The United States now produces more ethanol than gasoline refined from Saudi Arabian and Iraqi oil.
This fact is a fitting reminder of the growing prominence of the nation’s biofuels industry. Last year, ethanol production hit a record in the U.S. and new refineries under construction will expand that capacity ten fold.
The Fusion is one of 11 flexible fuel vehicles Ford offers. The company will expand biofuels vehibles 50 percent in two years.
It is no surprise then that some carmakers are showing greater interest in alternative fuel internal combustion engines. On Tuesday, for instance, Ford announced it would to expand its production of flexible-fuel cars and trucks, with 50 percent of vehicles by 2012 able to burn ethanol and other biofuels.
Of course, the biofuels business has been an up and down ride. Biofuels companies plunged into the red during the first half of 2009 as the global recession cut demand for their products. But by the second half of the year, many of the nation’s 170 refineries recovered, with profits returning and production hitting a record.
However, this year will be a little more troublesome again. Expectations are for more modest growth, with production forecast to rise 12 percent to 11.9 million gallons, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group. The nation will have 189 refineries.
The roller coaster will continue. Refineries under construction will add 1.4 billion gallons of new capacity, with the first wave of cellulosic, or second-generation, producers coming up to commercial levels.
The nation’s biodiesel business has had an even more difficult fate. While the counry’s180 biodiesel plants produced 350 million gallons of biodiesel in 2009, production was down by 50 percent from a year earlier. Part of the explanation is the global recession, which squelched demand. But a European Community anti dumping tariff on U.S. imports added to the woes. Europe has been the largest importer of U.S. biodiesel..
Today U.S. plants are operating at only about 15 percent of capacity.
Still, companies such as Ford aren’t dismayed. The carmaker builds 11 flexible fuel vehicles and has doubled that number since 2006.
This will amount to 370,000 cars and trucks in 2010. “Flexible-fuel vehicles are a great alternative,” says Sue Cischke, a Ford group vice president. If only it could be a better business.
[...] Biofuels Business A Roller Coaster, But Ford Signs Up « TechPulse 360 [...]
[...] Biofuels Business A Roller Coaster, But Ford Signs Up « TechPulse 360 [...]
” … with the first wave of cellulosic, or second-generation, producers coming up to commercial levels.”
Really? You could have fooled me. The cellulosic ethanol producers were mandated to provide 100 million gallons of ethanol this year under the RFS mandate in EISA 2007, but 30+ companies told EPA there was no way they could do that, so EPA only required them to supply 6.5 million gallons. Cellulosic research has sucked up hundreds of millions of our tax dollars over thirty years and they have nothing to show for it. The standard refrain is that cellulosic ethanol will be commercially viable in 5 years. They said it 30 years ago and that is still their mantra.
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