Mascoma, a leading company in biofuels technology founded by two Thayer School of Engineering professors, will partner with General Motors to develop ethanol technology from wood chips, waste paper sludge and grass to combat an increasing demand for energy, both companies announced in a joint statement on Thursday.
"It is important financially and from the perspective of a strategic partnership as to the direction the company can go," Mascoma co-founder and Thayer School professor Charles Wyman said. "It is important to have people affiliated who are invested in the technology, who are invested in the company."
GM, which produces the highest number of vehicles that can run on E-85, a fuel mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, is actively involved in developing and selling alternative fuel and is a desirable partner, Wyman said. He explained that a relationship between Mascoma and GM will also help to solve several of the problems the biofuel company has encountered.
"The challenge is getting cellulose ethanol into the marketplace and advancing the technology," Wyman said. "GM will help in making advanced technology, and this helps further the development of ethanol."
Wyman, along with Thayer School professor Lee Lynd, founded the Boston-based company in 2005 to develop technology that would break down plant matter in a single step, thus reducing cost, which Wyman called one of the keys to their research's success. The Mascoma technologies were developed in part from the professors' work at Dartmouth, Wyman said.
"We are interested in converting non-food materials and agriculture residues into sugars and then fermenting them into ethanol," he said. "We are choosing materials that are plentiful and not used for food."
GM's involvement with Mascoma, according to the companies' press release, will include evaluating materials, expanding the commercialization of the company's biofuels and increasing the distribution of biofuels. GM is interested in Mascoma because their "best-in-class microorganisms and enzymes could lead a transformation to a new era of biofuels," Fritz Henderson, GM president and chief operating officer, said in the press release.
"These investments in leading-edge firms support the belief that ethanol has the greatest near-term potential as a clean-burning, renewable fuel that can help reduce oil dependence," Henderson added.
Mascoma has received more than $60 million in government grants to help develop the technology, including a $26 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the establishment of a demonstration plant in New York, according to the company's web site.
"Cellulosic biofuels represent next-generation renewable energy and have the potential to reduce oil dependence, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate regional economic development," Bruce Jamerson, Mascoma chairman and chief executive officer, said in the company's press release. "Our transformational technology will allow us to combine the affordable non-grain biomass with low-cost conversion techniques to make ethanol more quickly, efficiently and economically than is possible with other biochemical methods."
Mascoma is also working to develop a pilot facility near Knoxville, Tenn., with the University of Tennessee and is pursuing a partnership opportunity in Michigan.
