Cellulose Goes Global

By Kory Wallen

Cellulosic ethanol is gaining momentum worldwide as more and more governments and international companies begin to see the renewable fuel as the next inevitable step toward reducing fossil fuel consumption. This new technology has a bright future, but when—and where—will it develop first?

Getting A Move On

By Ron Kotrba

The United States has more than 200 years of experience in rail, so efficiency and optimization should come naturally—and for many it does. But with a rail system that is growingly congested, it's often impossible to give customers what they want when they want it. Fortunately, some Class 1 and short line railroad companies are investing with the ethanol industry in mind.

Incubation Through Integration

By Ron Kotrba

A handful of larger companies are working diligently toward uprooting cellulose conversion technologies from the labs and transplanting them to pilot-scale facilities. Integrating and further refining cellulose process technologies within existing ethanol plants is likely to be the irresistible medium that's already incubating the future of celllulosic ethanol.

Tucked within the 1,700 pages of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 are a number of provisions intended to help jumpstart the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol in the United States. Considering the long-term outlook for oil prices, some experts believe biomass will soon fill petroleum's proverbial shoes. Can legislation get cellulose-to-ethanol on its feet?

When the most powerful man in America says cellulosic ethanol is going to be commercialized within six years, the industry he's talking to listens up. Now, as the nation's energy department unveils a 30-year outlook on oil that makes biomass utilization a long-term energy option with teeth, EPM offers industry reactions to the speech that made a nation start thinking about cellulose.

Alright, bio-oil may not actually share a family tree with biodiesel, but it is an environmentally sound product derived from biomass. This dark, viscous renewable fuel is produced through the thermal cracking of molecules, a process known as pyrolysis. An ambitious anadian firm is on a mission make this stuff work commercially-and it's something biodiesel stakeholders should keep an eye on.

Cool fuel pioneers: 16,000 miles of American road and not a drop of gas