VERO BEACH, FL – INEOS Bio announced that its Indian River BioEnergy Center is producing cellulosic ethanol at commercial scale. First ethanol shipments will be released in August.

The $130 million, 65-employee oepration has a capacity of 8 million gallons of fuel annually, and represents the first commercial-scale production in the world using INEOS Bio’s gasification and fermentation technology for conversion of biomass waste into bioethanol and renewable power.

Woodworking Network reported previously on INEOS Biofuel's initial support from USDA biofuel development funds, and the placement of $75 million in venture capital backing for the wood-to-fuel venture.

The BioEnergy Center is a joint venture project between INEOS Bio and New Planet Energy. The facility has already converted several types of waste biomass material into bioethanol, including vegetative and yard waste, and citrus, oak, pine, and pallet wood waste. It will have an annual output of eight million gallons (24kta) of cellulosic ethanol and six megawatts of renewable power. The Center is also permitted to utilize municipal solid waste, quantities of which will be used for bioethanol production at the Center during 2014.

“Our team at Vero Beach have successfully addressed the challenges of moving a new technology to large production scale for the very first time," said Peter Williams, CEO of INEOS Bio and Chairman of INEOS New Planet BioEnergy. "We are now pleased to announce that we are producing commercial quantities of bioethanol from vegetative and wood waste, and at the same time exporting power to the local community – a world first.”

The biofuels produced in Florida will anchor the new production of cellulosic ethanol under the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard. INEOS Bio says it is working with other companies and cities globally to use this technology as a new direction for waste disposal and the production of advanced biofuels and renewable power.