FACTBOX -"Next gen" cellulosic ethanol hopefuls

June 17 (Reuters) - As oil prices hit record levels, many companies hope to
make "next generation" biofuels from grasses and trees because ethanol and
biodiesel from grains and beans are blamed for helping to boost food prices.

Floods ravaging the U.S. Midwest underscore the dangers of an alternative
motor fuel program based on centralized agricultural crops such as corn.

Cellulosic ethanol is made by breaking down woody bits of crop waste or
plants into sugars to ferment. Cellulosic feedstocks could be grown across the
entire country, in hopes of reducing transport costs involved in making fuel.

Cellulosic ethanol also is expected to emit fewer greenhouse gases than
traditional ethanol.

But cellulosic now costs, on average, about twice as much as traditional
ethanol. Production keeps getting pushed farther out into the future.

Following is a list of cellulosic ethanol techniques and companies.

TECHNIQUES

The tough, or lignocellulosic, material of plants must be broken down
ferment into fuel using three main methods.

1)Acid, such as sulfuric acid.

2)Enzymes, such those in jungle rot or that live at the bottom of lakes can
be modified to "eat" cellulose.

3)Heat and pressure, such as used in an oil refinery to break down crude.

COMPANIES FEEDSTOCK* AMOUNT** TIMING

--Abengoa corn waste 30.0 n.a.

--BlueFire Ethanol (BFRE.OB) ag waste, ect 550.0 2013

--Iogen (Canada) Canadian Straw 24.0 2011

--Mascoma wood 0.5 by 2012

--Mascoma n.a. up to 2.0 2010

--Poet corn waste 31.0 2011

--Range Fuels wood, grasses 20.0 2008

--Range Fuels " " 100.0 eventually

--SunEthanol various 1.5 2010

--Verenium Corp corn cobs, bagasse 30.0 2010-2011

--Xethanol XNL.O orange peels, ect na. na.

* subject to change

** all measurements in millions of gallons per year

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)