The plant in Madison, southeast of Pittsburgh, will produce ethanol from numerous feestocks including agricultural and construction waste, sustainable energy crops and woody biomass. Most US ethanol is corn-based.

Coskata officials say the flexible feedstock approach allows for true geographic flexibility, meaning facilities can be built anywhere a feedstock can be sourced or delivered.

While not commercial size, Coskata says the plant engineering demonstrates that it can be scaled up directly to installed capacity of 100 million gallons a year.

The plant utilizes a plasma gasification technology from Westinghouse Plasma Corporation, a subsidiary of Alter NRG, on the front end of the conversion process. On the back end, Coskata’s syngas-to-biofuels conversion process kicks in.

Coskata claims its proprietary microorganisms and efficient bioreactor designs can turn almost any carbon-based feedstock into ethanol. Its process technology requires no additional chemicals or pre-treatments, serving to streamline operational costs.

“This facility is demonstrating that our efficient, affordable and flexible conversion technology is ready for commercialization,” says Bill Roe, chief executive of Coskata.

“The next step is to build full-scale facilities and begin licensing our technology to project developers, project financiers and strategic partners,” he adds.

Some ethanol that is being produced at the facility has been delivered to the General Motors’ Milford Proving Grounds for early testing, as well as to another major strategic partner.

“We invested in Coskata so that we could enable the rapid deployment of commercially viable and environmentally sustainable ethanol globally,” says Bob Babik, director of vehicle emissions at GM.

Globally, General Motors has produced more than 5 million flex-fuel vehicles to date. GM is on track to make more than half of its vehicle production flex-fuel capable by 2012.

Coskata is based in Warrenvill, Illinois, west of Chicago.