 The majority of ethanol produced in the United States is currently made from corn grain. It currently costs at least twice as much to make ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks than from corn.
Those high costs have thus far limited expansion of cellulosic technology beyond the demonstration phase, but an injection of government funding has sped the process in recent months.
The U.S. Department of Energy rolled out about $1.1 billion in funds to research bioenergy and build six commercial-scale biorefineries to help achieve the goal of increasing renewable fuels use to 36 billion gallons over the next 15 years.
Some or all of those six plants should be up and running in about two years.
Labels: alternative fuels, ethanol |
