Less than a year ago, GM announced that it was investing in Coskata, a startup with a unique process for turning waste materials into fuel. Now they've announced that they've invested, and taken equity, in Mascoma, another cellulosic ethanol producer. Coskata can turn things like corn husks and mulch and even old tires into ethanol. Mascoma's process is a bit more limited, but also turns non-food plants into ethanol. GM loves ethanol because, if it can be produced cheaply, locally, and sustainably, then cars might continue their supreme reign for another fifty years.

GM has already invested a lot of money in creating biofuel vehicles, and they plan to have most of their new vehicles be E-85 capable by 2012. Of course, having E-85 capable vehicles is useless without ethanol. So GM, it seems, is giving a little shove to the industry. And they're also planning on making some money off of it.

Coskata's process is somewhat unique among ethanol makers. Instead of using microbes and enzymes to digest the cellulose, Coskata uses a self-sustaining plasma reaction to gassify the stuff into CO and hydrogen gas before feeding it into a bioreactor. This eliminates the need for specialty microbes that are able to digest tough plant fiber. It also allows Coskata to use a wider range of feedstocks, including lignin (what trees are made of) and even plastics.

Mascoma uses a more traditional approach. They physically chop the plant material down, and then their specially selected microbes are able to eat it and convert it into sugar (first) and then ethanol. Mascoma's process, however, requires the addition of external enzymes, which are very expensive. But it doesn't require the input of as much energy as Coskata's process.

In short, both Coskata and Mascoma are leaders in cellulosic ethanol production, but they use very different techniques. At this early stage in the development of these fuels, GM is wise to be attempting to spur development of more than one cellulosic ethanol production method. And while both techniques are going to be producing ethanol for sale in the U.S. soon, there's no way to tell which is going to be cheapest or most disruptive.

GM, with its deep pockets, can afford to invest in these companies. First, because there is a lot of money to be made in cellulosic ethanol. But, second, because without cellulosic ethanol, it might not matter what GM does with any of its money. Without the cheap, sustainable fuel that these companies hope to promote, the system that GM thrives on, and GM itself, might not exist at all.

Read the GM Mascoma Press Release here (PDF). And check out Mascoma's description of their technology at their website.

Just last week I was gushing about all of the press algae biofuel had been getting, and without even a single company with a commercial scale plant online.

Well, apparently folks could smell the green sludge on the horizon because Green Fuel Technologies just announced they had begun construction of their commercial scale algae plant while PetroSun announced they'd be taking their pilot algae farm commercial on April 1st.

Now, this obviously isn't ethanol, with millions of gallons of production...or even cellulosic ethanol, with a wood-waste to fuel plant ready to go online this year, but it is a big deal.

It's a big deal because algae don't just create energy from the sun...they create energy from the sun more effectively than anything else save photovoltaic panels. And, as you may have guessed, they're a heck of a lot cheaper than photovoltaic panels. Green Fuel Technologies is adding another environmental advantage, planning to hook their algae bioreactors up to the smoke stacks from power plants.

So the algae will be using the sun to turned burned fuel back into fuel. Theoretically, this could become a closed loop. Burn fuel...feed exhaust to algae...harvest algae for fuel...burn fuel...etc.

PetroSun's facility, on the other hand, has 1,100 acres of open ponds growing algae in Texas. Open ponds are cheaper, but it's more difficult to control which species of algae are growing, so less productive strains often take over. Also, you can't feed your crop with CO₂ straight from a power plant.

Via Gas 2.0 and GreenTech Media