"It's a big technology bet that cellulosic will be a primary contributor," said Alexander Karsner, assistant secretary for the Energy Department's energy efficiency and renewables group. Apart from outright cuts in energy use, he added, such next-generation ethanol "is perhaps the best hope we have in the transportation sector for minimizing the human impacts on global climate change."
Today, ethanol made from corn kernels is the most pervasive renewable fuel in the United States, blended into about 46% of the nation's gasoline. Using a process similar to brewing beer, ethanol refineries isolate starch from corn and convert it to sugars that are fermented and distilled to get the finished product.
Corn-based ethanol remains this country's cheapest, easiest and quickest way to displace gasoline in the short term, but it has substantial drawbacks. It is laden with corn-state politics, clashes with food supply needs and lowers fuel-efficiency. In some formulations, it can increase certain pollutants even as it reduces others by replacing gasoline.
"It's good for going forward, but there are a lot of issues that come up" with corn ethanol, said Ron Pernick, co-founder of Clean Edge, which tracks venture capital funding. "We need to move to next-generation biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, and to next-generation biorefineries."
Cellulosic ethanol is already a proven concept, with production processes that work, said Mark Emalfarb, chief executive of Dyadic International Inc., one of several biotechnology companies that are isolating and patenting microbes used in making the fuel. "It's now a matter of making it work on a large enough scale and at a low enough cost."
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates the production cost of noncorn ethanol at $2.25 a gallon, or about double what it costs to make corn ethanol. BlueFire Ethanol Inc., an Irvine company that plans to make ethanol from landfill plant waste, said it expected its process to cost $1 a gallon.
"I describe a cellulosic biorefinery as the ultimate flat-screen TV," said Richard Hamilton, chief executive of Ceres, the Thousand Oaks company using genetics to improve switch grass and other potential energy crops. "The first few are going to be very expensive, but the key part is getting those first few built so we can ride the cost curves down."
