Lignol Signs Cellulosic Ethanol Project Development Agreement With Suncor

Lignol Energy has entered into a cellulosic ethanol project development agreement with Suncor Energy Products, a wholly owned subsidiary of Suncor Energy.

As part of this agreement, Suncor has agreed to assist Lignol with certain preliminary development work for the previously announced commercial demonstration cellulosic ethanol facility to be located in Grand Junction, Colorado.

The agreement also provides that the parties negotiate a comprehensive joint venture arrangement to progress the development of Lignol’s technology from the pilot plant stage, to the commercial demonstration plant stage through to the ultimate commercial deployment of the technology. While neither party has an obligation to enter into the joint venture, the parties hope to complete the joint venture on or before January 15, 2009.

Ross MacLachlan, president and CEO of Lignol, said: “We are delighted to continue working closely with Suncor on the scale-up of this next generation biofuels technology. Suncor’s experience in pioneering process technologies within the liquid transportation fuels sector, coupled with their expertise in deploying world scale energy projects, will be a tremendous asset in taking our technology through its evolution from pilot to commercial scale.”