$1/Gallon "Green Gasoline" In Sight

mattnyc99 writes "We've gotten excited here about the startup that claims it can make $1/gallon ethanol out of anything from trash to tires. But we've also seen how cellulosic ethanol is a better option, and how ethanol demand in general is only adding to the worldwide food crisis. So what about $1/gallon gasoline? NSF-funded researchers at UMass Amherst just completed the first direct conversion from cellulose using a new method of hydrocarbon refining, which they claim can be commercialized within 5-10 years and essentially make fuel out of anything that grows. Quoting: 'We already have the infrastructure in place to distribute liquid fuels. We're using them to power transportation vehicles today, and I think that's what we'll be using in 10 years and in 50 years,' Huber says. 'And if you want a sustainable liquid transportation fuel, biomass is the only way to go.'" The process is running at about 50% efficiency now; the $1/gallon figure is based on getting to 100%.

Comments

Re:no way.

[timmarhy]

" a process can be 100% efficient, depending on how you define efficiency."

anything can be anything you want if you use a crappy enough definition. whats your point?

oh and there are documented cases of the nazi's doing shootings to the head which failed, and they buried the person only to have them claw their way out.

Re:Thanks ethanol for world hunger and beer prices

[businessnerd]

Let's not forget the recent story about increases in beer cost as farmers switch over to corn for ethanol

If the price of the beer you drink has gone up because of the price of corn, then you need to do your taste buds a favor and quit drinking that piss water you've been calling beer.

REAL beer is made from barley or wheat, not corn. Corn is used as cheap adjunct for barley, mostly by the major American breweries.

Re:"out of anything that grows" ...

[geekoid]

Wow, how incredibly short sighted.

Yes, within the whole global environment, it's 'neutral', but that's not the point. How much is in the Air, and how many millions of years worth of carbon are we releasing, right now? those are the points.
We could burn everything on the earth and still be 'neutral', but we wouldn't want to live here.

Carbon neutral means NOT adding more carbon into the air.

The amount of carbon is high and rising, hence global climate change.

priorities

[circletimessquare]

i'm sure the french aristocracy missed their cake too

recognize the obscene costs in human blood and CO2 that stupid noise represents, and it will disgust you, not fire up romantic notions

the american romance with the automobile is self-destruction, nothing more. congratulations on your stupid hobby destroying our country and our world

frankly, fuck you your v8