Iogen Corporation

8 Colonnade Road

Ottawa, Ontario Canada

K2E 7M6

Phone: (613)733-9830

Fax: (613)733-5127

E-mail: jefft@iogen.ca

There is an increasing interest in the production of fuel ethanol from cellulosic biomass for environmental, economic, and political reasons. The most prominent driving force for this technology is the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions, which is widely reported to be possible with the use of ethanol made from cellulose.

In collaboration with Shell Global Solutions, Petro-Canada, and the Government of Canada, Iogen Corporation has built and is operating a demonstration plant for the conversion of biomass to ethanol. The plant is located in Ottawa, Canada and uses wheat straw and other agricultural residues as the feedstock. Iogen’s process starts with a steam/acid pretreatment in a novel pretreatment reactor. This is followed by the hydrolysis of the cellulose to glucose using cellulase enzymes, which is also carried out in a novel reactor system. The cellulase is made in an on-site fermentation plant by Trichoderma strains that are optimized for ethanol production. The hydrolyzate sugars are separately fermented to ethanol by using recombinant yeast, and the ethanol is recovered by distillation.

The Demonstration plant is the last step prior to commercialization of the process. This presentation will review the operation of the plant to date and describe the next steps.