Of the Six Existing Commercial Cellulosic Ethanol Facilities, Raizen's Projected Price of $2.17 per Gallon Is Lowest, as Innovations Help Bring Next-Generation Biofuels to Market, Says Lux Research
BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Feb 24, 2016) - Six companies have now brought cellulosic ethanol facilities online, but with widely varying costs that indicate where innovation is still needed to make next-generation biofuels competitive, according to Lux Research.
Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel produced from wood, grass and inedible parts of plants, obviating the need to cut into production of food crops such as corn and cane sugars. Raizen has the lowest projected minimum ethanol selling price of $2.17 per gallon while Abengoa's capital-intensive $500 million Hugoton facility has the highest price of $4.55 with feedstock cost emerging as the most critical variable.
"Improving feedstock aggregation and lowering feedstock cost is critical in cellulosic ethanol achieving cost parity, as feedstock cost can impact total cost by 40%," said Yuan-Sheng Yu, Lux Research Analyst and lead author of the report titled, "Uncovering the Cost of Cellulosic Ethanol Production."
"Improvements in pre-treatment yield, enzyme performance and price, and fermentation efficiency potentially reduce costs by up to 16%," he added.
Lux Research built a comprehensive cost model based on six cellulosic feedstocks and three pre-treatment technologies. Among their findings:
The report, titled "Uncovering the Cost of Cellulosic Ethanol Production," is part of the Lux Research Alternative Fuels Intelligence service.
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