Cellulosic Ethanol

The EPA is boosting the amount renewable fuels in the US gasoline supply despite opposition by an unusual alliance.

Sometimes, you just need some simple pictures to prove your point. If you're the Union of Concerned Scientists and you want to let people know that "we can half it" (oil use, that it) by supporting more electric cars and biofuel use, then a couple of bright infographics might do the trick.

Cellulosic bio-ethanol is poised to see large scale production for the first time next year. Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels, LLC, is ready to start construction of a plant in early 2014 that will produce 20 million gallons of cellulosic bio-ethanol annually, later ramping up to 25 million gallons. That's a lot, but to compare, the US uses 8.7 million barrels of gasoline per day (Jon LeSage

Long may you run, Neil. That's our take on reports of Rock n' Roll Hall of Famer Neil Young cruising around the country in his 1959 Lincoln Continental that's been converted to run on cellulosic ethanol, or biofuel made from wood, grass and non-edible parts of plants.

Mascoma, a cellulosic ethanol maker, has been working on gaining capital investment from just about every funding source out there. But now it looks like the attempts to go public and raise $100 million have been pulled off the market.

Output of cellulosic ethanol will surge starting in 2013, according to the U.S.' largest corn-based biofuel production firm, Poet LLC.

Let's create jobs while concurrently expanding the U.S. output of advanced biofuels, says Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Remember that cellulosic ethanol deal between GM and Coskata? Or the one between GM and Mascoma? Those are a couple years old at this point and haven't exactly set the ethanol markets on fire, but that doesn't mean that the idea of an automaker and a next-gen biofuel company working together

International enzyme development firm Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, has announced it's now mixing up the fourth enzyme cocktail in its trademarked Accellerase line. Called Accellerase Trio, Genencor says that this latest enzyme is designed to boost production of cellulosic ethanol from non-food feedstocks. More specifically, Accellerase Trio is an enzyme cocktail optimized to break d

Remember five years ago, when cellulosic ethanol was going to fill our tanks without eating into food crops? The Environmental Protection Agency does, because it's had to keep rolling back the minimum renewable fuel standards put into place by the passage of the 2005 Energy Policy Act (H.R. 6). 2012 will be no different t

For 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is once again upping the level for how much renewable fuel the U.S. should use in the Agency's Renewable Fuel Standard program (aka RFS2). The EPA's proposed targets are:

Brazilian energy company Petrobras has set aside nearly $400 million for research and development related to advanced biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol and aviation fuels. According to Petrobras Biocombustível's head of technology management, João Norberto Noschang Neto, the energy giant's 2010 to 2014 business plan calls for a deep dive into biofuels and, as Neto indicated:

Nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains is the town of Vonore, TN. While it's not exactly the type of city that one would associate with cutting-edge cellulosic ethanol production, it is here that DuPont, the U.S. chemical company, is trying to buy Danisco's joint-owned facility for nearly $6 billion in an attempt to gain a fair amount of control over the U.S.' cellulosic ethanol industry.

Yet another cellulosic ethanol project launched recently, this time in Alpena, MI with Governor Jennifer Granholm on hand for the ribbon cutting. The facility will be run by American Process Incorporated (API) and will produce ethanol from waste materials produced by an adjacent hardwood plant that is run by Decorative Panels International.

Jonny Cocker in the Drayson Racing Lola-Judd – Click above for high-res image gallery

Even as it moves toward electrification, Ford continues to support burning ethanol in more and more vehicles in the coming years. Ford's group vice president for sustainability, environment and safety engineering,

Earlier this year, we saw the addition of a fourth fuel option to the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) when it was announced that Dyson Racing would be running bio-butanol in its Lola-Mazda coupe. This past weekend at Mid-Ohio, the Dyson car managed to score its first victory in the sixth race of the season in a nail-biter over the Honda-powered Highcroft ARX-01c.