Missouri House Passes E10 Renewable Fuel Standard
10 April 2006
The Missouri House of Representatives has passed the Missouri Renewable Fuel Standard (MoRFS—HB 1270), a bill requiring all gasoline sold in Missouri beginning 1 January 2008 to contain at least 10% agriculturally-derived ethanol (E10), unless specifically exempted.
The bill permits the sale of blends lower than E10 or unblended gasoline should a distributor be unable to purchase fuel ethanol or fuel ethanol-blended gasoline at the same or lower price as unblended gasoline.
Missouri currently has three ethanol plants in production, two under construction and several others on the drawing board, according to the Missouri Corn Growers’s Association (MCGA).
MCGA expects ethanol production in the state to reach at least 350 million gallons by 2008, surpassing the 280-million gallon market that would be created by the MoRFS. In 2003, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration, Missouri used a total of 88 million gallons of ethanol in various gasoline blends.
The bill will now be referred to the Senate for action. If the Senate passes the bill, Missouri will become the fifth state to have a statewide ethanol standard. (Washington was the fourth, but the state much reach a production threshold before the RFS goes into effect.)(Earlier post.)
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I read that nobody wants to be the first to build a cellulose ethanol plant--but everybody wants to be the second.
Posted by: Cervus | 10 April 2006 at 01:42 PM
First time that that's been true
Posted by: duh | 10 April 2006 at 04:59 PM
Iogen Corp. of Canada struggles to push cellulosic etanol for about 30 years. The history of their adventure is truly amasing. Currently price for enzimes breaking down cellulosic chain into smaller sacharides is too expensive. Couple of heavy weights biotech companies announced plans to genetically modify appropriate microorganism to produce these enzimes more cheaply. If they sucseed, look for E40 nationwide in five years. Iogen: http://www.iogen.ca/
Posted by: Andrey | 10 April 2006 at 08:52 PM
Andrey:
I know about Iogen. But there aren't any large-scale cellulose ethanol plants under construction. Nobody wants to be the first, because it's a huge risk and it must turn a profit.
As for E40... FlexFuel can run that, but not my Corolla. E10 at the most.
Besides, if they can break down cellulose into simpler sugars, butanol is a better choice, IMO.
Posted by: Cervus | 10 April 2006 at 09:10 PM
If your car is newer than 1988, get an ethanol conversion device. You can run concentrations of up to 85% ("E85") without the conversion chip/module, you just won't get as much economy and power as you should. Federal mandates went into place some time before 1988 requiring all cars made from that year onwards to properly run with at least 10% ethanol, without the need for conversion. Anything from that year onwards uses fuel system components that are explicitly designed to withstand the slightly corrosive properties of the ethanol, but you need a conversion chip/module for proper fuel management regardless of the year your car was made.
Posted by: | 26 May 2008 at 11:18 AM