The next time you hear a story touting a new miracle biofuel ingredient, know that a new report just found that the nature-based oil won't be making an impact for decades.
Every day, it seems, we hear about a new item that can be turned into a biofuel. If everything can be a biofuel, though, shouldn't we be using them already? Maybe even switchgrass and corn husks aren’t the solution to the energy crisis after all? Maybe not yet, anyway.
Despite all the hype and palaver around cellulosic biofuels--the type derived from non-food sources, such as agricultural residues--an authoritative study has concluded that cellulosic firms are unlikely to do much for the nation’s energy security or environmental profile this decade. The technology simply isn’t ready, and investors remain wary.
The National Academy of Sciences report, written by 16 experts, looks at progress toward the Renewable Fuels Standard, a mandate to produce 32 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022. The RFS, created by Congress in 2007, calls for 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol, one billion gallons of biodiesel, and 15 billion of cellulosic fuels. But the committee finds that, while corn ethanol and biodiesel producers could hit their marks, cellulosic firms are unlikely to get near theirs.
Co-chair Wally Tyner, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue, says many of today’s cellulosic technologies, which include a range of biochemical and thermo-chemical processes, are either unproven, or too expensive. And investors are understandably reticent.
“These plants cost between $200 to 400 million to build, the feedstocks are more expensive than people thought, the technologies are not proven, and there are no commercial plants in the United States. Put yourself in the shoes of an investor. You're being asked to put up all this money to produce a product that's not economic, where the only guarantee is the federal government, through the Renewable Fuel Standard, which could change tomorrow.”...
[Source: Fast Company]
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