The U.S. DOE announced in late January that ICM Inc. will receive up to $30 million from the department to develop a small-scale cellulosic ethanol plant. ICM was one of four companies sharing $114 million to develop biorefinery projects. "ICM is excited to have been selected as one of the recipients of this DOE award, and I'd personally like to thank the DOE for its aggressive pursuit of a renewable and sustainable fuel source," said Dave Vander Griend, ICM president and chief executive officer.

The other companies receiving grants were Lignol Innovations Inc., Pacific Ethanol Inc. and Stora Enso North America.

ICM is working with a team of companies and research institutions to develop the cellulosic ethanol project, including Ceres Inc., Edenspace Systems Corp., South Dakota State
University, AGCO Corp., the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Novozymes, VeraSun Energy Corp. and SunEthanol Inc. The proposed plant will use a variety of feedstocks including corn fiber, corn stover, sorghum and switchgrass, and will integrate biochemical processing and demonstrate energy recycling within the biorefinery. Preliminary plans call for a pilot-scale facility built next to LifeLine Foods LLC, an existing 40 MMgy corn-based ethanol plant in St. Joseph, Mo., which will reduce the new facility's infrastructure costs including transportation access, energy, water, wastewater treatment and utilities. LifeLine Foods was also tapped to provide 12,000 gallons of ethanol to fuel cars at all 16 races of this year's Indy Racing League series. LifeLine is the first plant in the United States to produce both food and fuel from corn in one process. Portions of the corn kernels are processed for use in potato chips, cheese crisps and various other foods, while other portions become ethanol and distillers grains.

The goal of the DOE's grant program is to make cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive within five years. "We have engineered more than 60 ethanol plants in North America, and this technology has the potential to complement each of those existing facilities," Vander Griend said. "We'll gain even further efficiencies in the production process and potentially add more than 5 billion gallons of additional renewable fuel to our nation's fuel supply annually through this collaboration alone. I believe that ICM's existing research in this area, supported by the team of experts we've partnered with, puts us in a position to successfully achieve and exceed the goals of this project."

In February, Junction City, Kan.-based Edenspace announced it had joined the team as a provider of feedstocks. Edenspace's primary role will be to provide corn, sorghum and switchgrass bioengineered to reduce the postharvest costs of producing cellulosic ethanol. Earlier that month, ICM tapped Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Ceres to sow thousands of acres of switchgrass, high-biomass sorghum and other energy crops over the next three years around St. Joseph.