American Process Incorporated and Cobalt Technologies collaborated to build the world's first large-scale cellulosic biorefinery in Alpena, Michigan, to commercialize biobutanol.
The biorefinery has received an 18 million dollar grant from the United States Department of Energy and a $4 million grant from the state of Michigan to operate.
American Process Incorporated's Alpena Biorefinery facility will integrate Cobalt Technologies' fermentation and distillation technology to produce 470,000 gallons of biobutanol a year. The product will be initially sold to their partner chemical industries.
Upon the facility's completion by the end of this year, the plant will start off producing ethanol and then shift to biobutanol processing in the middle of 2012.
