Feb 20 2010
New commercial-scale biofuel plants that are scheduled to begin commercial operations in 2011 can manufacture cellulosic ethanol at less than USD 2.00 per gallon thanks to the new Cellic CTec2 enzymes from Novozymes. This price is equal to the current conventional ethanol and gasoline prices in the U.S. markets.
Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes, said the company had promised the market and its customers that this product will be ready by the year 2010 and had kept the promise. By utilizing the new enzymes from the company, biofuel manufacturers can now turn agricultural waste to biofuels.
The cost of enzyme for cellulosic ethanol has declined by 80% over the last two years due to rapid developments in the enzyme technology. Currently, the cost for per gallon of cellulosic ethanol is approximately 50 cents. For the development of this project, Novozymes has allocated significant resources. In addition, the US Department of Energy has also granted USD 29.3 million for this project.
Novozymes has collaborated with leading companies such as CTC, PRAJ, Lignol, POET, Greenfield Ethanol, Inbicon, ICM, M&G, COFCO, and Sinopec for the rapid development and implementation of the process technology. The company is expecting to reduce the production cost of with further advances in enzyme efficiency.
Source: http://www.novozymes.com