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Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon.

wired.com — A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies, company officials said.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 25, 2008

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  • canewediggit, on 01/25/2008, -1/+126they can use garbage? once again, back to the future has shown us the way......
  • martalli, on 01/25/2008, -6/+76I cannot help but wonder if the main part of the formula is $3/gallon subsidies. Signed, a Midwesterner...
  • ChromaVita, on 01/25/2008, -1/+60E98 IS PEOPLE!
  • umbrae, on 01/25/2008, -2/+56The company, called Soylent Ethanol, refused to comment on their methodologies.
  • dodgejon, on 01/25/2008, -1/+46They can certainly make it for 1 dollar, but what will they sell it for?
  • BigManOnCampus, on 01/25/2008, -2/+40Would this be a qwirky alternative to cremation?

    "Honey, when I die, I want to be E98..."
  • Spuy767, on 01/25/2008, -13/+50Founder will be dead or in prison within the year.
  • erzy, on 01/25/2008, -2/+26woot, cheap vodka
  • norman619, on 01/25/2008, -4/+23For some reason when I look at these companies I keep being reminded of the whole dot com mess.
  • thefandango, on 01/25/2008, -2/+20i can see the slogans now:
    Stop by your nearest Soylent Green Station and fill up.
    Grandma would approve, because hey she's right here.
    *jiggles jar of e98*
  • nirav72, on 01/25/2008, -10/+24Well then..bring it on. I for one , welcome our new $1/gallon ethanol overlords.
  • swizzcheez, on 01/25/2008, -0/+14That's the beauty of this process, it doesn't consume the food corn. Instead, it's using the husks and other waste products. That's the real ticket, converting something that's pretty much waste into something useful.
  • newzmiz, on 01/25/2008, -1/+14I live in the Deep South. If they can make this stuff from anything organic, take kudzu . . please.
  • ideaash, on 01/25/2008, -0/+12Cellulosic ethanol is the future. Not to be confused with Corn Ethanol. This is funded by Vinod Khosla. Vinod has poured in millions of $ into many cellulosic ventures. He is smart guy, This is going to be successful.
  • teamfun, on 01/25/2008, -0/+10e85 is 85% ethanol, correct?
  • inactive, on 01/25/2008, -9/+19I stopped reading after I saw that it was backed by General Motors. Next comes proof that the process works, purchase of the technology by GM for a seemingly ridiculous sum of money, the technology disappears and the big oil company kickbacks to GM continue.
  • ZigVicious, on 01/25/2008, -0/+9dot corn boom of 08?
  • dcsears, on 01/25/2008, -1/+10a dollar less than gas according to the article
  • inactive, on 01/25/2008, -6/+14What's the over/under on these guys vanishing without a trace?
  • diggB, on 01/25/2008, -0/+8FTA.

    "May Wu, an environmental scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, says Coskata's ethanol produces 84 percent less greenhouse gas than fossil fuel even after accounting for the energy needed to produce and transport the feedstock. It also generates 7.7 times more energy than is required to produce it. Corn ethanol typically generates 1.3 times more energy than is used producing it. "

    Wow. I've always been in support of renewable energy sources (solar, wind, hydro, etc) since they leave no carbon footprint, but this is really encouraging and a step in right direction, me thinks.
  • thtroyer, on 01/25/2008, -0/+8It's hard to point at a single 'problem' in the realm of farming in the midwest.

    Sure, farmland is being developed (at least, here in Indiana), but it's not necessarily a problem right now -- it's definitely not happening at an extraordinary rate. Farming is a dying occupation in these parts. It used to be a fairly independent occupation, where a man (and his sons) would work and support the family. That is hardly feasible anymore (considering higher costs and proportionately dropping selling prices on crops) There are still some independent farmers, but more and more often, farming is being done by small companies -- farmers that have banded together to survive.

    It sure ain't what it used to be.
  • inactive, on 01/25/2008, -1/+9Marty, you're just not thinking 4th dimensionally!
  • Quakee, on 01/25/2008, -1/+8at this point I'll be OK with paying $3 per gallon as long as it doesn't get any higher =[
  • KidDeath, on 01/25/2008, -9/+16me being from the midwest, i've actually seen the effects ethanol has on the food economy. Alot of people converted thousands of acres of food corn, for ethanol corn. Something like this would be bad in someways.

    Though, anything to lessen our dependencies on foreign oil, or any oil, is a win in my book!
  • deathweaver108, on 01/25/2008, -0/+7I live in Iowa. I'll tell you that 90% of our corn is fed to cows or pigs.
  • redhotkurt, on 01/25/2008, -0/+7He's talking about food economy, not actual farmland space.

    E.g. - converting corn into ethanol instead of food has increased the price of feedstock, which in turn is raising the price of eggs and milk, etc...
  • fuzzynyanko, on 01/25/2008, -0/+7Cool. They are doing something similar in Brazil. If they can do stuff like take corn husks, corn cobs, rotting food, and sewage and convert it to energy, I'm for it.
  • BigManOnCampus, on 01/25/2008, -3/+10I have never lived in the midwest. My understanding of America's heartland though is that farmland was continually under threat from developers. It would seem to me (from this perspective) that more demand for grown biomass would actually be good for the farmland in our Nations interior. Is that a wrong assumption?
  • screensnot, on 01/25/2008, -1/+7At what point do you think GM will dump the oil companies because they can't sell any cars with fuel prices as they are?
  • fantasticFlan, on 01/25/2008, -0/+6Did you read the article? the summary even? These guys are saying it doesn't have to be corn.
  • theblt, on 01/25/2008, -1/+7You don't need to digg me down, I'm asking a question that I hope somebody smarter than me on the topic will answer.
  • jrapp, on 01/25/2008, -0/+6Um... that's South Dakota.
  • boonesfarm, on 01/25/2008, -0/+6oh wow. That would make a kick-ass conspiracy thriller. I'll bet it's TRUE.
  • robato, on 01/26/2008, -0/+6Actually, cannabis hemp is the best plant we could possibly use for cellulose production. It creates the most usable biomass and it grows in nearly any climate and under nearly any conditions.

    Check out this report: http://fuelandfiber.com/Hemp4NRG/Hemp4NRGRV3.htm

    It is already spreading like crazy throughout the U.S., as the DEA recently admitted 98% of all "marijuana" it destroys is actually wild hemp from WWII when the U.S. government paid farmers to grow it.

    Combine this technology with cannabis hemp, and we have energy independence.

  • impei, on 01/25/2008, -1/+6More like 22 seconds
  • fantasticFlan, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5The claim is "ethanol from just about anything organic". Meaning it wouldn't have to be corn growing year after year and could also be the inedible parts of a food crop if that's really a concern.
  • krnldmp, on 01/25/2008, -1/+6"It's not five years away, it's not 10 years away. It's affordable, and it's now," said Wes Bolsen, the company's vice president of business development.

    The company plans to have its first commercial-scale plant producing up to 100,000 gallons of ethanol a year by 2011. Friedman and Greene said the timeline is realistic.

    100,000 gallons/yr by 2011. Uh, yeh.
  • br0ck, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5And before anyone asks about land usage, according to the .gov link above, switchgrass produces 1,150 gallons per acre after correcting for fuel used to produce and convert, so 347,000 acres would be needed to provide the 400 million gallons of fuel for the US. The USA has 400,000,000 acres of cropland, so converting to switchgrass would only require a tiny portion of the available arable land to be used. Also, it grows fine in poor soil, so it wouldn't crowd out the more valuable food crop soil.
  • DonTazeMeBro, on 01/25/2008, -2/+7If in prison, most likely because of the IRS...
  • inactive, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5Lay off the media, we're not that bad off. Plus, there's always other countries to move to. See ya.
  • eth3l, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5You are an idiot.
  • br0ck, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5"Cellulosic ethanol, in theory, is a much better bet. Most of the plant species suitable for producing this kind of ethanol — like switchgrass, a fast- growing plant found throughout the Great Plains, and farmed poplar trees — aren't food crops. And according to a joint study by the US Departments of Agriculture and Energy, we can sustainably grow more than 1 billion tons of such biomass on available farmland, using minimal fertilizer. In fact, about two-thirds of what we throw into our landfills today contains cellulose and thus potential fuel. Better still: Cellulosic ethanol yields roughly 80 percent more energy than is required to grow and convert it." From: http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/ ...

    That's 76 gallons per ton according to http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html so that's 76 billion tons of ethanol that could cheaply be produced each year from non-food crops. The US uses only 400 million gallons of gas each year. That's 190 times more fuel than we need!
  • 13B1303, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5wringing out college students livers?
  • Scerevisiae, on 01/25/2008, -1/+6Good lord people (especially those from the Midwest) let's get some facts straight here...
    1) Field corn is field corn, whether it be for animal feed, ethanol, or corn flakes - sweet corn is less than 1% of all corn grown
    2) Iowa corn - 23% to feed, 25% ethanol, 43% EXPORTED, the rest is too numerous to mention (USDA stats) (deathweaver108)
    3) 18% of our corn went for exports in 2007 (centran)
    4) Show me the field of commercially grown switchgrass that yields more biomass than a field of corn in Iowa (centran)

    any new ethanol technology is good, let's get off oil and figure out the best way to make it in the long run - keep our eye on the ball
  • centran, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5I think his statement was more referring to the science and technology There is no more development. They are doing it right now on a small scale.
    The 2011 date is to build plant to do it on a large scale.
  • theblt, on 01/25/2008, -5/+9Excuse my ignorance on the topic, but doesn't it take just as much or more gasoline to make ethanol fuel?
  • screwzluse, on 01/25/2008, -0/+4RTFA... It's there.. They would sell it for $1/gallon less than gas.
  • dmadip, on 01/25/2008, -3/+7Anybody ever seen "Children of the Corn"? I'm just sayin..............
  • loquax, on 01/25/2008, -2/+6The other 10% probably goes into building corn palaces all across Iowa for county and state fairs
  • nospinhere, on 01/26/2008, -0/+4yeah, but those gas prices are the faults of the taxes the European governments impose on them.
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