ACCELERATING THE CELLULOSIC ETHANOL INDUSTRY: The U.S. Department of Energy provides grants to spur commercial development of biofuels produced from nonfood feedstocks

摘要

MOVING cellulosic ethanol technology from the laboratory to a com-mercial-scale biorefinery is an expensive proposition. Price tags for demonstration plants range from 50 million dollar to 80 million dollar, while costs for small commercial facilitiesare over 200 million dollar. Funding the transition is problematic. Typically banks don't like loaning money to high-risk projects using first-of-a-kind technologies. At the same time, equity investors are reluctant to provide all the financing for demonstration or commercial-scale projects.