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Xethanol was one of the smaller producers of
corn ethanol Corn ethanol is ethanol produced from corn biomass and is the main source of ethanol fuel in the United States, mandated to be blended with gasoline in the Renewable Fuel Standard. Corn ethanol is produced by ethanol fermentation and distillation ...
in the United States, and one of the few publicly traded companies developing technology for producing cellulose ethanol.
Ethanol fuel Ethanol fuel is ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, used as fuel. It is most often used as a motor fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline. The first production car running entirely on ethanol was the ...
will have increased production from a current level of about per year (19 Gl/a, almost exclusively from corn) to over annually (76 Gl/a, mainly from cellulosic materials). Potentially of ethanol could be produced annually in a sustainable manner from domestic biomass resources. To achieve these goals some believe it will be necessary to develop and commercialize technology for the production of ethanol from
cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall ...
and hemicellulose. Xethanol says it plans to increase production and profitability with new technology it has under development. Xylose Technologies, Inc. (XTI), a subsidiary of Xethanol, is conducting collaborative research through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) located on the campus of the
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
. The work focuses on genetically engineering proprietary
yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constitut ...
strains for the efficient production of xylitol from
xylose Xylose ( grc, ξύλον, , "wood") is a sugar first isolated from wood, and named for it. Xylose is classified as a monosaccharide of the aldopentose type, which means that it contains five carbon atoms and includes an aldehyde functional gro ...
. Xylose, an abundant five carbon sugar found predominantly in hemicellulose of angiosperms, can be converted to xylitol through biochemical or
chemical reduction Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a d ...
. The USDA and other university research labs have hundreds of such CRADAs with many companies exploring the technology.


History

Xethanol was formed as a Delaware corporation in 2000 through a reverse merger with Zen Pottery Equipment. It is based in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and has operated two production facilities in
Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
since 2003. It began with the acquisition of Permeate Refining, Inc., and in 2004, Xethanol purchased a second plant which operates as Xethanol Biofuels, LLC. In early 2005 it acquired Superior Separation Technologies, Inc. from UTEK Corporation. It has announced plans to build new ethanol plants in
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, Georgia and
South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...
through a newly formed subsidiary known as CoastalXethanol LLC. In August 2006, investors and scientists following Xethanol's progress were disturbed by a series of accusations brought against Xethanol on a website called ShareSleuth.com. Follow-up articles appearing in
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reiterated the story and claimed that it was difficult for reporters and stock analysts to get information from Xethanol officials. A Soleil Securities alternative energy analyst cut Xethanol's rating to "Sell-target $1.53" from "Hold-target $10" after he became disillusioned by the response from Xethanol. The analyst had been trying to obtain information from Xethanol for institutions interested in investing. The ShareSleuth article revealed that people connected with the Xethanol's secondary stock offering had been sanctioned by the SEC and that the resume of Xethanol's chief executive officer, Christopher D'Arnaud Taylor had been inflated. In response, D'Arnaud Taylor, as well as several of his associates who dominated the company's board of directors, resigned or took less prominent roles. The ShareSleuth article pointed out that one of the company's smaller facilities was shuttered and rusting. The company noted that it had not been operational when they purchased it, and that it was intended for use in pilot development operations. However, there was no explanation why company officials suggested in interviews that the facility was in use, and later that "it is being renovated as we speak." This rapid increase in Xethanol's stock price could be attributed largely to President Bush's 2006 State of the Union Address on January 31 in which he announced that the administration was undertaking a major new effort to develop technology for the production of "cellulosic ethanol" from agricultural materials such as switchgrass. This speech was followed the next day by an announcement from the Department of Energy that it would be funding 40% of the capital costs of two large (700 ton per day) cellulosic ethanol demonstration plants. Even though there are about five companies currently working on production of ethanol from cellulose, Xethanol was virtually the only company public at the time. Within days, its stock price shot up to $6 per share. Even though much of the population had never heard of switch grass, the idea of a renewable source of energy sparked their interest. Xethanol's small capitalization combined with a public anxious about rising petroleum costs and global warming drove Xethanol's run-up in price. The decrease in share price—along with falling share prices of other companies associated with ethanol production—followed as investors began to realize the technological differences between making ethanol from
corn starch Corn starch, maize starch, or cornflour (British English) is the starch derived from corn (maize) grain. The starch is obtained from the endosperm of the kernel. Corn starch is a common food ingredient, often used to thicken sauces or sou ...
or sugar cane and making it from cellulose. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in September 2006, Xethanol acknowledged that it was not as close to the breakthrough technology as previously represented. The value of the technologies it had purchased were written down as an accounting measure, and Xethanol also warned that it did not have the financing to complete its previously announced plans.


Renaming and bankruptcy

On August 28, 2008, Xethanol relaunched itself as Global Energy Holdings Group, Inc., with the intention to diversify away from ethanol to other alternative fuels including woody biomass, orange peels, and methane from landfills. By September, 2009, Global Energy Holdings had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.


See also

*
Biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...
*
Ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...


References

{{Reflist Alcohol fuel producers