Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
consumption in 10 years with alternative fuels, primarily biomass-derived ethanol.
DOE's longer-term R and D goal is to develop new technologies to allow the
ethanol industry to expand enough to displace 30 percent of gasoline
requirements—about 60 billion gallons—by 2030. In 2007, industry produced
over 7 billion gallons of ethanol, displacing about 3 percent of the nation's oil
consumption.[9] Ethanol, however, faces high production and infrastructure costs,
creating challenges in competing with gasoline nationally.[10] Ethanol refiners in
the United States rely mostly on corn as a feedstock, the use of which has
contributed to price increases for some food products, and ethanol's corrosive
properties create challenges in developing an infrastructure for delivering and
dispensing it. DOE's R and D focuses on (1) developing a more sustainable and
competitive feedstock than corn, primarily by exploring technologies to use
cellulosic biomass from, for example, agricultural residues or fast-growing
grasses and trees; (2) reducing the cost of producing cellulosic ethanol to $1.33
per gallon by 2012 and $1.20 per gallon by 2017; (3) converting biomass to
biofuels through both biochemical and thermochemical processes to help the
industry expand; (4) contributing to a strategy to develop a national biofuels
infrastructure, including demonstration projects for integrated biorefineries to
develop multiple biomass-related products; and (5) promoting market-oriented
activities to accelerate the deployment of biomass technologies. Although DOE
has made progress in reducing ethanol production costs, cellulosic ethanol in
2007—based on current corn prices—still cost about 50 percent more to produce
than corn ethanol.
Hydrogen-powered fuel cells
. The long-term R and D goal of DOE's
Hydrogen Fuel Initiative is to provide hydrogen fuel cell technologies to industry
by 2015 to enable industry to commercialize them by 2020. To be
commercialized, hydrogen fuel cell technologies must be competitive with
gasoline vehicles in terms of price, convenience, safety, and durability. Hydrogen
is the preferred fuel for vehicle fuel cells because of the ease with which it can be
converted to electricity and its ability to combine with oxygen to emit only water
and heat as byproducts. Let me clarify, however, that hydrogen is not an energy
source, but, like electricity, is an energy carrier. Furthermore, because hydrogen is
lighter than air, it does not exist on earth and must be extracted from common
compounds. Producing hydrogen through the extraction process requires energy
from renewable, fossil, or nuclear sources, adding to the challenge of developing
hydrogen technologies. Our January 2008 report concluded that DOE has made
important progress in developing hydrogen fuel cells, but the program has set very
ambitious targets and some of the most difficult technical challenges--those that
require significant scientific advances--lie ahead. Specifically, R and D for
