IN FEBRUARY 2007, the Department of Energy selected six cellulosic ethanol projects to receive up to $385 million in grants. Authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the funding was part of an effort by the Bush Administration to end the U.S.'s "addiction to oil" and enhance the nation's energy security.
The money was intended to further two of President George W. Bush's goals: to make ethanol out of nonfood biomass, including billions of pounds of agricultural waste, at a cost competitive with gasoline by 2012 and to increase the use of renewable and alternative fuels to 35 billion gal per year by 2017. In all, more than $1.2 billion was to be invested in the six biorefineries.
Two years later, none of the projects has been built, although one is under construction. Two were canceled right out of the gate. Hitches in the plans have turned up in numerous places. From securing feedstock to financing construction to finding a ready market, the experiences of the awardees illustrate that the nascent cellulosic ethanol industry faces several daunting hurdles.
The chosen projects represent technologies including enzyme hydrolysis, acid hydrolysis, and gasification. They were to be located in the Midwest, Southeast, and West and were planning to use feedstocks ranging from corncobs to wood chips. The companies advancing the projects had little in common other than having a plan to turn cellulosic waste into ethanol.
The designers of the DOE program envisioned that the grant money would be invested over four years, with the companies contributing 60% of the plant costs. When fully operational, the six facilities were expected to produce more than 130 million gal of cellulosic ethanol per year.
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