The Cellulosic Ethanol Delusion

Here at the University of California at Berkeley, we have all heard denunciations of corn ethanol by prominent faculty members like Jay Keasling and Chris Somerville. But as soon as the denunciations are done, these same people immediately propose the grand solution to humanity’s energy needs: ethanol from cellulosic biomass, preferably from their own patented superweeds.

Despite repeated claims to the contrary, there is no energy-efficient and scalable industrial technology for producing ethanol from biomass. The Canadian biotech firm, Iogen Corporation, has a demonstration facility in Ottawa, with a nameplate capacity of 1 million gallons of ethanol per year. But it has only produced about 60,000 gallons of ethanol in 180 days from a 4-percent dilute beer. This demonstrates that Iogen has no viable technology beyond what was already achievable in the Soviet Union and Germany some 80 years ago.

http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=516