Verenium Corporation (Nasdaq: VRNM) and Marubeni Corporation announced that they are opening a three million-liter-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant in Saraburi, Thailand.
Marubeni and Tsukishima Kikai Co., Ltd. have already incorporated Verenium's technology into BioEthanol Japan's 1.4 million-liter-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant in Osaka, which utilizes construction wood waste as a feedstock.
The cellulosic plant in Thailand is co-located with a facility that will produce ethanol from sugar-cane derived sucrose, which is widely abundant in the region," said Carlos A. Riva, President and CEO at Verenium. "Sugar cane 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."
No timeline was given for the opening of the facility.
"We are very excited to see a second cellulosic ethanol facility move forward, as alternative, cost-competitive, and environmentally sound fuel sources are critically needed in Asia," said Mr. Toshiya Nagata, Ethanol Manager of Industrial Machinery Department. "We expect that our learnings from the Osaka facility, coupled with Verenium's experience in the U.S., will help to make this plant a rapid commercial success as we look to broaden the footprint and opportunity for cellulosic ethanol in key markets across Asia."
About Verenium
Verenium Corporation is a leader in the development and commercialization of next-generation cellulosic ethanol, an environmentally-friendly and renewable transportation fuel, as well as high-performance specialty enzymes for applications within the alternative fuels, specialty industrial processes, and animal nutrition and health markets. The Company possesses integrated, end-to-end capabilities in pre-treatment, novel enzyme development, fermentation, engineering, and project development and is moving rapidly to commercialize its proprietary technology for the production of ethanol from a wide array of cellulosic feedstocks, including sugarcane bagasse, dedicated energy crops, agricultural waste, and wood products. In addition to the vast potential for biofuels, a multitude of large-scale industrial opportunities exist for the Company for products derived from the production of low-cost, biomass-derived sugars.
About Marubeni Corporation
Marubeni Cooperation is a one of the biggest trading houses in Japan, with its headquarter in Tokyo and a total of 115 overseas offices in 70 countries/areas. Marubeni has 11 sales divisions in the business fields of energy, chemical, food, machinery etc., with its consolidated net income reaching 147.2 billion yen for the last fiscal year. For more information, visit http://www.marubeni.com.
