East Central South Dakota | a bad turn on the road for ethanol. It was an ambitious pipe dream when crude was $100+/barrel and we had the biggest transfer of wealth in the worlds history from the USA to countries that don't like us much. The money spent on trying to convert cellulose (regardless of form) to starch is money wasted. We have a renewable and sustainable form of starch in the form of corn that happens to have an ample supply. 33% goes right back into the feed supply. To say cellulosic ethanol is problematic is an understatement. You have a density problem, a collection problem, a freight problem, a conversion to starch problem, a RINS problem ( that is so complicated few even understand it) and an environmental problem with organic matter and nutrients leaving the field---not to mention rats---- lol.
Time to quit digging in the cellulosic hole. That money would be better spent improving the yield to 3.5 gallons out of a bushel of corn, coming up with a human consumption product from the distillers grain, hybrid research that puts more starch in a kernel-------and just finding and capturing more value out of the corn starch model in general. The cellulosic part of the RFS should be scrapped and a portion of those gallons moved to starch.
As corn acres and corn yield keep going up putting more bushels of corn in surplus ------- it seems logical to move the corn starch gallons upward in the RFS to capture and encourage the corn surplus to continue.
Now take crude back to $130/barrel and throw in some world instability and maybe cellulosic (research) is back on the table------today it should be in the garbage disposal.
Edited by white shadow 12/9/2016 11:37
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Ethanol.
