UK's First Cellulosic Biomass Plant Acclaims Success

This post highlights the efforts of TMO renewables, a developer of cellulosic biomass into ethanol fuel.

The UK's first cellulosic ethanol plant has successfully completed the first year of trial operation and is now commercially viable. TMO Renewables, a developer of biomass into fuel ethanol has succeeded in its efforts to produce biofuels from the cellulosic biomass in their facility. TMO’s plant is located at Dunsfold Park, near Guildford in Surrey. It has been running successfully for 24 hours a day, seven days a week to process a wide range of cellulosic feedstocks on an industrial scale.

This facility uses specific strains of bacteria obtained from agricultural wastes such as compost heaps to produce ethanol to be employed in fuel grade applications.

TMO renewables, like the Iogen, have developed their own pre-treatment process and fermentation technology wherein they produce cellulose enzymes on their own and work on producing cellulosic ethanol.

This company uses feedstocks like grasses, wheat straw, municipal waste to produce bioethanol . These raw materials are first converted into beer and further distilled to form fuel ethanol. It is proved that TMO’s process is ideal for retro-fit to existing corn ethanol plants, typically improving their yields by up to 15 percent, as well as being suited for new-build ethanol applications.

TMO have been funded by about £11 million, which they have planned to utilize completely to modify their process to commercialize cellulosic ethanol production. TMO strongly believes and works on Sustainability, and it expects ethanol fuel to be commercialized soon.

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