DuPont Ramps Up Bioethanol Facility in Iowa

DuPont this week is officially opening a cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa. The $225 million facility, which is billed as the largest of its kind in the world, is expected to produce about 30 million gallons of fuel-grade cellulosic ethanol per year from corn stover (corn cobs, leaves and stalks).

DuPont will collaborate with more than 500 local farmers to gather, store and deliver 375,000 dry tons of corn stover each year. The stover will be harvested from 190,000 acres of farmland within 30 miles of the plant.

In addition to fuel, some of the cellulosic ethanol generated will be used in a laundry detergent through a partnership with Proctor & Gamble Co.

DuPont worked with the U.S. Dept. of Energy, which contributed $51 million to the program, to develop some of the bioenergy conversion technologies used at the new facility. The partnership has yielded more than 10 joint patents since the early 2000s related to biomass pretreatment and ethanol production.