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The Cellulosic Ethanol Industry Faces Big Challenges
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517816/the-cellulosic-ethanol-industry-faces-big-challenges/[font face=Serif][font size=5]The Cellulosic Ethanol Industry Faces Big Challenges[/font]
[font size=4]The advanced-biofuels industry is in danger of withering away.[/font]
By Kevin Bullis on August 12, 2013
[font size=3]A series of cellulosic-biofuel plants are finally starting to come on line after years of delay. But the new wave of plant openings, good news as it is for the emerging industry, also shows just how far it still has to go.
Earlier this year Kior, a startup based in Pasadena, announced that it had shipped its first renewable diesel, made from pine wood chips. Last week, the chemical company Ineos started making ethanol from wood chips and other plant materials at a facility in Florida, that can produce up to 8.5 million gallons of fuel a year. By next year more than a dozen multimillion-gallon plants are scheduled to be finished in the U.S. Although the plants are considered commercial scale, they’re still relatively small compared with corn ethanol plants, which often produce 100 million gallons of fuel per year.
The facilities won’t come close to meeting the requirements set out by the 2007 renewable-fuel standard, which was central to President Bush’s efforts to bring fuels made from biomass to market. What’s more, many of the new plants will struggle in an already saturated ethanol market.
Cellulosic biofuels, made from materials such as wood chips and corn stalks, were mandated as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. They were supposed to help end what Bush called America’s “addiction to oil.” The renewable-fuel standard called for a rapid increase in the amount of fuel that comes from conventional corn-based ethanol as well as cellulosic ethanol.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]The advanced-biofuels industry is in danger of withering away.[/font]
By Kevin Bullis on August 12, 2013
[font size=3]A series of cellulosic-biofuel plants are finally starting to come on line after years of delay. But the new wave of plant openings, good news as it is for the emerging industry, also shows just how far it still has to go.
Earlier this year Kior, a startup based in Pasadena, announced that it had shipped its first renewable diesel, made from pine wood chips. Last week, the chemical company Ineos started making ethanol from wood chips and other plant materials at a facility in Florida, that can produce up to 8.5 million gallons of fuel a year. By next year more than a dozen multimillion-gallon plants are scheduled to be finished in the U.S. Although the plants are considered commercial scale, they’re still relatively small compared with corn ethanol plants, which often produce 100 million gallons of fuel per year.
The facilities won’t come close to meeting the requirements set out by the 2007 renewable-fuel standard, which was central to President Bush’s efforts to bring fuels made from biomass to market. What’s more, many of the new plants will struggle in an already saturated ethanol market.
Cellulosic biofuels, made from materials such as wood chips and corn stalks, were mandated as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. They were supposed to help end what Bush called America’s “addiction to oil.” The renewable-fuel standard called for a rapid increase in the amount of fuel that comes from conventional corn-based ethanol as well as cellulosic ethanol.
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