America has turned a cold shoulder to ethanol and biodiesel.
Not a single ethanol or biodiesel plant has been funded this year and the prospects for the months ahead don’t look good. More than 1.4 billion gallons of ethanol production capacity sits idle. An additional 590 million gallons of biodiesel output is doing the same.
No ethanol plants have been funded this year in the United States
Second generation biofuels, those made with grasses, wood chips or other non-feed stocks, are finding it equally hard to jumpstart a business. The enzymes necessary to convert raw material into sugars are still evolving and costs are twice those of ethanol, or about $4 a gallon, reports John Jay Brunson, vice president at Industrial Info Resources’ alternatives fuels group.
The race is on to build a profitable, commercial biofuels industry in the United States. Unfortunately, no one seems to be winning.
The federal government is hoping to bring new energy to the market. It recently awarded $358 million in grants to six second-generation, or cellulosic, fuel companies. One of them, Verenium announced on Wednesday a trial attempt to produce biofuels from the residue of paper processing.
In addition, 35 other pilot plants are under construction in the U.S. with capital spending of about $3.3 billion, says Industrial Info.
With the ethanol market saturated with product and high-cost hurdles facing second generation biofuels, the government’s goal of 16 billion gallons a year in little more than a decade seems awfully far off.
Clearly a cost breakthrough and new distribution infrastructure is needed. So too are lower prices for E-85, or ethanol burning, cars.
A lot of pain is ahead if the country is to run on biofuel.
