Coskata enters China ethanol market

Warrenville, Ill.-based Coskata plans to sell ethanol in China.

Wes Bolsen, Coskata's chief marketing officer, made the announcement during the Fourth World Biofuels Symposium held in Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

Bolsen said the company hopes to establish tech licensing or partnership agreements to bring Coskata's ethanol production process to China.

Bolsen said China could produce 50 billion gallons of biofuel from forest and agricultural waste alone, enough to replace its current oil imports. Coskata's biofuel is expected to be produced using agricultural waste, forest waste and municipal solid waste made using Coskata’s proprietary technology.

According to MarketResearchAnalyst.com, China is the third largest ethanol producer in the world, behind the U.S. and Brazil.

In June, China decided to restrict its ethanol production, opting to focus on using its grain supply for food production instead of for energy production. Coskata says the carbon-based feedstock needed for its technology wouldn’t threaten food security.

Coskata came out of stealth mode in January, claiming it could produce ethanol for less than $1 per gallon using almost any carbon-based feedstock. Working with Colwich, Kan.-based ICM, the company plans to have a U.S.-based commercial scale plant producing up to 100 million gallons of ethanol in 2011 (see Khosla-backed Coskata, EcoMotors come out of stealth and Coskata, ICM to build ethanol plant). The location of the facility has not yet been announced, but the company has said it expects to break ground before the end of the year.

In April, Coskata announced it would build a 40,000-gallon-per-year commercial demonstration plant in Madison, Penn. The ethanol produced in the $25 million project would be used by General Motors (NYSE: GM) to test its flex-fuel vehicles (see Coskata to build demonstration plant in Penn.).