Until recently, ethanol from sugar cane is essentially “sugar ethanol”, and its production involves the fermentation of the sugar-rich juice after its extraction from the plant stalk. Baggasse, the fibrous and cellulose-rich residue after sugar extraction, is usually utilized onsite in “co-generation” electric power plants to drive factory operations. Now, a technology developed by the Brazilian company, Dedini SA, can convert baggase into cellulose ethanol at a reportedly cost competitive price of $0.27 per liter (about $1 per barrel). The process (called “Dedini Rapid Hydrolysis”) involves the pretreatment of the baggase with organic solvents, followed by dilute acid hydrolysis, and the fermentation of the hydrolyzate (sugars) to ethanol. Organic solvent pretreatment aids in decomposing lignin, and renders the exposed cellulose more accessible for the second step of dilute acid hydrolysis.  José Luiz Olivério, Vice President for Dedini Operations, says that the process “will be able to boost a mill's ethanol output by 30 percent without planting one more cane stalk". .