Biomass Lab Established at Virginia Tech

Xethanol Corporation announced the establishment of the Xethanol Advanced Biomass Characterization Laboratory at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia. The company also renewed its research agreement with Virginia Tech that is focused on developing efficient means of producing ethanol using cellulosic feedstocks. The research is led by Dr. Foster A. Agblevor, Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering.

Xethanol also announced the loan of more than $200,000 in specialized laboratory testing equipment to Virginia Tech as part of its existing research partnership. The equipment comes from the company's multiple science laboratories.

The partnership, first established in 2005, seeks to find methods of producing ethanol from cellulosic biomass by focusing on four areas: steam explosion for pre-treating the biomass; advanced enzymes for hydrolyzing steam exploded biomass; a composite predictive model coupling with economic analysis; and finally scaling up of steam explosion, hydrolysis and fermentation.

Zangani Investor Community, July 11, 2007