Originally published December 7 2005
Ethanol R&D promises to deliver formidable, cheap alternative to oil in the near future
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Logen Corporation of Canada believes it will soon be able to sell ethanol for $1.08 per gallon, once it reduces the costs of feedstock and the enzyme that breaks it down.
Researchers at the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy lab (EERE) and National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) have been working for years on making ethanol out of cellulose--straw, corn stalks, and other agricultural waste leftover from growing food crops.
This would mean ethanol would finally make sense as a fuel, because its Energy Return On Energy Invested would be positive (since the cellulose would be waste from food, it would be "free" in terms of energy), it could be produced in large quantities (since it would not compete with food for land), and it would be cheap.
They're using straw as the feedstock, which costs about 50� per gallon of ethanol you can get from it, and according to EERE, the T. Reesi enzyme still costs about 50� per gallon of ethanol.
comments Canadian company SunOpta, in partnership with Abengoa Bioenergy of St. Louis, is currently building the world's first true commercial-scale biomass to ethanol plant in Salamanca, Spain.
SunOpta uses a patented technology called "Steam Explosion" to separate cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, thus reducing enzyme-loading requirements and increasing ethanol yield, while separating out other "fractions" used for valuable co-products such as bio-plastics and the sweetener Xylitol.
SunOpta does not have the PR machine Iogen does, which is why few people know that SunOpta/Abengoa is actually far ahead of Iogen in terms of viable commercial biomass to ethanol production.
The soaring price of oil and the concern over greenhouse gas emissions has created a strong interest in the demand for ethanol, with President Bush recently calling for a substantial commitment to increase the production of ethanol in the U.S. Several States and Provinces have legislated the inclusion of 10% ethanol in auto fuel and others are considering similar legislation.
Ethanol is largely produced from cereal grain in Europe and corn in North America and it is generally recognized that the cost effective supply of grains and corn will be a limiting factor in meeting the growing demand of ethanol for energy use.
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