With the economy tanking, federal officials are turning toward green energy as an economic and financial savior, and new biofuels are appearing increasingly attractive to legislators and industry for a number of reasons.
More than a year ago, Congress passed a law requiring dramatic increases in biofuel production, ramping up national production from 8.5 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. The law has come under fire since its passage, reaping criticism for its slated increase in corn-based ethanol to as much as 15 billion gallons per year within the next decade and a half. That's unpopular with many environmentalists and other groups who say fuels made from food-based feedstocks, like corn and soybeans, raise food prices and unsustainably use precious land and water resources.
Industry has responded by honing in on developing advanced biofuels that use non-food feedstocks -- ranging from agricultural wastes to algae -- to create a host of new fuels, including airplane juice.
"Aviation has made enormous progress in the last three years identifying and testing technologies for renewable jet fuels," said Lourdes Maurice with the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Environment and Energy at a recent hearing of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. "We have identified a number of alternative jet fuels … that can replace petroleum jet fuel without the need to modify aircraft, engines and fueling infrastructure."
In the fourth quarter of 2008, fuel expenses accounted for more than 30 percent of average operating costs for U.S. passenger-airline companies, making new, alternative fuels not only environmentally enticing but economically attractive as well.
Last week the world's two biggest aircraft producers, Boeing and Airbus, announced they would continue to work on developing planes that can run on renewable fuels even as fuel prices plummet along with the economy.
It looks like government officials are thinking on the same long-term wavelength.
President Barack Obama recently appointed an advanced biofuels expert to a prominent position in the Department of Energy. As Undersecretary of Science, Steven Koonin, currently chief scientist at BP, will report directly to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The two have worked together on biofuels before, and alternative energy has been one of Koonin's key focus areas at BP, one of the world's largest energy companies and a major player in the budding biofuels industry.
With biofuels slated to become the next black gold, a number of companies are jumping to enter the production race. The Biofuels Digest lists four advanced biofuel plants currently open in the United States, with the largest producing 1.5 million gallons per year from wood waste. The other three are using agricultural waste, such as corn cobs and bagasse, the fibrous sugarcane residue left after the juice is squeezed from the cane. Another nine commercial-scale plants are planned, with production capacities as high as 40 million gallons per year, along with 20 pre-commercial or pilot facilities, which will turn out between 40,000 and 10 million gallons each per year.
The University of Tennessee has partnered with biofuels company DuPont Danisco to construct one of these small test facilities, which is slated to start producing 250,000 gallons per year by the end of 2009.
"We're contracting with farmers within a 50-mile radius to grow 6,000 acres of switchgrass ... (and) 3,000 acres are already in production," Kelly Tiller, director of external operations at the University of Tennessee's Office of Bioenergy Programs, told U.S. senators last week at a hearing on biofuels.
Switchgrass grows on marginal land with little water and fertilizer, and the university and its partners expect to get between 6 and 12 tons of feedstock per acre.
"We are no longer on the verge," Tiller said. "(Advanced) biofuels are being produced today."
But not on a meaningful scale, said Nathanael Greene, director of renewable energy policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental organization.
"Right now the best biofuels -- the ones that reduce global warming pollution and protect the environment -- are just a promise," Greene said. "Even though biofuels received about $10 billion in taxpayer support in 2008, truly 'good' biofuels are not yet produced on a commercial scale."
Greene advised congressional policymakers to stop supporting food-based fuels like corn ethanol and focus funding on advanced biofuels instead.
"We need to direct all our biofuels incentives toward these first billion gallons of (advanced fuels)," he said. "Stop funding bad biofuels."
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(Corrects figure in 10th paragraph to 250,000 gallons per year.)
