Journal: Cost-Effective, Non-Corn Ethanol Process

In one of the major announcements from the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Sunday, GM has announced a partnership with Coskata Inc. to promote and develop a process for producing ethanol for fuel using a wide range of non-food materials ranging from agricultural waste to wood chips to old tires and municipal waste. More importantly, the process is expected to reach production levels with a manufacturing cost of about $1 per gallon, and an at the pump fuel price that is perhaps $1 or more lower than current gasoline prices.

The Coskata process produces about 7.7 units of useful energy for every unit of energy used in production, a rate that is significantly higher than corn-based ethanol production methods. It also uses less than a gallon of water per gallon of fuel produced, compared with 3-4 gallons of water per gallon of fuel from current methods of ethanol production.