[IbJensen]

Christopher Helman reported on his article thusly:

The economics might have made more sense if you had converted your operation to make moonshine instead of car fuel.

[MeshugeMikey]

The Moonshine for The “New” “Millenium”........could easily be sold in the “ghetto” as Yellow Drank”.

The posture of the entrepreneur in the photograph....TELLING

[rockrr]

Hmmmm, and how much is this gonna cost me?

[Mike Darancette]

(Chesapeake's Strange Plan To Make 'Green' Gasoline Christopher HelmanChristopher Helman Forbes Staff)

So, instead of cellulose (corn cobs) entering the environment through a landfill and decomposing slowly and naturally we will cook the ethanol out of them for immediate conversion to CO2.

[sphinx]

I would have expected better from Forbes. To rely solely on a spokesman from the oil industry, which is threatened by any deployment of alternative fuels, and to not even raise the question of price, is no way to discuss the merits (or lack thereof) of cellulosic ethanol. The RFS was enacted when oil prices were accelerating past $100 a barrel. They were, of course, pushing $150 before the recession popped the bubble. And the big issue lurking in the background is whether we want to finally be rid of OPEC, and whether we can do it at a reasonable price.

The blending mandate was an exercise in technology forcing. The first generation of commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plants is now coming on line. The question is, what price can they deliver?

I know, I know, the world has changed since the RFS was enacted. Fracking has changed the equation on domestic production and St. Barack has ushered in an open-ended era of peace, harmony, and good feelings around the world. Barack's Arab friends would never do us wrong, and if they were tempted, he would smile at them and make it right. But sooner or later ....

I'm still a Jim Woolsey hawk on diversifying away from conventional oil. A couple of well place missles or the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the price of oil will zoom past $200 a barrel and never look back. And even if we avoid Armageddon, I'm tired of bankrolling the jihad. As Woolsey used to point out (any perhaps still does), the war on terror is the first war in which we've financed both sides.

Yes, we are now hitting the blend wall. The problem is the blend wall, not ethanol. We should have converted the entire automobile fleet to flex-fuel standards years ago. The price for that used to be reckoned at $100 a car, and the true cost would probably be zero once the supply chain mainstreamed new materials; it's just a matter of using slightly different plastic and rubber fittings and hoses, to make them ethanol compatible. The incremental cost is a special order price for a niche product. Once it became standardized, the new gasket probably isn't any more expensive than the old one.

There are many possibilities. Some analysts think we may be headed for a bifurcated fuel market, with a lot of E-85 in the heartland and the coasts still relying on imported oil and a 10-15% blend. Others think we will head to E-30 or E-40 to take advantage of the octane boost from higher ethanol blends (at which point, the mileage penalty disappears; all you gotta do is tune your engine properly for a different fuel). My own hunch is that third generation feedstocks, perhaps algae or a microbial pathway, will eventually (but when?) render both corn ethanol and cellulosic ethanol obsolete. Meanwhile, by all means let's keep fracking and drilling as well, and put the bad guys out of business ASAP.

Ethanol now provides something north of 10% of the nation's automotive fuel supply. Corn yields are steadily increasing, both here and around the world. (We will probably double average yield in the next generation.) Alternative feedstocks are in play. This is not the time to retreat.

[Delta 21]

"projected output will be chemically identical to ethanol made in the old plant next door"

I'll be the judge o' that!

[pallis]

I hope and pray the next election will put this place out of business. If God had intended cars to run on corn, he would have given them legs and horns that go Mooooo.

[IronJack]

I’ve heard of using the cellulosic residue to feed the energy stream, but I didn’t think the ethanol yields from cellulose were high enough to justify an entire plant using it as the feedstock.

[hadaclueonce]

ONCE AGAIN I SAY, burning food for food is stupid.

[taxcontrol]

Ethanol bad, Butanol good.

[redgolum]

Very interesting process that I had played with 10 years ago. Part of me wants to apply for the job, but the issue is that I don’t see this plant being there in 10 years.