Schafer Expects Rapid Cellulosic Ethanol Growth

Current U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer says cellulosic ethanol output could explode in just a few years.

Ethanol production from wood chips, grass, and other plant material could "explode’" by 2012 if a commercialized facility to produce the second generation of biofuels is successful, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said on Jan. 15, according to Reuters.

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The Reuters article stated that Schafer told reporters he expected that by Jan. 20 USDA will award a loan guarantee to Range Fuels, based in Colorado, to build a commercial-size plant capable of producing 100 million gallons of ethanol annually from woodchips. It would be the first guarantee issued through a program created in the 2008 farm law to speed development of new biofuels. Schafer would not say how much the loan would be.

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“If that investment is made and that facility gets up and running, it will jump, I believe, by two years the goal of producing on a commercialized basis ethanol from non-corn sources or non-food based sources," Schafer said. "If this first-commercialized production capacity works, then I think it will explode the opportunities in second-generation biofuels."

Currently, estimates say large-scale production of second-generation biofuels are five or six years away.

(Source: Reuters)

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