A Houston-based company, Alternative Energy Technology Center (AETE), says it plans to produce ethanol for the U.S. market at less than $1 per gallon, eschewing the use of corn to boot by refining biomass into ethanol fuel for vehicles using a proprietary technology.
“One dollar ethanol will allow us to operate profitably without government subsidies or incentives,” said Brown Marks, AETE president. “We expect to produce over 100 gallons of fuel per ton of cellulosic biomass, which costs about $65 in today’s market. We have designed our technology to use widely available feed stocks at low cost …using a low energy input design to increase efficiency and we can place our plants wherever there is abundant biomass available.”
Marks added that corn currently costs over $5 per bushel, so current refineries spend nearly $2 to produce a gallon of ethanol that sells for $2.60.
