Cellulosic Ethanol:16 Times The Energy Used To Create It

[Cpl Kendall]

Ecogeek

The state of Georgia just granted Range Fuels a permit to create the first cellulosic ethanol plant in America. HECK YES! This is very exciting...why?

Quick Run Down!
Cellulosic ethanol is ethanol that comes from cellulose instead of sugar. This is good because most plants don't have a lot of sugar, but all plants have lots of cellulose. So, instead of using food crops, (like corn and sugar cane which have lots of sugar) to create fuel, we can use any crops, like mown grass clippings, fallen tree limbs or corn stalks (instead of corn ears) to create ethanol.


Unfortunately, it's also much more difficult to make ethanol from cellulose. But in the last five years an intense amount of research and capital has been thrown at this problem, and now we're seeing results.

Cellulosic ethanol can contain up to 16 times more energy than is required to create it! If that doesn't sound ridiculously impressive, consider that gasoline contains only 5 times more energy than was required to create it and corn ethanol is totally lame, containing only 1.3 times the energy required to create it.

So yes, this is very exciting. Unfortunately, it's still more expensive than sugar ethanol (and gasoline) to create. This is generally because scientists have focused on expensive enzymatic processes that create ethanol at very low concentrations. Range biofuels uses a more straightforward thermo-chemical process to gasify the cellulose and then convert it to ethanol.

Range fuels will be creating its ethanol from wood chips, which contain a very large amount of energy (think fire.) The plant, which will be completed in 2008, will create over 100 million gallons of ethanol per year.

Think of it as a pilot project. If we can create carbon-neutral fuel from waste economically in 2008, then we're on a good path to dodge peak oil completely. We need to move fast for it to happen. But this is a sign that we might be ready for the challenge.

Don't know how reliable the source is but I thought it might be of interest.

[Mayabird]

I'll believe it only when I see it, though we do have a hell of a lot of wood chips here. It could even be byproducts from the paper and pulp plantations. I could quote statistics on loblolly pine economics for a long time.