EDIT: glömde läken
http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1028377.html
Citat:
GM voices commitment to biofuels as study touts possibilities
A top General Motors executive said Tuesday his company remains committed to the use of biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, even with such options as electric cars becoming available.
The comment coincided with the release of a study reporting that the U.S. eventually could produce enough ethanol to meet one-third of the country’s demand for gasoline. The study by Sandia National Laboratories, a federal research lab assisted by GM’s technical staff, concluded that 90 billion gallons of biofuel — mainly cellulosic ethanol — could be produced annually by 2030.
That’s far more than the 36 billion gallons of ethanol that the U.S will require to be produced annually by 2022 and nearly an eightfold increase from current ethanol production.
The study comes as the ethanol industry is on the defensive. Several ethanol plants have closed, and the fuel has at least temporarily lost its cost competitiveness with gasoline since oil prices plummeted. But ethanol is still expected to play a big role in reducing oil imports.
GM said it will continue boosting the number of cars it sells that can use E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, and thinks there will be a range of options, including biofuels, answers to meet future energy demands.
“Our auto industry is at a critical juncture, but we have to address major societal issues such as energy,” said Lawrence Burns, vice president of research and development for GM. “We’re placing a high priority on biofuels right now.”
A practical, more profitable method of producing cellolosic ethanol — using less expensive so-called feedstock materials than corn — has yet to be fully demonstrated. But Sandia, the country’s largest government lab with more than 8,000 employees, concluded that the economic and technological challenges in dramatically boosting biofuel production could be overcome.
“It would have a significant impact on oil imports” and would help reduce greenhouse gases, said Bob Carling, a director at Sandia, which is principally funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The study assumed that cellulosic energy would be the principal biofuel and said it would take 48 million acres to grow such necessary feedstock as wood and switchgrass. The study also said those products should not be land now used to grow food.
Economics remain a key issue in biofuels success.
Cellulosic ethanol was estimated by the study to be competitive with gasoline when oil prices top $90 a barrel. Growth in biofuels would require protection from lower petroleum prices, such as tax credits and loan guarantees, especially while production is ramped up.