United Press International
08-13-07
Advanced biofuels production costs decline
AMES, Iowa, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A U.S. study shows the costs of operating second
generation plants that make biofuel from feedstocks such as straw, grasses and
wood are declining.
Such biorefineries have been touted as the successor to grain ethanol plants, but
until now the technology has been considered too expensive to compete. Iowa
State University researchers determined production costs are now similar for
grain ethanol and second generation biofuels.
The researchers compared capital and operating costs of generating fuel from
starch and cellulose-containing materials.
They found capital costs for 150-million-gallon gasoline equivalent capacity range
from around $111 million for a conventional grain ethanol plant to $854 million for
an advanced plant. But the difference in the final fuel cost was less severe, being
$1.74 for grain ethanol when corn costs $3.00 per bushel and $1.80 for cellulosic
biofuel when biomass costs $50 per ton.
"Although the costs of production are comparable for grain ethanol and cellulosic
biofuels, the much higher capital costs of the cellulosic plants will be an
impediment to their commercialization," said ISU graduate student Mark Wright,
one of the paper’s authors.
The research appears in the journal Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining.