Future Shock and the war over biofuels

Biofuels Digest
December 28, 2010 Jim Lane

The old joke in cellulosic ethanol is that it is five years away from commercialization…forever.

So when a company in the know, like Novozymes, pushes back its cellulosic ethanol commercialization timelines to 2014 or 2015, it sounds like Deja Vu all over again.

The supporters of cellulosic ethanol say that unlucky timing is the root cause, and not their fault. For sure, the global financial crisis wasn’t modeled in any business plans we saw, biofuels or otherwise, and a capital-intensive investment in first-of-kind technology is at risk in years of tight credit. delays in the E15 decision timeframes, delays in loan guarantees, and uncertainty over the ethanol tax credit haven’t helped, according to Novozymes’ Poul Ruben Anderson.

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