us biofuels industry keeps on growing

US Biofuels Industry Keeps on Growing
Posted by Jennifer Schwartz on October 16, 2009 at 2:31 pm


At Coskata's plant, these wood chips are being converted into biofuel. (image: coskata.com)

In 2007, Congress set a national goal of creating an advanced biofuel industry and blending a relatively modest 100 million gallons of alternative fuels into gasoline by 2010. The industry is unlikely to reach that, according to an article in the New York Times, but more and more facilities are producing biofuel without turning to food crops.

Fuels made from waste materials (such as wood chips and garbage) aren’t nearly as controversial as fuels made from food crops, such as ethanol derived from corn . Plus, they do the double duty of utilizing what would otherwise be trash. And in cases like wood chips, the raw material (trees) actually remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow. Biofuels could lower the nation’s oil imports as well as the emissions that cause global warming.

The biggest hurdle so far has been bridging the gap between small, pilot programs and large-scale production. The technology to create cheaper, cleaner fuels is already here, as evidenced by biofuel plants like a new factory built by Coskata in Madison, Pennsylvania, which claims it can use pine chips to make biofuel for about $1 a gallon. The challenge is figuring out how to mass-produce enough biofuel to significantly offset our dependency on fossil fuels, and especially foreign imports of them.

Large-scale factories are in the works, but progress has been slow. According to the article, “the industry partly blames the credit crisis for its slow pace, but acknowledges that getting the conversion techniques to work is the biggest problem.”

“It’s certainly turned out to be more complicated technically than people thought it would be,” said Brian Foody, the president and chief executive of Iogen, a Canadian firm backed by Shell.

Despite setbacks and the inability to meet the goals set by Congress, the industry keeps on growing, supported by enthusiastic investors and government stimulus projects. At Coskata, chief executive William J. Roe told the Times, “We’re so close, we can really touch this now.” The plant, which cost $50 million in research and construction, was unveiled on Thursday.

The future of biofuels looks promising, and not just for transportation fuels. Heating oil blends made with biofuel are already available in many places, and some states, such as Massachusetts, have set standards for higher percentages of biofuel blends in the coming years.

Recently, the National Oilheat Industry mandated a B2 (2 percent biofuel) blend for all heating oil by 2010. The goal is to increase that number over time.