ICM Inc. announced successful completion of two 1,000-hour performance runs of its patent-pending Generation 2.0 Co-Located Cellulosic Ethanol process at its cellulosic ethanol pilot plant in St. Joseph, Missouri. This is an important step toward the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass and energy sorghum. ICM’s pilot plant is located next to a corn grain ethanol biorefinery, which lowered the costs because both plants could share utilities and infrastructure. 

It is a major milestone for a pilot plant to successfully complete 1,000 hours of continuous operation. Pilot plants verify performance of technologies and provide the initial detailed financial data to scale the facility. Read more on the ICM press release.

ICM Inc.’s pilot plant is one of nineteen integrated biorefineries that received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The projects are displayed on BETO’s interactive integrated biorefinery map. 

The Bioenergy Technology Office provides cost-shared funding through its Demonstration and Market Transformation Program for pilot-, demonstration-, and pioneer-scale biorefinery projects to de-risk bioenergy production technologies and reduce or remove commercialization barriers. These efforts are part of BETO’s work to advance commercialization of a sustainable, cost-competitive advanced biofuels industry that can reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, lower greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, and create new economic opportunities.