Cellulosic ethanol from wood is not yet perfected, but would be a great product. It would provide a market for biomass from thinnings in our overstocked and choked National Forests. This would help to offset the costs the American public is now paying for either fuel reduction or firefighting. I know that more than 200,000 acres burned this past summer in my county alone. Would have been better if it went into our tanks than to have all that carbon released into the air.
Obama’s already committed to this. He must thank his stolen ‘victory’ in Iowa where he manipulated the insane caususes into his commitment to bio. He next took the loser governor Tom Vilsack into his cabinet. Enacted tax credits for ethanol refueling pumps in 2005. Sponsored major biofuel legislation with Harkin. The list is too long and this is ‘change’ wedon’t need.
The problem is that ethanol is just not a good petroleum substitute. It has less energy by volume, and when mixed with petroleum reduces fuel mileage significantly. It cannot be mixed into either jet fuel or diesel, so its only use is mixed with gasoline. But it tends to absorb water from the air, which makes it difficult to ship by pipeline without contamination. Engines can be built to run efficiently on pure ethanol (the 2008 Indy 500) but dual fuel - and in particular, GM’s Flex-fuel technology - are built to run on gasoline but tolerate ethanol. They will run on any mix up to E85, but lose efficiency as the ethanol content increases.
The “green crude” from algae that I mentioned above is completely equivalent to crude petroleum as a refinery feedstock, and can produce any of the normal refinery products, including jet fuel and diesel. However, it is generally free of sulfur and metals, so is ultra-low emission (I do NOT consider CO2 to be a pollutant!)
Please read about it at: http://www.sapphireenergy.com/ and at other companies and universities.
I agree with you on cellulosic ethanol.
I invested a small amount of money and bought some shares of Verenium Corp (VRNM). They’re working on making cellulosic ethanol profitable AND practical.
The wide variety of biomaterials available for cellulosic ethanol is substantially larger then corn-based ethanol.
DISCLAIMER: I do not work for Verenium nor know anyone who does.