IfEnergy

Biofuels May be Obsolete Before We Can Make Enough to Matter - Part III

Filed in archive Biofuel on January 2, 2009

From Seeking Alpha, back in February:
The Energy Bill requires that 3% of ethanol be derived from cellulosic sources by 2012, and 44% by 2022. That means, by my estimates, we'll need to produce 405 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol in 2012 and 15.84 billion gallons in 2022.... I'd consider that a heck of an opportunity, especially since construction only recently began on the first cellulosic pilot plants in the nation. This is truly a ground floor opportunity.
He's right. Assuming there are no major policy shifts on energy in the next decade. And why would there be? Just because the oil and gas people of the Bush Administration are hitting the road and a new political party gets to reclaim the White House? Surely energy policy won't change much.

I live in a rural area. I drive a Ford Explorer to work everyday - and I go right through the middle of a strip mine on my way to work. I'm not foolish enough to think that the world of energy will change completely in the next four years. But it seems obvious to me that the long term goal is not to find better, cleaner fuels for the internal combustion engine in my SUV to run on.

The long term goal is to get rid of internal combustion. Whether it's lithium or a hydrogen fuel cell, or something else. The day will come not too long from now when we won't burn anything in our cars - not even ethanol. I hope when that day comes we don't have billions of dollars invested in cellulosic ethanol infrastructure, money that serves as an incentive for us to keep internal combustion around longer than necessary...

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Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 4060792




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Tags: cellulosic  biofuel  ethanol  Renewable  Fuel  Standard  Energy  Independence  and  Security  Act  of  2007    ene 

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