National Commitment to Cellulosic Ethanol
This was a monumental month for Project LIBERTY and all our partners as we move forward in changing the nation's energy landscape. On May 5, President Barack Obama issued a presidential directive creating a biofuels working group in his cabinet and the U.S. EPA issued preliminary rules for the Renewable Fuel Standard.
The President's actions reinforce his full-fledged support for cellulosic ethanol with an ambitious plan to boost investment in commercial projects to hasten the nation's transition to renewable fuel. Nearly $800 million form the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be used to accelerate biofuels research and commercialization, Secretary of Energy Chu announced. That money will be used to reinvest in both new and existing demonstration and commercial biorefineries, boost research efforts in next-generation biofuels, upgrade infrastructure to expand the availability and use of E85 and more. Click here for a statement from POET CEO Jeff Broin.
But clearly, a key feature was a finding by the EPA's Draft Regulatory Impact Analysis (pdf), "...Corn stover was chosen as the most economical agricultural feedstock to be used to produce ethanol in order to meet the 16 billion gallon EISA (Energy Independence & Security Act) cellulosic biofuel requirement." The EPA went on to say, "We estimate that by 2022 greater than 400 million tons of corn stover could be produced. Approximately 82 million tons would be needed to produce 7.8 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuel that our modeling projects to come from corn stover by 2022." Using corn cobs for ethanol makes sense economically and environmentally.
POET's use of corn cobs is a clear winner in the EPA's analysis of future cellulosic ethanol production. This puts Project LIBERTY and Emmetsburg-area farmers at the forefront of the nation's energy future.
Ok...the only word in that I even sort of understood was the ethanol. Whats the cellulosic ethanol, and why does it matter? Its a biofuel, yes?
Posted by: phoenix landscape design | September 23, 2010 at 08:40 PM