Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Friday, April 6, 2012

Law prevents company from making fossil-fuel-based ethanol

Pittsburgh Gazette
Thursday, 05 April 2012 11:46 Written by Amy Friedenberger

Steven Sterin, the president of CelaneseSteven Sterin, the president of the advanced fuels division at Dallas-based chemicals company Celanese, came up with an innovative way to fuel America. According to Forbes, he wants to make ethanol by “tearing apart and recombining the hydrocarbons found in plentiful natural gas or coal.”

Unfortunately for Sterin, that’s not possible right now because the 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard law mandates that gasoline refiners blend so much plant-based or renewable ethanol into the gas supply that prevents Celanese from developing his fossil-fuel-based ethanols.

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