March 30, 2007

 

US energy department says ethanol should not be corn-dependent
 

 

Plants such as grasses and trees to be used for ethanol could ease price hikes of corn within a decade, said an official from the US Energy Department on Wednesday (March 28).

 

US Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell said the new technology of producing biofuels should not always be dependent on corn so as to alleviate its soaring prices.

 

Corn comprises the majority of US ethanol which is seen to jump in 2007 from 5.6 billion gallons per year (gpy) to 8 billion gpy as nearly 80 bio-refineries sprout up.

 

The big leap of corn prices was mainly due to the government's incentives to boost ethanol production in its aim to reduce oil imports as well as cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

 

The US$4 price of corn per bushel has been the highest in the decade and has spurred wide protests in Mexico over the price of tortillas, a national staple made from corn.

 

The price spike has also lead to worries that meat and dairy prices could eventually rise.

 

Sell said the future of biofuels is largely from cellulosic ethanol, made from microbes that break down woody bits of non-food crops into sugars that can be fermented into fuel.

 

Cellulosic, and other new biofuels such as biobutanol, which can be made from petroleum as well as biomass, could begin to feed the commercial fuel market within six to 10 years, he said. They could also be part of a larger program to cut greenhouse gases, he added.

 

The new fuels, particularly from cellulosic ethanol, are much expensive than conventional ethanol but would eventually go down with thorough research and development, said Sell.

 

Amid growing pressure to cut emissions in the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases, the Bush administration is also putting research and investment money into clean coal, and energy efficiency.

 

Sell rejected the idea that a national mandatory cap on emissions could shift the burden of the development of low- emissions domestic fuels from government to markets by creating trade in credits for the right to pollute.

 

The energy secretary said US presidential aspirants in 2008 should support such programs, as do growing numbers of energy experts and companies.

 

President George Bush opposes mandatory caps on emissions, saying they would hurt the US economy.

 

Sell said being the world's top energy consumer and economy, the United States is not morally obliged to lead rapidly developing countries as those measures would still keep "millions of people in poverty" in China and India.

 

Those countries, he said, are not obliged to place mandatory cuts on emissions under any international agreement.