Frequently Asked Questions

What raw materials can Coskata’s process use?

Coskata’s process can utilize virtually any carbon-containing feedstock. This includes cellulose-based energy crops such as switchgrass, wood chips, agricultural residues (bagasse, corn stover, etc.) as well as waste streams such as old tires and municipal solid waste. Feedstock flexibility allows the Coskata process to utilize non-food, locally abundant raw materials.

Can you use garbage in your process?

Garbage and many other waste streams can be used in our process. Our process works best with materials that have low moisture and low amounts of non-combustibles like glass and metals.

How small or large can Coskata’s facilities be?

Our process is best optimized within facilities that are ~50 million gallons per year or larger, requiring roughly 1500+ dry tons of material per day. Although technically feasible, smaller facilities are more costly to develop making them less economical. Our process can scale to much larger sizes, with size being limited only by the amount of available feedstock in a local area.

How are you different from corn ethanol?

There are several fundamental differences between Coskata’s process and typical corn ethanol production:
  • Process Technology – Coskata’s process varies significantly from the traditional corn-based ethanol process. Corn ethanol is produced via the fermentation of sugars. Corn kernels are broken down into sugars through milling and hydrolysis operations. Coskata’s ethanol is produced via the fermentation of synthetic gas, or ‘syngas’ mainly made up of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen. A wide assortment of raw materials can be broken down into syngas using a process called gasification.


  • Feedstock flexible – Our process can utilize a variety of raw materials to produce ethanol, bringing two distinct advantages:

    •      i)  Nonfood resources can be used, mitigating many of the food vs. fuel concerns that have arisen.
         ii) Ethanol production can take place in geographical areas where corn is not available, resulting in a many fold increase in the
             potential biofuel volumes that can be produced.

  • Efficiency – Our process is designed to capture efficiencies wherever possible, requiring comparatively little fossil energy input. A life cycle analysis performed by Argonne National Laboratory has determined that the Coskata process yields up to a 7.7 net energy balance which compares favorably to the 1.3 net energy balance reported for corn based ethanol. Low water usage in the process, compared to alternative production processes, will also be a major benefit.

What does net energy balance mean and why is this important?

Net energy balance refers to the amount of fossil fuel input required to produce a given amount of liquid fuel energy output. It is an important metric as it correlates with the green house gas emissions (GHG) associated with that process, along with the efficient use of fossil resources. To determine net energy balance, the fossil energy inputs for the entire supply chain are taken into account, from growing, harvesting and transporting the feedstock, to producing and distributing the fuel into people’s gas tanks. One such study by Argonne National Laboratory has determined that Coskata’s ethanol production process can reach a net energy balance of 7.7 and reduce lifecycle GHG emissions by up to 80-90% versus conventional gasoline.

Isn’t Ethanol still hard to transport?

Given the distance between agricultural centers and urban centers, transportation usually makes up a significant portion of the overall cost of ethanol. Coskata’s versatile process, however, can break this transportation barrier by using more regionally available feedstocks. This also gives us the opportunity to develop ethanol in areas of the world where it was not previously viable. Coskata may not need to ever pipeline our ethanol since we can build the plant where the consumer lives.

What are the advantages of the Coskata process?

Our process has several cost advantages over other next generation ethanol production methods including:
  • Yield: Our process can produce over 100 gallons of ethanol per dry ton of feedstock which not only reduces our feedstock cost, but also reduces nearly all other costs on a per gallon basis.


  • Produces only fuel grade ethanol, not a mixed-alcohol that needs to be separated.

  • Simple design: Our process does not require extensive pretreatment processes or inputs like enzymes or chemical catalysts. We also do not have the back end solids handling and drying of lignin that other processes have.



Can I invest in your company?

Coskata is currently a privately held company and does not have a vehicle for additional investment at this time.

I want to work for Coskata. Who can I talk to?

We have a fantastic team built here at Coskata with very few openings at the time. We will post openings in the Careers section of the website.