Mascoma Makes a Few Layoffs Due to Credit Crunch

Cellulosic ethanol maker Mascoma cut about five to 10 jobs as it finds itself between a rock and the credit crunch.

Although it is hitting its technological milestones and has raised around $61 million, Mascoma has to cautiously watch its cash, CEO Bruce Jamerson told Martin Lamonica at News.com.

“I’m trying to get ahead of this,” Jamerson said. “I don’t want to find out that in six months, things are more challenging. Then when you make cost reductions, it’s even harder.”

Jamerson said that the grants from Michigan to develop a prototype facility are not in danger.

Mascoma emerged from Dartmouth College. It is trying to develop microbes that can convert wood chips, grasses and other plant matter into ethanol. It says it differs from other ethanol companies in that its microbes can perform two tasks in creating cellulosic ethanol: The microbes can turn cellulose into sugar, and then sugar into alcohol.

The company is also trying to increase the microbe’s tolerance for alcohol (which, this being a Dartmouth project, somehow seems appropriate). Most microbes die when alcohol concentration gets up to 50 percent or so; that’s why beer and wine aren’t as strong as vodka.