Wired has a very comprehensive overview article on cellulosic ethanol that will equip the novice with a very good background on the subject. A few quotes follow:
On a blackboard, it looks so simple: Take a plant and extract the cellulose. Add some enzymes and convert the cellulose molecules into sugars. Ferment the sugar into alcohol. Then distill the alcohol into fuel. One, two, three, four — and we're powering our cars with lawn cuttings, wood chips, and prairie grasses instead of Middle East oil. . . .
While researchers work to bring down the costs of alternative energy sources, in the past two years policymakers have finally reached consensus that it's time to move past oil. . . .
But how? Hydrogen is too far-out, and it's no easy task to power our cars with wind- or solar-generated electricity. The answer, then, is ethanol. . . .
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. . . .
Companies featured are Lee Lynds Mascoma, Novozymes, and Verenium.
And even ardent proponents concede that cellulosic ethanol won't solve our fuel problems — or do much to stop global warming — without parallel efforts to improve vehicle efficiency.
Thanks to tip from the R-Squared Energy Blog.
A stage is now coming when ALL types of "relevant ideas" will have to be tried out and tested to reach the goal for availability of clean power from Renewable Energy.
Posted by: Chandranshu Pandya | October 01, 2007 at 11:31 AM
Made in China
Posted by: Made in China | March 29, 2010 at 11:17 PM