[Gasification] Is "Cellulosics" a blind alley?

[Thomas Reed]

Dear All:

This note from our National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL, sometimes called 
UNREAL by its employees, and sometimes known as the "No Renewable Energy 
Lab") sounds on the surface like progress.

The fact that the award was made in 1993 and we haven't heard much since 
underlines the problem of "Cellulosics", the name given to converting 
cellulose to glucose to ethanol.  The first acid hydrolysis "cellulosic" 
plant was built in 1917 in Washington State.  It was decomissioned in 
1919.  I heard about the wonders of enzymatic hydrolysis from the Natick 
labs in 1974 after first OPEC.  Now I hear every year or two that the 
problem has finally been solved of doing it economically.  (But you 
don't hear when the project goes bankrupt or is cancelled.) 

Maybe this time (after cheap oil and at functioning corn ethanol plants) 
it will be practical, but how come no progress announced since 1993?  
Cellulosic is the darling of DOE .  NREL has been the football of 
Politicians.  (Witness firing 32 employees, then rehiring them when Bush 
was coming to town.)

TOM REED         BEF  

CAVM at aol.com wrote:
> *1993 R&D 100 Award:* "Ethanol from Corn Fiber," NREL and New Energy 
> Company of Indiana—Most fuel ethanol currently produced in the United 
> States is made from the starch in corn kernels. Producing nearly 2 
> billion gallons of ethanol per year—primarily as a fuel oxygenate 
> additive for gasoline—the corn ethanol industry is a major contributor 
> to the U.S. economy and to the reduction of carbon monoxide and other 
> air pollution. This NREL/New Energy collaboration demonstrated that 
> NREL's cellulosic ethanol technology could also economically produce 
> ethanol from the fiber remaining after the dry-mill corn ethanol 
> process. This technology could easily be extended to the cobs, husks, 
> and stalks (stover)—that would all be readily available near corn 
> ethanol plants. This award reflects the emphasis that NREL and the 
> U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) place on corn stover as a potential 
> principal feedstock for a cellulosic ethanol industry—one that could 
> expand from supplying fuel additives to supplying base automotive fuel.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks
>
> Neal Van Milligen
> cavm at aol.com
>