Corvallis-based Trillium FiberFuels has created process technology and equipment to more efficiently convert cellulosic feedstocks into ethanol.

In November 2008, Business Oregon provided a grant of $248,000 through the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) for Trillium FiberFuels to develop a functionalized microfiber process. This process improves the efficiency of creating fuel grade ethanol from biomass such as straw by up to 40 percent. It uses an enzyme to enable xylose, a sugar present in plants that isn't immediately fermentable by brewer's yeast, to be converted to alcohol. This approach is succeeding, and helped Trillium win a $750,000 Oregon Department of Energy grant to commercialize the process. Trillium will soon begin ramping up production to test if the processes that worked in the lab will work on an industrial scale. It is expected this new improved process will result in the hiring of new employees and the possible expansion of its existing facility.

ONAMI is the first Oregon signature research center. It is an initiative of the Oregon Innovation Council which strives to create new jobs and industries by partnering private industry with Oregon's research universities. ONAMI has leveraged more than $90 million from federal and private sources to grow 15 new companies in just two years.