The process also uses less than half the water needed to make ethanol from corn, Bolsen said. It uses as little as a quarter of the water that might be required to make ethanol from waste biomass or grass crops by digesting the plants' cellulose and converting it to ethanol -- seen as the next generation in biofuel production. "The analysis we've done is that the greenhouse gas emissions we'd expect would be a 90 percent reduction compared to petrol [gasoline]," Rice added. INEOS bio's commercial facility in Fayetteville, Ark., will use green household waste, including compostable household clippings, food waste, mixed waste paper and cardboard. The company estimates that biodegradable household waste in the United States alone could make five billion gallons a year of ethanol, which is more than half of the current U.S. ethanol demand of nine billion gallons. Coskata plans to run five different materials through their commercial demonstration plant: wood chips, sugar cane waste, municipal waste, natural gas and a potential energy crop such as switchgrass. "We're looking at one dollar a gallon production cost," Bolsen said, "which competes directly with [the cost of ethanol from] Brazilian sugarcane, and we can do it here in the U.S." "Wherever there are people, wastes are generated," Rice said. "What I'd like to see is every community converting its waste into renewable transport fuel." Related Links: |
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