Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn

Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn

www.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.

Coskata, which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol.

"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 VP.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I personally don't like ethanol, because in my opinion it could disrupt food supplies. But since this one claimed it won't, I might give it some consideration.

www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I think if this can be done, then by all means, do it. Not only do we not have to worry about the food supplies, but we can reduce the landfills at the same time. I think there's a bio-fuel refinery near the east coast that uses trash for fuel too.

People should be all over this IMO. If it's not contributing to food shortages and is that cheap to make, then it's a no-brainer. That's what gas was like 20 years ago, price-wise.

This needs to be investigated ASAP. This would be excellent news for all the energy hungry nations, and it would reduce the stranglehold certain nations have on the world.

Also, it would sharply reduce the price of gasoline for hose that didn't have access to this fuel right away. As the oil companies saw their hold slipping they would try to sell as much as they could at a cheaper price.

Oil will never become worthless as long as we need it for the manufacturing of plastics and such, but the costs could really be reduced.

As a side note, I commented a few weeks ago on the fact that something new was in the works. I had based my thoughts on the way the oil companies were maximizing profits without investing in new refineries. I deduced that they had an inside track on some new idea that would greatly reduce the need for oil. Could my speculation be on target? I hope so, for all our sakes.

Edit to add: let's flag this so it gets a lot of attention. We're now a 'go to' site for the news, and this needs to be looked at by a lot of people to see if it can be up and running as soon as practical.

[edit on 26-1-2008 by NGC2736]

Call me cynical, but watch for this company to be bought by Exxon and shelved.

Originally posted by DimensionalDetective
People should be all over this IMO. If it's not contributing to food shortages and is that cheap to make, then it's a no-brainer. That's what gas was like 20 years ago, price-wise.

Hang on here buckaroo!

This article doesnt say that it will RETAIL for $1.
They are saying that their cost to PRODUCE will be about $1

Reminds me of back to the future . I would love to see a built in converter.
Too bad we cant use hemp. I bet that would be just as good a source.

I wonder what long term effect it would have on a gasoline motor,I'm thinking it may tend to cause major problems,I'm thinking best bet would be converted diesel motor

You only need a diesel motor if it takes high heat to combust the fue.l As diesel engines use a "glow plug" and not a spark plug . I guess it depends on how refined it is .
If there doing it on the cheap you may be right.

[edit on 26-1-2008 by oLDWoRLDDiSoRDeR]

Originally posted by NGC2736

Edit to add: let's flag this so it gets a lot of attention. We're now a 'go to' site for the news, and this needs to be looked at by a lot of people to see if it can be up and running as soon as practical.

[edit on 26-1-2008 by NGC2736]

Duly starred and flagged

Anything that helps reduce our dependence on gasoline gets my vote, and deserves to get the widest possible publicity.

Good luck to them!

OMG !!!!
I pull up to the gas tanks ay my 7-11
and jump out to fill it up and see 2
different choices:

Unleaded Regular @ $3.11 a gallon

or

Ethanol @ $1.00 a gallon

hmmmmmmmm

I wonder which one I'm gonna chose ......

reply to post by SimonSays


You won't see it at $1.00 by the pump. It may only cost $1.00 to produce, but you can bet you life that the gov will tax the hell out of it. One thing you have to remember about fossil fuels, diesel and gasoline, is that they are heavily taxed. Your price at the pump isn't all OPEC's money. Once Uncle Sammy finds out he's losing money because of a cheaper, cleaner fuel, there will be a tax imposed. No, it won't be $1.00, but it also will not be $3.00 either.

It would have to be cheaper or it will be no competition to Gasoline.

Ethanol has roughly 1/3rd the stored energy of gasoline, gets 1/3rd the mileage too. So 1 dollar a gallon is equal to the current 3 dollar per gallon of gasoline.

Based on that, there is still no benefit in cost over gasoline.
The only benefit is if you were to choose to stick with ethanol, the cost might eventually come down to a level of practicality with more people buying it, compared to where it is now pricewise.......wherever it is. I don't see any e-85 fuel in my state so far.

I still think the answer is hydrogen. But it will need a lot more research.
If we can figure out how to produce it with solar, we're golden.

The claim that ethanol can be made from anything organic is true though.
it can be made from anything like wood chips to coffee grounds.

Originally posted by Mekanic
reply to post by SimonSays

 

You won't see it at $1.00 by the pump. It may only cost $1.00 to produce, but you can bet you life that the gov will tax the hell out of it. One thing you have to remember about fossil fuels, diesel and gasoline, is that they are heavily taxed. Your price at the pump isn't all OPEC's money. Once Uncle Sammy finds out he's losing money because of a cheaper, cleaner fuel, there will be a tax imposed. No, it won't be $1.00, but it also will not be $3.00 either.

I wish I had the link, but I remember an elderly couple who were producing biodiesel, where the government tried to tax and fine them.
We need to find a way to produce OUR OWN fuel and blatantly defy the government in masse. Only then will we be successful and crush these oil companies.

Is Ethanol our safest alternative?

Here is a thread, Ethanol May Not Be Safest Alternative Fuel? that I started a while back, according to this article:

A new study by Stanford University claims 200 more respiratory deaths will occur a year if all cars switched from gasoline to ethanol. The study claims ethanol use in vehicles will cause ozone levels to raise, ozone (Health Effects of Ozone)is an irritant and damages the lungs. The study also claims the burning of ethanol also produces two carcinogens, Formaldehyde and Acetaldehyde.

Here is the article: Ethanol May Cause More Smog, More Deaths - MSNBC

[edit on 26/1/08 by Keyhole]

E85 provides less energy per gallon which translates to about 17% lower mileage. Now, considering this imagine what that percentage will be on a higher ethanol mix or just straight ethanol? If (and I'm not holding my breath) this does come to pass, IMO we will be looking at a realistic price at pump to be at least $2.25 and more likely closer to $2.50. Figuring in roughly 20% (optimistic) lower gas mileage; if you currently get 500 miles to a tank you will now get 400. So, if we split the projected cost at pump to $2.37 and considering gasoline is $3.00 and you are getting roughly 13.9 MPG there is essentially slim to none savings in fuel cost. Now, if the cost of ethanol is much higher than $2.37 well, do the math....

Now, I certainly have allot less problems with it if it is clean producing and a non factor impacting the cost of other consumables.

Here's another company making similar claims: www.brienergy.com...

A final little tidbit: the cost of ethanol is set based on the price of the competition. Therefore, when the cost of gasoline rises, so too does the cost of ethanol kids!



[edit on 26-1-2008 by jbondo]

reply to post by Critical_Mass

I think you are exactly correct. We definitely need to find a way for as many of us as possible to create our own fuel. I recently went to an environmental film festival and watched a video about a couple of guys who did a road trip from the northern slope of Alaska to the far southern tip of Chile in a Japanese fire truck converted into an R.V. They did not use a single drop of petrol in this thing. The diesel engine ran on any kind of plant material oil (and even salmon oil at one point) that could be pressed with the oil press they had installed on this truck. They did not pay for any of the fuel required for the trip(I believe they said it was 16,000 miles or so.
The Oil and Water Project
This was such an awesome movie!
Anyways, one of the guys who did this was at the festival to answer some questions and stated that right now Arizona State University was developing biodiesel made from cyanobacteria.Arizona State University Launches Cyanobacteria Biodiesel Research Project with BP and SFAz

George W Bush's pushing of Ethanol from corn has a lot to do with his scamming for money for Monsanto and ADM.

Ethanol can be made from the grasses cut alongside highways and roads across Canada and the USA. There is no need to take food from the mouths of the hungry to make fuel off of which the rich will get richer.

The energy content for gasoline is 126,000btu/gal and for ethanol it is 84,300btu/gal. What a most people don't realize is that just about anything organic can be used to produce alcohol not just grain.

Some diesel engines have glow plugs, but not all. They are just used to get the engine started. Compression of air heats it high enough to ignite the fuel.