Coskata, Inc. a leading developer of next generation biofuels, recently unveiled its semi-commercial flex ethanol facility located in Madison, PA. The Madison plant will serve as a showcase for the world's first commercially-viable flex ethanol process .

The Madison facility represents the "beginnings" of large scale cellulosic derived ethanol production in the United States and is unique, in the fact that it can produce ethanol from almost any carbon based source such as wood biomass, agricultural waste, sustainable energy crops and construction waste; corn no longer required.

The integrated biorefinery will utilize a Westinghouse Plasma Gasification on the front end and Coskata's syngas-to-biofuels conversion process on the back end. The conversion process integrates Coskata's proprietary microorganism and efficient bioreactor design, that "uses a unique three-step conversion process to turn virtually any carbon-based feedstock into ethanol", from anywhere in the world.

Coskata's biological fermentation technology is ethanol-specific and enzyme independent, so it contributes to high energy conversion rates and ethanol yields. Additionally, the process requires no additional chemicals or pre-treatments, serving to streamline operational costs. Coskata has one of the lowest production costs in the industry, allowing them to directly compete with gasoline without long-term government subsidies.

The Madison plant will initially begin life as a "minimum scale engineering" facility, with eventual plans scaling it upwards to its maxium 100 million gallon production capacity.

GM a major investor in Coskata hopes to spread the availability of flex produced ethanol in the future and according to Bob Babik, GM Vehicle Emissions Director, "They've invested in Coskata in order to enable the rapid deployment of commercially viable and environmentally sustainable ethanol globally". GM is also on track to make more than half of its vehicle production flex-fuel capable by 2012.

One thing is for certain, fueling stations of the future will offer several different types of fuels as the breath of alternative energy sources expands to include a multitude of fuels; ranging from traditional gasoline, to hydrogen, to corn based E85 ethanol, to cellulosic based ethanol.