Verenium and Marubeni advance cellulosic ethanol facilities

Japans Verenium Corp. and Marubeni Corp. announced that pursuant to the terms of their joint development agreement, they are continuing to advance the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol projects utilizing Verenium’s proprietary technology in Asia by opening a three million liter per year (lpy) plant in Saraburi, Thailand. Marubeni and Tsukishima Kikai Co. Ltd. have already incorporated Verenium’s technology into BioEthanol Japan’s 1.4 million lpy cellulosic ethanol plant in Osaka, which utilizes construction wood waste as a feedstock. The cellulosic plant in Thailand is located with a facility that will produce ethanol from sugarcane-derived sucrose, which is widely abundant in the region. Sugarcane bagasse, the biomass residue from the sugar cane plant, will be the primary source of feedstock for the cellulosic facility, which will be converted into ethanol using Verenium’s process technology. (July 15, 2008)