Woodchip Facility may Spur Cellulosic Ethanol, says USDA
Ethanol production from wood chips, grass and other plant material could "explode" by 2012 if a commercialised facility to produce the second generation of biofuels is successful, US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said Thursday.
Schafer told reporters he expected that by 20 January USDA will award a loan guarantee to Range Fuels, based in Colorado, to build a commercial-size plant capable of producing 100 million gallons of ethanol annually from woodchips.
It would be the first guarantee issued through a programme created in the 2008 farm law to speed development of new biofuels. Schafer would not say how much the loan would be.
"If that investment is made and that facility gets up and running, it will jump, I believe, by two years the goal of producing on a commercialised basis ethanol from non-corn sources or non-food based sources," he said.
"If this first-commercialised production capacity works then I think it will explode the opportunities in second-generation biofuels."
Corn is the feedstock for almost all US ethanol, with large-scale production of second-generation biofuels estimated at five or six years away.
The 2008 farm law allows USDA to issue loan guarantees of up to $250m per project to develop, build or retro-fit a commercial-size plant for production of biomass fuels.
Advanced biofuels are those that do not rely on the corn kernel starch. Cellulosic ethanol can be made from switch grass, corn stover, forest waste, fast-growing trees, wood chips and other plant material.
The so-called US renewable fuels standard requires the use of 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2009, with much of the output coming from corn.
In 2022, the energy law requires the US gasoline supply to include 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels, 15 billion gallons from corn-based ethanol and 21 billion gallons from advanced biofuels, such as ethanol from cellulose.
By Christopher Doering, Reuters. (www.chemicals-technology.com)
Schafer told reporters he expected that by 20 January USDA will award a loan guarantee to Range Fuels, based in Colorado, to build a commercial-size plant capable of producing 100 million gallons of ethanol annually from woodchips.
It would be the first guarantee issued through a programme created in the 2008 farm law to speed development of new biofuels. Schafer would not say how much the loan would be.
"If that investment is made and that facility gets up and running, it will jump, I believe, by two years the goal of producing on a commercialised basis ethanol from non-corn sources or non-food based sources," he said.
"If this first-commercialised production capacity works then I think it will explode the opportunities in second-generation biofuels."
Corn is the feedstock for almost all US ethanol, with large-scale production of second-generation biofuels estimated at five or six years away.
The 2008 farm law allows USDA to issue loan guarantees of up to $250m per project to develop, build or retro-fit a commercial-size plant for production of biomass fuels.
Advanced biofuels are those that do not rely on the corn kernel starch. Cellulosic ethanol can be made from switch grass, corn stover, forest waste, fast-growing trees, wood chips and other plant material.
The so-called US renewable fuels standard requires the use of 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2009, with much of the output coming from corn.
In 2022, the energy law requires the US gasoline supply to include 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels, 15 billion gallons from corn-based ethanol and 21 billion gallons from advanced biofuels, such as ethanol from cellulose.
By Christopher Doering, Reuters. (www.chemicals-technology.com)
