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Novozymes has launched the first commercially viable enzymes
for production of biofuel from agricultural waste.
Breakthroughs in enzyme technology enable cellulosic biofuel
as a competitive alternative to gasoline.
Novozymes' new Cellic CTec2 enzymes enable the biofuel
industry to produce cellulosic ethanol at a price below US$2.00
per gallon for the initial commercial-scale plants that are
scheduled to be in operation in 2011. This cost is on par
with gasoline and conventional ethanol at the current US market
prices.
"We have been working on this for the past 10 years and promised
our customers and the market to be ready by 2010," says Novozymes
CEO, Steen Riisgaard. "I'm extremely pleased to announce that
we're ready - the enzymes are ready. Biofuel producers now
have a critical component to turn agricultural waste into
a competitive alternative to gasoline."
Extraordinary advances in enzyme development have reduced
the enzyme cost for cellulosic ethanol by 80% over the past
two years and enzyme costs are now down to approximately 50
cents per gallon of cellulosic ethanol. Novozymes has allocated
unprecedented resources to the project and the company has
also received development grants totaling $29.3 million from
the US Department of Energy.
Novozymes has partnered with leading companies in the biofuel
industry - such as POET, Greenfield Ethanol, Inbicon, Lignol,
ICM, M&G, CTC, COFCO, Sinopec and PRAJ - to help accelerate
process technology development and implementation. Coupled
with further improvements in enzyme efficiency, Novozymes
expects the cost to produce cellulosic biofuel to be further
reduced.
"Cellulosic ethanol will be cheaper," says Steen Riisgaard.
"Our partners expect production costs to fall below $2.00
per gallon once their first commercial scale plants are fully
operational and the cost will continue to drop in the future."
Cellulosic ethanol uses enzymes to break down cellulose in
biomass into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol. Cellic
CTec2 has proven to work on many different feedstock types
- including corn cobs and stalks, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse
and woodchips. A number of pilot and demonstration-scale facilities
are in operation all over the world, while large-scale commercial
facilities are under construction and scheduled to be operational
in 2011.
Commercialisation of cellulosic biofuel is expected to create
1.2 million new green jobs in the US alone by 2022. The recent
support from the Obama Administration will reignite investments
in new bio-refineries across the US.
However, moving to higher blends - such as E15 and promotion
of E85 - are still needed to meet the cellulosic ethanol targets
defined by the Renewable Fuel Standard.
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