Wired: AP Technology and Business News from the Outside World on Wired.com
Wired: AP Technology and Business News from the Outside World on Wired.com
I had decided for this blog to concentrate less on climate change but personally I would continue to read on the subject. I found a very interesting article comparing ethanol to gasoline and I had to link to it. There’s much work to be done but the U.S. are moving in t he right direction.
To summarize:
WHAT ABOUT ETHANOL’S ECONOMIC BENEFITS?
But plant cellulose is more difficult to break down than the starch in corn kernels. That’s why people eat corn instead of grass. Plus it tastes better.
Some experts estimate that it will take 10 to 15 years before cellulosic ethanol becomes competitive. But Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels, thinks it will be a lot sooner than that. The Colorado-based company has started building a cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia that converts wood chips and other waste left behind by the forest products industry. Another company, Iogen Corp., has been producing cellulosic ethanol from wheat, oat and barley straw for several years at a demonstration plant in Ottawa, Canada.
“You can produce a lot of ethanol from cellulose without competing with food,” said Wallace Tyner, an agricultural economist at Purdue University. “But if you want to get half your fuel supply from it you will compete with food agriculture.”
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