U.S. pursues ethanol technology as key to reducing oil dependence

 

Cellulose is also made up partly of sugars, but they are linked tightly in a more complicated chain. Breaking them up requires several enzymes. Most processes start with using steam and sulfuric acid on the feedstock, which can be corn stems and leaves, switch grass, wood chips - or bagasse, which is what is left over when sugar cane is processed and is being used here in Jennings.

The Energy Department has set a goal of bringing down the overall cost to produce cellulosic ethanol to $1.07 a gallon by 2012. That is less than half of what companies say they can produce it for now and lower than the current cost of about $1.50 a gallon for corn-based ethanol.

"Anybody's number is just basically a guess," said Brent Erickson, executive vice president at the Biotechnology Industry Organization in Washington. "Until we get these plants built, we aren't going to know what the cost is."

The race to commercialize cellulosic ethanol has been helped by the recent flood of investment from public and private sources.

The Energy Department has targeted $726 million for renewable energy projects this year, including wind and solar energy. It recently awarded grants totaling up to $385 million over four years to six companies working on cellulosic ethanol plants. The Agriculture Department is seeking to increase its bio-energy financing to $161 million from $122 million, which would include $21 million in loan guarantees for cellulosic plants.

Venture capital firms, Wall Street banks and even oil companies have invested about $200 million in the past six months alone. "There is nothing in the last several decades that has generated such private sector enthusiasm and investment," said Keith Collins, the Agriculture Department's chief economist.

The investment is risky but the potential benefits are enormous. A cellulosic ethanol process would raise the ethanol yields from sugar cane by about one-third per acre by using parts of the sugar plant that are now thrown away as waste. For corn wastes, the number is similar.

The cellulosic process also promises to use less energy than corn-based ethanol. And it can work on material that is not currently considered a crop, like switch grass or wood chips left over from papermaking.

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