Etanol.nu

Hemant Pendse knows how pulp mill owners can make cash from compounds found in wood without disrupting the pulping process. His research has been used to retrofit the Old Town pulp and paper mill in Maine and will be used at a biorefinery to be built next year adjacent to the mill.

The plant will be the first where hemicellulose - a polysachharide more complex than sugar, found in almost all plant cell walls - will be extracted from wood chips to make ethanol and other chemicals without compromising the integrity of the pulp, Pendse said.

The University of Maine professor has many industry eyes watching as he and his team move from the laboratory into the marketplace.

"We are at the leading edge," said Pendse, the managing director of the university's Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative.