SunOpta sells ethanol tech to Celunol
SunOpta Inc. continues to gain momentum in the cellulosic ethanol space. The Brampton, Ontario-based company, which I profiled recently, has sold a biomass “pretreatment” and conversion system to Celunol Corp., a Massachusetts-based producer of cellulosic ethanol that counts Khosla Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures and Charles River Ventures as investors.
“The combination of SunOpta and Celunol process technologies will lead to a very competitive solution for producing cellulosic ethanol from various biomass substrates,” said Murray Burke, vice-president and general manager of SunOpta’s bioprocess group, in a statement. “We are excited to be working with Celunol on the first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States and look forward to the massive grow out in this market.”
Celunol is in the process of expanding a pilot facility and planning to build a commercial demonstration facility later this year. The plant will be able to process bagasse, agricultural waste, wood products and dedicated crops into ethanol.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
