POET-DSM broke through the pre-treatment bottleneck to become the world's largest producer of cellulosic ethanol

May 29, 2018 | Case Study

First-generation ethanol has attracted a fair amount of controversy over the use of food crops like corn and sugarcane in the production of biofuels. Furthermore, life-cycle analysis showed that producing ethanol made from corn provides little improvement in fuel carbon intensity compared to gasoline. This has driven first-generation ethanol producers like Poet to expand their capabilities to second-generation ethanol using cellulosic feedstock, which not only does not compete with the food industry, but also produces a fuel with an improved carbon footprint.