New Energy Economics: How Soon Will Cellulosic Ethanol Arrive?

Cattlenetwork.com
7/29/2009 2:45:00 PM

The arrival of ethanol produced from cellulosic feedstock sources has almost been a standing joke within the ethanol industry. Each year it has always been "four to five years down the road" before commercial production would become viable. That has changed because the "four to five years" is now.

At the recent Fuel Ethanol Workshop, several companies, including Coskata, Dupont/Danisco, Iogen, Lignol, Poet and PureVision, announced that they already have production from their demonstration plants or will within the year. Most are processing about 1 ton of material into ethanol daily. From that ton of biomass, they are producing between 70 and 85 gallons of biofuels. Commercial production is expected to follow in a year or two.

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