cellulosic biofuels
Advanced biofuels run into price hurdle
Despite millions of tons of available feedstock, ranging from corn stover to switchgrass and wood waste, only a trickle of cellulosic ethanol is being produced. "Cellulosic fuels' main hurdle seems to be economic," says Scientific American in sizing up the second-generation biofuel that has failed to live up to expectations for a cleaner-burning fuel that doesn't compete with the food and feed sectors.
Challenge to biofuel mandate in the offing
Farm, biofuel and biotech groups petitioned the U.S. appeals court in Washington to hear a challenge to the EPA's relaxation of the renewable fuel mandate for this year, reports DTN.
Georgia biofuel plant to get USDA loan guarantee
Ensyn Georgia plans to build a 20-million-gallon-a-year cellulosic biorefinery with the help of a $70 million loan guarantee from the USDA. The plant would convert 440 dry tons of woody biomass from forest materials at the plant in Dooly County in central Georgia.
Cellulosic ethanol plant shuttered in biofuels setback
Spanish energy company Abengoa, caught in a financial crisis, has shut down its cellulosic ethanol plant in Hugoton, Kansas, after little more than a year of operation, reports Kansas Agland.
EPA announcement won’t be final word on ethanol mandate
Under a court agreement, the EPA is obliged to announce today the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) - the target for biofuel use - for 2014, 2015 and 2016. The announcement will get the agency back on schedule after missing the statutory deadlines for setting the 2014 and 2015 targets, but it won't resolve the struggle between the oil industry and the smaller renewable fuels lobby of farm groups and biofuel makers.
Green group says boost cellulosic fuels, drop corn ethanol mandate
Second-generation biofuels produced from switchgrass or corn stover have a lower carbon footprint than corn-based ethanol, said the Environmental Working Group in advocating a wholesale overhaul of federal biofuel policy.
Cellulosic ethanol launched, to top 1 million gallons in 2014
With two more cellulosic ethanol plants to come on line in coming months, annual production of the biofuel should exceed 1 million gallons for the first time in 2014, says the Union of Concerned Scientists. "We still have a ways to go until cellulosic ethanol is as abundant as corn ethanol but with commercial production under way, we are making progress much faster," said UCS's Jeremy Martin on the day Poet-DSM plant formally opened its cellulosic plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa.
Study casts doubt on corn stover as biofuel feedstock
Using corn residues - stalks, husks and cobs - to make biofuels appears to create more carbon dioxide over their life cycle than the target set by federal standards, says research at the University of Nebraska.
Cellulosic ethanol in the RFS squeeze
The EPA proposal to relax the ethanol mandate could pinch the market for biofuels made from crop debris, grass and wood, says a front-page story in the Des Moines Register.