Study Shows Biofuel is Sustainable and Cheaper than New Oil
February 11, 2009 by admin
A joint biofuels study by Sandia National Laboratories and GM’s R&D Center run over nine months in 2008 concluded that the large-scale production of advanced biofuels produced from plant and forestry waste and dedicated energy crops in huge volumes is achievable and sustainable by 2030. When I say huge I mean up to 90 billion gallons of ethanol, which is about one third of projected consumption by 2030.
Among the study’s findings is that the capital expenditure required for developing 60 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol is equivalent to or less than that required for new long-term petroleum production.
The study represents the first true value-chain approach to assessing the feasibility, implications, limitations, and enablers of large-scale production of biofuels in the United States said Robert Carling, Director, Transportation Energy Center at Sandia.
Producing 45 billion gallons per year cellulosic ethanol by 2030 requires 480 million tons of biomass, of which 215 million tons comes from dedicated energy crops. Allowing for storage, loss, and immature perennial crops, these energy crops utilize 48 million acres of planted cropland from what is now idle or pasture. So we won’t be fueling our cars at the expense of our bodies.
via Alt Dot Energy
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