Pacific Ethanol Inc., a leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels in the United States, announced it is now producing cellulosic ethanol at its Stockton, California, facility using Edeniq Inc.’s pathway technology.

Neil Koehler, the company’s president and CEO, stated, “We are now commercially producing cellulosic ethanol using Edeniq’s Pathway enzyme at our Stockton facility. This is an important step in our strategy to increase production yields at our plants and our mission to be the leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels. We are working with Edeniq and the Environmental Protection Agency to qualify these gallons for generating D3 cellulosic RINs, which carry a premium over conventional ethanol, and we expect to receive EPA approval in the first quarter of 2016.”

Edeniq’s pathway technology integrates Edeniq’s Cellunator high shear equipment with cellulase enzymes to convert corn kernel fiber to fermentable sugars. Edeniq’s Pathway Technology includes a proprietary technical validation process that enables customers to quantify the amount of cellulosic ethanol produced within their plants and comply with the registration, recordkeeping, and reporting required by the EPA to generate cellulosic D3 renewable identification numbers (RINs) as defined by the renewable fuel standard (RFS).

“Our pathway technology enables ethanol plants to produce cellulosic ethanol directly in existing fermentation vessels at a very low cost,” said Brian Thome, president and CEO of Edeniq. “Pacific Ethanol’s production of cellulosic ethanol is an important landmark for both of our companies, and for the ethanol industry.”

The Stockton plant, a facility with a production capacity of 60 million gallons per year, is expected to produce up to 750,000 gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol with the pathway process.