Cellulosic Ethanol Not Too Expensive - But Wait ...

Researchers from Iowa State University have published a surprising finding: production costs of cellulosic ethanol are comparable to those of grain ethanol. The economic study is published in the new journal, Biofuels, Bioproducts, & Biorefining.

Mark Wright and Robert Brown set out to compare the capital and operating costs of generating fuel from starch and from cellulose-containing materials. They found that the cost of conventional grain ethanol production has risen to $1.74 per gallon, while advances in biomass processing technologies have reduced the cost of cellulosic ethanol to $1.80 per gallon.

There is one problem with cellulosic ethanol though, and that is the capital expenditures. Cellulosic plants are more expensive compared with conventional ethanol plants. The much higher capital costs of the cellulosic plants will be an impediment to their commercialization. "That's why it is imperative that we see continued strong federal investment in both its R&D and commercialization," says Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO's Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology section.

Read the news article at http://www.bio.org/splice/20070810.asp.