The Daily Times

The biofuels industry is caught in a crossfire between parallel and intersecting economic fronts.

On the public side, federal and state spending to provide incentives for research and business is under a microscope.

On the private side, the financial sector is loathe to fund medium-range projects without near-guarantee of success.

At the same time, the future does guarantee that U.S. reliance on petroleum pumped from the earth to fuel our vehicles will at some point become unaffordable for most.

Improved extraction techniques and new oil field discoveries can delay the day of reckoning, but emerging economic powers such as China and India will counterbalance that as their thirst for oil grows.

As always, the political and social stability of some of the most oil-rich countries of the world is problematic.

So what does this mean for renewing the Renewable Fuel Standard, created under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and for continuing support to develop new technology for the fuels market?

Closer to home, does this mean government support should continue so research projects — such as the partnership between Genera Energy LLC and DuPont Cellulosic Ethanol (formerly DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol) — will be encouraged?

Genera, a University of Tennessee for-profit creation, is developing feedstock — switchgrass in this case — for a demonstration biorefinery in Vonore.

There’s been concern that DuPont’s plans to commercially produce ethanol from corn crop waste at a planned plant in Iowa means the company is cooling to the switchgrass project. DuPont has yet to set a date to build a commercial biorefinery in Tennessee.

That concern is premature. According to Dr. Kelly Tiller, president and CEO of Genera Energy and a professor of agricultural economics at UT, construction of a commercial plant in Iowa was always expected to happen first. DuPont’s intention to initiate the commercial fuel program with corn stover — the parts of the plant left after the edible corn is harvested — has been evident from the beginning.

Plus, it makes since. Simple reality dictates DuPont start with corn stover. It is less efficient than switchgrass, but the corn stover is already out there — ton after ton after ton of it. Go to Iowa, look around — corn as far as the eye can see. But switchgrass agriculture in Tennessee is still in the early stages.

“Nothing has changed. We’re still on timeline where we’ve been since the very beginning,” Tiller said.

Last week, Jan Koninckx, global business director for DuPont Biofuels, announced and Biorefining Magazine reported that DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol has dropped Danisco from its name and will now go by DuPont Cellulosic Ethanol. The change signals DuPont is committed to commercializing its cellulosic ethanol plans and integrating various players under the company’s name, according to Koninckx. That’s part of the commercialization procedure.

As construction starts on the Iowa plant, the company will change feedstocks at its technology demonstration facility in Vonore.

“Next year at this time we will be running switchgrass, while we are now running corn stover,” Biorefining Magazine reported Koninckx as saying.

The switchgrass-to-fuel project in Tennessee is barely past the starting point. It is the leading edge of a technology yet to be tested in the marketplace.

Maintaining a reasonably consistent Renewable Fuel Standard will spur developments in advanced biofuels technology.

The new agricultural and manufacturing processes needed for advanced biofuels face challenges to become commercially viable. That is why the state and federal governments provided seed money along with private business to jump-start advanced biofuels technology.

Finding fuel to power America’s future is important — too important to sit back and hope China will do it for us. Give researchers the chance to develop advanced biofuels technology needed to compete in the marketplace.

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