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.

Tags: AETE, alternative energy technology center, biofuels, ethanol