Forget about corn, US pushing cellulosic ethanol
October 17 2008 / by Garry Golden
Category: Energy Year: Beyond Rating: 2
The Associated Press is reporting (MSNBC / Forbes) that the US EPA is changing the rules on ethanol production to eliminate the political headaches of corn-based ethanol production. Long-term biofuel production is now expected to come via next generation cellulosic ethanol production that uses enzymes capable of turning biomass waste products into usable liquid fuels.
New Targets push Cellulosic Ethanol
The article describes a new mandated goal of converting biomass waste (e.g. wood, grass, and garbage) into 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels annually by 2022. This would be just under half the expected 36 billion gallons of biofuel to be blended into the US liquid fuel supply. But the most important piece of news is the ceiling placed on corn-derived fuels at 15 billion gallons by 2022.
Good News for Bio Industrial Startups
Corn based ethanol is not going away anytime soon. Farmers and big agricultural giants have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars based on the first wave of government policies. But their growth prospects now appear to be severely limited.
The smart money might now begin to shift towards biofuels derived from non-food crop resources driven by cellulosic conversion. The risks are still high given the complexities of next generation biofuels production. But this is good news for bio industrial start ups that go beyond corn feedstocks – Mascoma, Iogen, Verenium, Bluefire Ethanol Fuels, Pacific Ethanol, Novozyme, RangeFuels, Ceres, Coskata
Challenges ahead for cellulosic ethanol
(Keep reading…)
