"It speaks to the strength of the research institutions we have in our state, particularly with the [business] incubators within the university system," Abbruzzese said.
The Bush administration's goal is to make cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive with gasoline by 2012 and to produce 3 billion gallons a year by 2015.
Most ethanol today is used as a gasoline additive and is made from sugars found in corn. Increased demand for corn, combined with government subsidies for ethanol, have pushed up corn prices and food prices generally around the world.
Ethanol made from cellulose would not impact food prices because it relies on cellulose from municipal waste, from nonedible plants such as switchgrass, or from the inedible portions of food plants that now go to waste.
Cellulosic ethanol can be produced with only 10 percent of the energy demanded by corn-based production. And ethanol has the potential to reduce automotive greenhouse gas emissions by 86 percent compared with gasoline, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Ethanol produced from corn currently offers only a 19 percent emissions reduction.
The problem: devising efficient, industrial-scale processes for getting ethanol from cellulose.
The challenge and the potential payoff have spurred entrepreneurs, academics and government laboratories around the world to look for the right combination of enzymes with the lowest cost per gallon of ethanol produced.
"We have done research and development in this area for more than 20 years, with enzyme development one of the high-priority, critical areas worked on," said Valerie Sarisky-Reed, team leader in the Biomass Programs office at the Department of Energy.
Two weeks ago, the Energy Department announced that it would invest $33.8 million in a 50/50 split with four companies in California and New Jersey that are working on improved enzyme systems derived from bacteria and fungi.
"There are a lot of organisms out there that break down cellulose," said Sarisky-Reed. "We need to find out how to take that activity and ... scale it up."
So far, she said, Zymetis' competitors say they can produce enzymes that cost 30 cents for each gallon of ethanol produced - about the same as Hutcheson claims for his process.
This price point might already be cost-competitive, given today's record oil prices - more than $100 a barrel, Sarisky-Reed said.
