Tapping into convenient access to the Upper Peninsula's timber resources and $49.5 million in state and federal funding, an energy company will now accelerate its construction of a $250 million plant to make ethanol fuel at Kinross. Mascoma Corporation announced October 7 it will receive a funding boost from the federal Department of Energy and the state of Michigan to make automobile fuel from hardwood chips and grasses, rather than food products such as corn, which impact food markets.

The Kinross facility is expected to be in full production by 2012 and create 50 direct jobs, 150 construction jobs, and hundreds of spin-off jobs in forestry and transportation.

The plant will be the first of its kind in the nation to use timber to produce ethanol, and to do it, the company will use a manufacturing process that is modeled on the digestive system of cows, using a simple fermentation system to break down grasses into sugar for energy.

"It's easy to convert cellulose to ethanol, that's not the challenge," said Kate Casolaro of Mascoma. "The challenge is to do it in a cost effective way. Unlike other processes to make ethanol, this process does not require adding heat or enzymes."

Harnessing elements of the natural process of fermentation, company researchers have developed microbes and a system to break down cellulose - a material that forms the structure of all plants - into simple sugars that can be fermented and then distilled into fuel.

"Mascoma has genetically engineered bacteria to make this into one simple step, break down and ferment," said Ms. Casolaro. "The bacteria must be able to reproduce itself so there is always enough. Our researchers are still working on final development of the microbes and the process."

This process is the simplest, cheapest way to produce cellulosic ethanol, the company says, and the resulting fuel is cheap, low in carbon, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The plant is expected to produce 40 million gallons of ethanol and other related fuel products per year. From the time a truck loaded with wood chips pulls in at the plant, to the finished product of gallons of ethanol, the process is anticipated to take hours, or a day or two, not weeks, Ms. Casolaro said. The plant will operate every day, around the clock.

Partners in the Mascoma project are General Motors Corporation and Marathon Oil Corporation, the 120-year-old Marquette timber and mining company JM Longyear, and Michigan State University and Michigan Technological Universities, which will tailor the technology and the supply system for the specific Michigan forest resources to be used.

The three-year-old Mascoma company has its headquarters in Boston and its research laboratories in Lebanon, New Hampshire. It considered several other locations in the country for the facility, including one in Tennessee, but chose the Upper Peninsula site because of support provided by the state of Michigan, the close availability of forest resources, and the expertise available from JM Longyear.

The project will begin with preliminary engineering designs and getting permits required to begin construction at the site.

The announcement last week of $26 million in federal funding for the project, coupled with $23.5 million from the state, was met with widespread support from all northern Michigan lawmakers.

The project "moves Michigan into the forefront of next-generation energy production," said State Senator Jason Allen. "This will further help America to become energy independent."

The state-supported effort will have a strong local impact in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, State Representative Gary McDowell pointed out.

"Mascoma's plant will be a huge benefit to our community and Michigan as a whole," Mr. McDowell said. "I look forward to the day that our workers will be producing clean renewable energy right here in the Upper Peninsula."

Congressman Bart Stupak met with Mascoma officials as they were evaluating locations for the plant and has worked with the company and the Department of Energy to help secure federal funding, his office reported.

"This important federal-stateprivate partnership will put northern Michigan on the forefront of this developing technology, create hundreds of jobs in our community, and the potential for many more," he said. Mr. Stupak is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and next wants to expand the federal definition of biomass to allow timber harvested from federal lands to be used for the production of cellulosic ethanol.

Michigan has the resources the company needs for the project, the president of Michigan State University pointed out.

"In Michigan, our research and development emphasis is on making renewable fuels from cellulose - trees, stems, and stalks that are not food products," said university president Lou Anna Simon. "Our state has a plentiful supply of forest biomass, particularly in the U.P."