenol and DOE Form Partnership
Arkenol, a privately held company headquartered in Mission
Viejo, California has formed a new partnership with the U.S. Department of
Energy. The purpose of this partnership is to construct a commercial-scale plant
to convert cellulose material to ethanol using a proprietary concentrated acid
hydrolysis technology.
Under a $670,000 cost-share agreement, Arkenol
will combine its concentrated acid hydrolysis process with the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory genetically engineered bacteria, Zymomonas
Mobilis, to test the viability of the combined processes. The project is
expected to lead to the development of several commercial biomass-to-ethanol
plants.
"We already are a commercially and economically viable process,"
said Mark Carver, vice president of business development for Arkenol. "What we
are hoping to demonstrate is that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's
Zymomonas Mobilis will give us an additional economic
advantage."
The initial thrust of the project will be testing how
effective the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's bacteria is at dealing with
Arkenol's hydrolysate, or sugar water, form the biomass, said
Carver.
Arkenol plans to have its first commercial biomass-to-ethanol
plant operating by the first quarter of 1999, with construction beginning in six
to eight months, according to Carver. "There are still negotiations going on as
to the final location, but we should have those ironed out in the next couple of
months," he said.
For more information on Arkenol's acid hydrolysis
process, see their website at http://www.arkenol.com
.
