Commercial-scale production of new-generation biofuels has been slowed by a year and a half of uncertainty about federal support for the fuels, which use grass or corn stover as feedstocks rather than food crops, reports DTN, based on a panel discussion at a trade meeting. An official with Abengoa Bioenergy said the company, which operates a cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas, reconsidered its U.S. plans when the EPA proposed a relaxation in fall 2013 of biofuel mandates. DTN quoted the official as saying, “The damage was done …. It has impacted the development of new facilities in the United States.” Two other cellulosic ethanol plants, one owned by POET-DSM and the other by DuPont, are expected to come into production this year. The trade group Biotechnology Industry Organization estimates that the uncertainty, along with delays at EPA in setting a target for new-generation biofuels, have meant a loss of $13.7 billion in investment in advanced biofuels.
The EPA’s handling of the “blend wall” – the amount of ethanol that can be blended into gasoline at the traditional 10 percent rate – is a regulatory version of “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,” says Greenwire. It says EPA’s proposed biofuel mandate stays below the 10 percent level for 2015 but in 2016 “would require refiners to break through the blend wall.” The additional ethanol could be sold as E85, an 85 percent blend of renewable fuel into gasoline.