Construction of the first commercial-scale D3MAX plant at Ace Ethanol in Stanley, Wisconsin, is nearing completion, according to D3MAX company officials.

“It has been a long haul since July of 2015 when we created D3MAX to commercialize the corn fiber-to-ethanol technology developed by BBI, to where we are today,” says Mark Yancey, vice president of BBI International and CTO of D3MAX. “Record snowfall in Stanley last February and, this fall, record cold has delayed construction, but we can now see the light at the end of the pretreatment reactor, so to speak, and we are looking forward to startup of the plant in December.”

Ace Ethanol will own and operate the plant under license from D3MAX. Construction of the cellulosic ethanol plant began October 1, 2018 and Yancey says they expect to start operations in December and “ramp up to full production capacity throughout the first quarter of 2020.”