Xethanol Switches to Bio-Methane, New Name
01 November 2008
Cellulosic ethanol startup Xethanol has changed its product focus and its name. Now trading as Global Energy Holdings Group, the company is now focused on developing landfill gas projects.
Company president and CEO told Reuters that the company shifted to biomethane because the cellulosic ethanol market is too difficult amid falling prices.
“You can make cellulosic at a price but it&rsuqo;s not going to be economical when there are depressed prices for ethanol,” said Ames. Cash ethanol prices in the Midwest have fallen about $1.20, to about $1.70 a gallon, since June as oil prices have plummeted amid the economic downturn.
Xethanol announced plans in January to scrap two cellulosic ethanol plants. Global Energy Holdings will continue to operate a smaller plant that aims to make cellulosic from orange peels.
It is very clear that the hype of the cellulosic ethanol (which nobody can really assure that it is technically feasible and economically viable) has completely shadowed the bio-methane approach which is way more efficient, cleaner, technologicaly proven and can be implemented at the farm level avoiding thus the burden of carrying thousands of tons of bio-mass over tens of miles. The problem of carrying biomass (biomass has a very low energy content per unit of volume) is a cellulosic ethanol killer.
Posted by: Treehugger | 01 November 2008 at 11:46 AM