Pacific Ethanol Inc. has started production of cellulosic ethanol at its Stockton, California facility.
The plant, which uses Edeniq Inc.’s Pathway technology, has a production capacity of 60 million gallons per year and is expected to produce up to 750,000 gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol.
“We are now commercially producing cellulosic ethanol using Edeniq’s Pathway enzyme at our Stockton facility,” said Neil Koehler, Pacific Ethanol’s president and CEO. “This is an important step in our strategy to increase production yields at our plants and our mission to be the leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels. We are working with Edeniq and the Environmental Protection Agency to qualify these gallons for generating D3 cellulosic RINs, which carry a premium over conventional ethanol, and we expect to receive EPA approval in the first quarter of 2016.”
Edeniq’s Pathway technology integrates its Cellunator high shear equipment with cellulase enzymes to convert corn kernel fiber to fermentable sugars.