Background

Approximately 10% of the volume of gasoline sold in the United States is corn ethanol (15.8 billion gallons in 2017), a number that must continue to grow under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). To meet RFS requirements and consumer demand for gasoline (the current growth rate is >15% per year), producers need additional capacity (e.g. more feedstock, greater yields, faster fermentation). Current traditional methods of corn ethanol production cannot meet this demand which only proposed cellulosic ethanol technologies can support.

Ethanol and other related fuels such as biobutanol, can also be made from abundant, inexpensive, waste plant materials. While the raw materials for producing cellulosic ethanol are cheap, current production is very costly - requiring caustic industrial chemistry,