“Bolson claims that Coskata’s process will be the cheapest in the industry, in part because its yield of ethanol per ton of biomass is high. Its process begins with the gasification of feedstock materials using existing technology. The product of the gasification–a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide called syngas–is then fed into bioreactors, where proprietary strains of Clostridium bacteria convert it to ethanol. Other approaches typically use catalysts to convert syngas into ethanol, or they use enzymes to break biomass down into sugars that are then fermented by yeast to make ethanol. Using gasification allows Coskata to use a wider variety of feedstocks; enzyme methods are tailored to work with only particular types of biomass. The process could even use tires and other garbage. And since it doesn’t use catalysts, which require high temperatures and pressures, it can use cheaper equipment.”

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