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Biofuel Booster Has A Point
By Mr Ethanol | March 25, 2008
Toronto Star:
Corn ethanol isn’t sustainable. Corn ethanol is jacking up food prices. Corn ethanol isn’t worth the energy that goes into producing it.
Okay, we get it already. Corn ethanol isn’t a long-term path for making renewable fuels, but does that mean ethanol itself is a bad thing?
“I think there’s a lot of disinformation out there,” says Frank Dottori, founder and former CEO of Tembec Inc., the multibillion-dollar forest products company.
Dottori, a chemical engineer by training who describes himself as the “old retired guy,” apparently has some unfinished work to do. Earlier this month he was announced as the new head of Greenfield Ethanol Inc.’s “cellulosic ethanol” division – that is, he’s in charge of finding out how to make the renewable fuel out of wood chips, agricultural residues and municipal solid waste. Pretty much anything but a food crop like corn.
“I’ve been at this for 30-some years, looking at different ways of converting biomass into valuable chemicals and energy and fuels,” says Dottori, explaining that after he retired in 2006 he was approached by Toronto-based Greenfield – the largest independent ethanol producer in Canada – about taking on the challenge.
“They wanted to move away from corn. They want to get into this cellulosic ethanol as the next step … That’s where the world has to go.”
Right now, much of the ethanol world – at least in North America – is stuck on corn. Nobody would argue it’s the perfect crop, and most would say it can’t be relied on as the ethanol market grows. But Dottori also believes the current problems making headlines are being exaggerated. Read full article.
Topics: Biofuel, Ethanol, Trends |
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