Shell says it hopes to be producing '2nd generation' biofuel in 5 years
Wed 07 November 2007
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Shell, working in collaboration with Codexis Inc, a California-based biotechnology company, says it hopes to be able to produce 'second-generation' biofuel within 5 years. Meanwhile, a Colorado-based company says it aims to begin production of a 'second-generation' fuel made from wood-chips next year.
President of Shell Oil Products, David Sexton, said: 'Shell is committed to leading the development of second-generation biofuels that offer lower well-to-wheel CO2 production and enhanced performance. We are exploring the application of Codexis' proprietary technologies to produce alternative fuels from renewable, sustainable sources.'
Advocates of 'second-generation' biofuels view them as an important part of the solution to problems posed by 'first generation' fuels, such as ethanol from corn and biodiesel from vegetable oil as they are produced from non-food feedstocks, such as waste from agriculture and forestry.
Shell recently made a call for biofuel incentives to be linked to CO2 savings (see ENDS link). Graham Sweeney, a Shell executive, is reported as saying that simple, volume-based targets such as those in force in the EU make no distinction between carbon footprints of different biofuels. "More sustainable biofuels tend to be higher cost, so biofuels with lower well-to-wheel emissions should receive higher incentives," he said.
In 2005 Shell says it sold nearly 800m gallons of biofuel mostly in the US and Brazil, and markets fuels containing bio-components in a number of other countries.
In a separate development (reported by the FT) Range Fuels, a US company based in Colorado, said it expects to have the country’s first second-generation ethanol plant in operation next year. The plant, which will produce fuel from wood-chips and waste from Georgia’s pine forests, is expected to produce about 25m gallons of ethanol a year (1,600 barrels a year).
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