By Daniel Looker, Agriculture.com.

Near Nevada, Iowa, workers hurry to bring the world’s largest cellulosic ethanol plant online next year. This activity caps years of research and work by DuPont to source a supply of corn stover from 500 farmers within 40 miles of the company’s new 30 million-gallon biorefinery.

DuPont joins POET, Abengoa, and Quad County Corn Processors in reaching commercial-scale U.S. production of fuel from cellulose. Already DuPont has licensed its technology for a second plant in partnership with Chinese ethanol producer New Tianlong Industry Company – not in this country, but in Jilin, China’s largest corn-producing province.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been unsuccessful in licensing it in the U.S. That is the result of the uncertainty regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard,” says Jan Koninckx, DuPont’s global head of biofuels.