Chinese delegates visit Colusa Biomass

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BY Nicholas Zeman

Web exclusive posted Oct. 9, 2007, at 1:15 p.m. CDT

At press time, rice straw to ethanol company Colusa Biomass Energy Corporation's (CBEC) stock had risen to 25 cents per share, more than doubling since its initial public offering. The Colusa, Calif., company has not yet broken ground on its planned 12.5 MMgy gallon facility in the Sacramento Valley, but was conducting operations in connection with the rice harvest. The plant, when operating will require 35,000 acres of rice straw to perform at full capacity.

CBEC holds a patented and proprietary technology for the conversion of rice straw to ethanol, and once considered to be flying under the radar in the cellulosic world, CBEC is now attracting international attention. Delegates from China, mostly ethanol executives and economic development officials, observed CBEC's technologies for producing ethanol from rice straw in August. Western China's agricultural area is a leading rice producer, and CBEC is currently "exploring the prospects" of a strategic alliance with an ethanol refiner there to make fuel from rice straw, said company CEO Tom Bowers in an official release. Rice straw is the top agricultural residue in the world at 800 million tons, while corn stover is a very distant second at 100 million tons. China, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh are the largest rice producers in the world.

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