Gas for $2 per gallon
The nation's largest producer of corn-based ethanol said it has slashed the cost of producing cellulosic ethanol from corncobs and that it would be able to compete with gasoline in two years.??Poet LLC, which currently produces 1.5 billion gallons a year of ethanol from corn, said its 1-year-old pilot plant has reduced the cost of making ethanol from corncobs to $2.35 a gallon from $4.13 by cutting capital costs and using an improved "cocktail" of enzymes.??Moreover, the company said it could use a byproduct called lignin as fuel and that it would provide all the energy needed for the cellulosic plant as well as 80% of the energy that would be needed by a conventional corn-based distillery making twice the amount of ethanol.?? Poet Chief Executive Jeff Broin said farm equipment manufacturers were already designing, and in two cases selling, equipment needed to collect corncobs from fields.? Broin said an acre of corn could produce 55 gallons of corn-based ethanol from processing cobs, leaves and husks.??I reached POET’s Senior Vice President?of Research, Mark Stowers at an airport and he has news that will make corn cob fuel extremely competitive: “When we complete our plant in 2 years we expect to be below $2/gallon.”
