[AlwaysOn Going Green] Biofuels To The Rescue (Eventually)
Story posted on: September 16, 2008
U.S. companies will almost certainly produce biofuels in enough volume to help curb global warming from automobiles and other vehicles.
But it will take time and patience from a world eager to move away from the oil economy and its reliance on supplies of crude from the unstable Middle East.
“We will have the technology,” said biofuel booster and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. “We just have to be patient.”
Khosla, during an appearance at the AlwaysOn Going Green conference in San Francisco, said biofuels will quickly prove themselves less expensive than $100-a-barrel oil and within 10 years be cheaper than $50 oil.
According to a panel of startups at the event, bio-ethanol has come a long way from its initial reliance on corn crops. A second-generation fuel is being developed from non-food crops – wood clips and grasses, for instance, and stalks of food crops that typically get discarded. They come with high energy-yields and less water use; in some cases, genetically engineered microbes break down the material.
Algae also are being used, with high yields and low cost.
Khosla said he no longer supports obtaining ethanol from corn. “I do believe it will be expensive and will be blown out of the market on cost.”
Over the next couple decades, hundreds of bio-ethanol facilities (probably supplied by other kinds of plants) will be built across the country, went on William Roe, CEO of the startup Coskata.
Ask General Motors and it will say that until 2030 the only alternative to take a bite out of oil consumption is ethanol, added Roe, whose company received an investment from the car maker.
“You would have to see oil prices plummeting to put us out of business,” joined in Bruce Jamerson, CEO of the bio-fuel company Mascoma.
By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.
But it will take time and patience from a world eager to move away from the oil economy and its reliance on supplies of crude from the unstable Middle East.
“We will have the technology,” said biofuel booster and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. “We just have to be patient.”
Khosla, during an appearance at the AlwaysOn Going Green conference in San Francisco, said biofuels will quickly prove themselves less expensive than $100-a-barrel oil and within 10 years be cheaper than $50 oil.
According to a panel of startups at the event, bio-ethanol has come a long way from its initial reliance on corn crops. A second-generation fuel is being developed from non-food crops – wood clips and grasses, for instance, and stalks of food crops that typically get discarded. They come with high energy-yields and less water use; in some cases, genetically engineered microbes break down the material.
Algae also are being used, with high yields and low cost.
Khosla said he no longer supports obtaining ethanol from corn. “I do believe it will be expensive and will be blown out of the market on cost.”
Over the next couple decades, hundreds of bio-ethanol facilities (probably supplied by other kinds of plants) will be built across the country, went on William Roe, CEO of the startup Coskata.
Ask General Motors and it will say that until 2030 the only alternative to take a bite out of oil consumption is ethanol, added Roe, whose company received an investment from the car maker.
“You would have to see oil prices plummeting to put us out of business,” joined in Bruce Jamerson, CEO of the bio-fuel company Mascoma.
By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.
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