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Chemical has signed a deal with the US Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the joint development and study of the commercial feasibility of a biomass-to-ethanol process. The process will use a gasification technique to transform non-food biobased materials, including corn leaves or wood waste, into synthesis gas, which will be converted into a mixture of alcohols, such as ethanol, using a mixed alcohols catalyst from Dow. The partnership will work mainly on enhancing the catalyst and assessing the pilot-scale performance and commercial feasibility of an integrated facility. DOE has invested in a number of projects in 2007 in an effort to make the cost of cellulosic ethanol comparable to corn-derived ethanol by 2012. Meanwhile, Shell has raised its interest in Canadian biofuels technology company Iogen Energy from 26.5% to 50% to speed up their cellulosic ethanol work.
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organometallic methods. A test was conducted where a mixture of methane and propane was converted to ethane at 250ยฐ, with almost 100% selectivity. The results indicated that methane can replace hydrogen to cleave carbon-carbon bonds, saving costs and providing environmental benefits. The new catalys
R&D facilities in to accommodate the strong growth of its high-throughput R&D business. The expansion involves that Avantium will double its capacity with the addition of 2500 sq m of laboratory and office space. Avantium anticipates it will start using the new facilities by 1Q 2008.
## DOE selects Novozymes' project to further develop enzymes for making cellulosic ethanol Novozymes is the leader in bioinnovation and the largest supplier of enzymes for the existing ethanol industry. Novozymes has been working on enzyme development for cellulosic ethanol, where