New-Fuel Hopeful Kior Opens First Major Wood-to-Oil Plant

Agriculture and industry produce huge amounts of leftover carbon -- hiding in the tips and branches of trees, stalks, husks and other plant material. If only there was a way to put it to good use.

Kior Inc. announced today the opening of its first commercial-scale plant designed to do just that. The facility, located in Columbus, Mississippi, at full capacity will take in 500 tons of biomass a day and transform it into what sounds like a contradiction in terms -- 40,000 gallons a day of gasoline and diesel that could help companies meet their renewable energy goals or mandates. Kior's next plants may be at least three times as large. The company’s technology uses catalysts to vaporize biomass, removing the oxygen and condensing the remainder to oil that can be refined into cellulosic gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Silicon Valley powerhouse Khosla Ventures owns more than half of the five-year-old company, which is based in Pasadena, Texas.