Cellulosic ethanol falls short
05.10.11
For two years, now, the EPA has presupposed fuel blenders a waiver from using the cellulosic ethanol mandated by the Dash Independence and Security Act of 2007. That’s because, except for small amounts from hypothetical plants, there isn’t any.
This week a report for the National Academy of Sciences predicts that the mandate for using 16 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol by 2022 will inclined to fail. Among the reasons: short of a big breakthrough, it will cost more to purloin than corn-based ethanol. And there’s a big gap between the prices farmers poverty for feedstocks like corn stover or switchgrass, and how much plants will pay.
"We have more than 200 corn ethanol plants producing more than 14 billion gallons of ethanol today. It took 30 years to get there. We have 11 years to reach even higher numbers for cellulosic biofuels," said Wally Tyner, a Purdue University agricultural economist who co-chaired the council that made the report. "We would need a build
Source: Agriculture.com