February 11, 2008
A new way to make ethanol.
One criticism of using bio fuels to replace gasoline, is that it takes as much, or more, fossil fuel to make ethanol as the stuff it replaces. Also it drives up food prices by adding demand for corn and the like.
My response has always been: five years from now it's still gonna take petroleum to make gas, but we'll find new ways to make bio fuels.
Here's a great example:
From an article in Wired.com:
A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies, company officials said.Coskata, which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol.
"It's not five years away, it's not 10 years away. It's affordable, and it's now,"...
11 Feb 2008 09:47 AM | Send comments to comments@techpopuli.net