A demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Jennings, Louisiana is getting closer to completion.

Verenium officials held a site tour of the plant last week, according to an article in the Daily Advertiser. The plant, which officials hope to complete by the end of March, uses enzymes to make ethanol from plant material such as sugarcane bagasse and wood chips.

In February 2007, Verenium broke ground on a 1.4 million gallon-per-year demonstration plant right next to its Jennings pilot site. The company hopes to finish this second plant before April, where Verenium will fine-tune its enzymes, ethanol production and feedstocks (primarily local cane bagasse) before it goes full-scale with a third plant.

That commercial-scale third plant could make 25 million to 30 million gallons of ethanol per year from biomass as far away as New Iberia, if it were built in Jennings. Sites in Florida and Texas are also being considered for the third plant.

Verenium is a Massachusetts-based company that was formed in June 2007 through the merger of Diversa Corporation, a global leader in enzyme technology, and Celunol Corporation, a leading developer of cellulosic ethanol process technologies and projects.