BC International said the facility, expected to be operational by the end of 2006, would convert organic waste into ethanol.
Waste from the sugarcane industry in Louisiana will serve as the plant’s main feedstock.
The plant will use genetically engineered E. coli bacteria that convert biomass and other farm waste into ethanol – a development made possible by University of Florida professor of microbiology Lonnie Ingram.
Ingram said the bacteria were capable of converting all sugar types found in plant cell walls into fuel ethanol. The organisms produce a high yield of ethanol from biomass such as sugarcane residues, rice hulls, forestry and wood wastes and other organic materials.
The bioconversion technology, selected by the US Department of Commerce to become Landmark Patent No. 5 million, is being commercialised with assistance from the US Department of Energy. Massachusetts-based BC International holds the exclusive rights to use and license the bacteria.
Ingram said he genetically engineered the E. coli organisms by cloning the unique genes needed to direct the digestion of sugars into ethanol, the same pathway found in yeast and higher plants.
These genes were inserted into a variety of bacteria that have the ability to use all sugars found in plant material, but normally produce a worthless mixture of acetic and lactic acids as fermentation products. With the ethanol genes, the engineered bacteria produce ethanol from biomass sugars with 90-95% efficiency.
“Until we developed this new technology, the chemical makeup of biomass prevented it from being used to make ethanol economically,” Ingram said.
“Biomass is a much cheaper source of ethanol than traditional feedstocks such as cornstarch and cane syrup, but the cost of processing is higher.”
