More companies are looking to produce ethanol from biomass, i.e. cellulosic ethanol. Venture funding is pouring into companies that are leading the effort to produce cellulosic ethanol.

One venture headed up by DuPoint and Danisco, and Danisco's Genencor is working on producing cellulosic ethanol from biomass consisting of corn cobs and switchgrass. The biorefinery is under construction in Knoxsville, Tennessee with an anticipated opening in 2010.

Companies like Genencor are considered to be second generation because of the focus on producing biofuels from biomass, and in particular producing ethanol from biomass versus the first-generation approach that involves the use of corn to produce ethanol.

We suspect that 2009 will see even more venture capital funds move to help finance companies that are focused on producing biofuels from biomass and that companies focused on producing cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, and biobutonol will find new sources of funding knocking at their door. Here's a site that recently release a digest of U.S. venture capital focused on biofuels: http://www.oilgae.com/blog/2009/01/biofuels-digest-released-summary-of-us.html

And, here's an article written by David Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, is posted on their website:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/04/MN4916RJ4C.DTL

 

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