$1 per gallon ethanol created
Published Monday, 24th March 2008
The miracle of life and the arrival of a new baby into the world is not quite as wondrous or miraculous in Greenbang’s mind as the fact that burger chains can sell a hamburger for under a dollar. Meat, bread, pickle, overheads and labour for less than a dollar – now that’s miraculous.
Well, Greenbang had thought that was the most interesting one dollar product you could get, untll now. The Alternative Energy Technology Center has worked out a way to create biofuel du jour cellulosic ethanol at less than $1 a gallon.
No word on whether you can get a gallon, a large coke and fries for $2.88 mind. Here’s more:
Most new automobiles built in the U.S. by General Motors (NYSE:GM) and other manufacturers are equipped to run on 85% ethanol. To fuel these cars ethanol production must be expand significantly. With corn at over $5 per bushel, current plants spend nearly $2 to produce a gallon of ethanol that sells for $2.60. AETE’s process using common cellulosic biomass will produce ethanol for less than $1 per gallon.
“One dollar ethanol will allow us to operate profitably without government subsidies or incentives,” noted Brown Marks, AETE’s President. “We expect to produce over 100 gallons of fuel per ton of cellulosic biomass which costs about $65 in today’s market,” he stated. “We have designed our technology to use low cost feed stocks that are widely available at low cost. We use a low energy input design to increase efficiency and we can place our plants wherever there is abundant biomass available,” he concluded.
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[...] dollar ethanol will allow us to operate profitably without government subsidies or incentives,” noted Brown Marks, AETE’s President. “We expect to produce over 100 gallons of fuel per ton [...]
This is an amazing breakthrough. Traditional corn – based ethanol was certainly unsustainable with its combination of using valuable agricultural land, and its need for taxpayer subsidies. Congrats on the breakthrough, and next let the capitalists get their hands on the technology so we can become energy independent
Saying it and proving it are two differnet things.It takes large corp with lots of capital to invest and they want better than 1/2 on returns.Everybody wants a cut in the profits just like the large oil companies,even cost of parts and equipt have jumped in and increased there cost so that they can make a better return. Until everyone agrees to one goal and not a huge profit we will not see $1.00 per gal ethnaol.
With the LAI Bio Grind, Corn Fibre is available at $30/ ton. Backset is used for recycle to increase capacity for additional cereal plant cellulose. Yield can easlily be increased to 4 gallon / bushel at well under $1 per gallon with a payback well under a year after taxes for the cellulose portion.
Dale,
Obviously if their cost is $1/gallon, ours will be substantially different. I live in San Francisco, where gas is $4.09 per gallon. So, I’m all for a few hands dipping in that pot in exchange for financial support. What’s the worst that’s going to happen? E85 for $3/gallon? That’s still a huge improvement from the current environment.