DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC (DDCE) and the University of Tennessee (UT) have announced a partnership to construct an innovative pilot-scale biorefinery and research and development facility for cellulosic ethanol in the United States.
The pilot-scale biorefinery to be located in Tennesse will develop the commercial package for DDCE's leading cellulosic ethanol technology.

The project will utilise UT's expertise in cellulosic feedstock production and co-product research, as well as its work with Tennessee farmers to develop the first dedicated cellulosic energy crop supply chain for cellulosic biorefineries using switchgrass.

The facility design will incorporate the flexibility to operate on different non-food biomass feedstocks: corn stover; cobs and fibre; and switchgrass.

A process development unit is also planned. A PDU is a research facility that enables both experimentation at larger than laboratory scale and more rapid adjustments to process components.

The plant capacity will be 250,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually.

Site preparations are scheduled to begin this fall, and ethanol should be available from the pilot plant by December 2009.