Waste to be Converted to Ethanol

The plant, which will be on the grounds of the Westinghouse Plasma Center, will employ about 20 to produce ethanol from a variety of materials, including municipal waste, more cheaply and efficiently than producing it from corn, said Bill Roe, Coskata's president and chief executive officer.

The plant will employ the Plasma Center's gasifier to superheat raw materials at temperatures up to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit, then release the resulting synthetic gas, or "syngas," into a bioreactor, where it will become food for microorganisms that convert it into ethanol.

Coskata expects to produce 40,000 gallons of ethanol annually at the facility. General Motors, which has an equity stake in Coskata, will use the fuel for testing its growing line of flex-fuel vehicles. Those vehicles are built to run on E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, as well as regular unleaded.

Mr. Roe said Coskata's process will produce 100 gallons of ethanol from a ton of feedstock, compared with 67 gallons produced from the same amount of corn, and that the fuel will cost less than $1 a gallon to produce.

View the Post-gazette story by clicking here.

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