Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley Lands $26 Million Biofuels Grant

SunHerald.com (South Mississippi)
By Knoxville Chamber
Posted on Thu, May. 08, 2008

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., May 8 --The Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley has taken another leap forward in the race to build a sustainable biofuels industry with the announcement that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a $26 million grant for a one-tenth scale cellulosic ethanol facility here.

The award, which goes to a partnership between Mascoma Corporation, the University of Tennessee (UT), the Tennessee Research Foundation and Genera Energy, brings to more than $230 million the recent federal and state investment in bioenergy sciences across the Innovation Valley. That figure includes DOE's $135 million grant to nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 2007 for its new Bioenergy Science Center and $70 million pledged by the State for the Tennessee Biofuels Initiative.

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