Ethanol From Paper Pulp: Genencor Announces French Government Funded Project

02/05/06 Genencor International, a subsidiary of Danisco A/S, has announced its participation in a research consortium to develop economic ethanol production from paper pulp through the use of know-how and infrastructure of the French forest products industry. The 1.2 million euros project is sponsored by the French National Research Program for Bioenergy (PNRB, ANR) and managed by ADEME. The French National Research Agency will provide 50% of the funding to the partners. Besides Genencor, other partners include: Tembec R&D Kraft, INSA Toulouse's Laboratory for Biotechnology & Bioprocessing, and the University of Bordeaux's Pine Institute. The Pine Institute is the project leader and coordinator.

Genencor will provide its advanced biomass cellulases and application expertise to optimize the enzymatic hydrolysis of various paper pulp samples provided by Tembec and the Pine Institute. In addition to providing substrate samples, Tembec will also analyze the economics to evaluate the system for commercial deployment by the pulp industry. INSA's Laboratory for Biotechnology and Bioprocessing will provide fermentation expertise through its Microbiology Engineering Team. The Pine Institute will share its expertise in pulping and handling; and, in lignocellulose analysis and characterization.

"This is an excellent project to establish the viability of an advanced cellulosic biorefinery for ethanol production," said Jack Huttner, vice president of Genencor. "Genencor has been working at the bench scale in lab conditions on one part of the technical challenge. This project links us with others in the value chain to integrate several unit operations into a whole system-level design. This is a critical step in the development of advanced biorefineries attached to the paper pulp industry."

"France is one of the leaders in the forest product industry and in related technical applications research," said Jean-Claude Pommier, Executive President of the Strategic Committee at the Institut du Pin -- Universite de Bordeaux. "We believe adding a biorefinery capacity to the paper pulp industry will be a sustainable innovation that will have broad impact. We appreciate ANR's support and anticipate making a significant contribution to the field."