Novozymes (NVZ.L) Executive Vice President Peder Holk Nielsen today told National Ethanol Conference in San Antonio in Texas that the company has cut cellulosic ethanol enzyme costs by more than half. As a result, the company said it is on track to deliver the "first commercially viable" enzymes by 2010.
Novozymes regularly appears on the SB20 List
produced by SustainableBusiness.com’s green investing newsletter, Progressive Investor.
“Novozymes has dedicated an unprecedented number of R&D resources focused on enzyme development for cellulosic ethanol. To date, our efforts have successfully reduced the cost of enzymes in many of our partners’ processes by 50%. The results we’re achieving in our labs for our next generation of enzymes make us confident that we’ll deliver a commercially viable enzyme product to the ethanol industry by 2010 through an additional 50% reduction in enzyme use cost,” Nielsen said.
Second-generation cellulosic ethanol uses enzymes to break down cellulosic waste materials such as corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, and wood chips into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol.
“The technology is getting closer and we’re confident that together with key partners we’ll soon achieve cellulosic ethanol commercial success. The goal for cellulosic ethanol is to be on par with corn-based ethanol on a cost basis, which we think is feasible within a few years,” Nielsen said.
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requires the US to blend 100 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol into gasoline in 2010.
“The technology is at a critical point in development, and a wave of US cellulosic plants are ready to be built. However, besides financial aid, the ethanol industry needs strong government support to remove barriers for expanded ethanol use and continued support for the existing RFS volume mandates, which Congress set in the energy law of 2007,” Nielsen said.
Loading...