Domestic Fuel

The CEO of Coskata claims they will be able to make ethanol for $1 a gallon or less in the near future.

The Green Tech Blog reports on a meeting with Coskata’s William Roe where he explained how this will happen.

Roe explains that Coskata combines both biological and thermochemical processing and can use a wide variety of feedstocks, from wood chips, weeds and non-food crops like miscanthus, to even human waste and carbon-heavy garbage like tires.

Coskata, which has received an investment from General Motors, also makes fuel from the lignin in biomass. Some companies making ethanol from strictly biological processes can’t use lignin to make fuel.

“You can imagine biorefineries in every single state. This is an enormously efficient process,” Roe said. “We don’t need ‘eurekas’ anymore. We think it comes down to execution.”

In basic terms, Coskata’s process converts all the different feedstocks into synthetic gases, then feeds it to microbes that convert it to liquid fuels.

Coskata plans to make a formal announcement later this month about its 40,000 gallons a year demonstration facility which is already under construction at an undisclosed location.