Good to hear Novozymes is expanding its production facility in China, making it the largest enzyme fermentation facility in the world.
Our best hope of reducing costs of new technology is if companies scale up from laboratory to industrial scale in developing countries where the cost of building new factories is much lower.
Once prototype industrial scale production costs can be evaluated and compared, the market can decide which competing technologies to invest in for mass market production.
It will be fascinating to see whether enzymes can compete with other technologies for advanced biofuels at large scale.

‘Looks like the Chinese are going to use ethanol more efficiently than Americans are: A major Chinese auto maker, DonFeng is introducing a conventional engine that burns 65% ethanol and 35% water, with a simple add-on. They claim hydrogen is formed. That would be Hydrogen on Demand, from a safe onboard renewable liquid fuel, that does Not have to be compressed into expensive high pressure tanks.

The efficiency of ethanol goes way up, when you blend it with water, instead of gasoline. When 65% ethanol is made, you can leave most of the water in the mix, and save up to 60% on the cost to distill it. This ethanol-water solution can easily be reformed into hydrogen.

Toyota is also developing a similar onboard ethanol reformer, and so is MIT and Ohio State University. This technology may be similar to the ethanol reactor invented in 2004 by Lanny Schmidt, University of Minnesota professor of chemical engineering. Schmidt says his reactor, which you can hold in the palm of your hand, can reform enough hydrogen from a mix of ethanol and water to power a car or a small house. Using very little energy, the device instantaneusly strips all 3 molecules of hydrogen from the ethanol, and it also strips 1 out of 2 molecules of hydrogen from the water, as a bonus.

A recent article by Matthew McDermott, “Hydrogen Made From Ethanol With 90% Efficiency Using Inexpensive Catalyst”, appeared in “Science & Technology”. Ohio State University researchers have developed a similar way to produce hydrogen from ethanol, using an inexpensive catalyst and only a small amount of energy.

One of these reactors can efficiently provide hydrogen to a typical internal combustion engine by reforming a 2 to 1 mix of ethanol and water. However, the highest use is mated to a fuel cell, which is 2-3 times more efficient. So here’s a way to leapfrog a hydrogen infrastructure, by splitting ethanol and water into hydrogen on demand, onboard the moving vehicle.

This technology could also be applied to high-torque electric farm tractors, where biofuel feedstocks are being produced, whereby locally produced ethanol would be reformed onboard into hydrogen, to power fuel cells 2-3 times more efficient than current diesel engines.

Ethanol-water reactors could also be added-on to existing conventional internal combustion engines to supplement gasoline consumption, increase power and mileage, and clean up unburned residues in the combustion chamber.

Future generation Plug-in Hybrid electric vehicles, for extended range, may also one day be equipped with ethanol-water reformers, supplying fuel cells with hydrogen on demand.

Reforming a carbon containing fuel in order to provide hydrogen for a fuel cell is downright stupid! It means throwing out the energy embodied in the carbon which drives down overall efficiency. Hydrous ethanol should simply be used in an ICE. It is the cleanest liquid fuel available and ought to be used for that purpose and not as a gasoline additive.

The carbon is what sustains the reaction to extract the hydrogen. It's not wasted. As the ethanol solution passes through a porous catalyst plug, the carbon in the fuel is burned to power the process. As the carbon is burned, the hydrogen is isolated and extracted.

The bottom line is efficiency, it’s 2.5 times more efficient to use ethanol in a fuel cell, which is over 50% efficient, than to use it in an ICE that on average is only 20% efficient.

http://www.it.umn.edu/news/inventing/2004_Summer/harvestinghydrogen.html