U.S. Fuel Production Targets Spur Renewables

      A 2007 law requires  U.S.refiners and fuel importers to increase the amount of renewable fuels in gasoline.  By 2022, 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels must be produced.  However, the annual amount of corn-ethanol to be produced annually is capped at 15 billion gallons, so the question is where the rest will come from.

     Currently, 13 billion gallons of corn-ethanol fuel are produced annually, but the amount of other alternative fuels is still relatively small.  Now certain companies appear to be coming up with creative solutions to eliminate this renewable shortfall.

     Companies hope that "advanced biofuels," such as wood chips, will help close the gap, and new facilities  are beginning to process other biofuels, like the inedible portions of corn chips. KIOR and Du Pont are two of the companies investing heavily in this areas. Unfortunately, lawsuits filed by the American Petroleum Institute threaten the EPA's renewable energy mandates, arguing that the agency's alternative fuel targets are unreasonable.  Nonetheless,both companies are proceeding with their research, vowing to make these arguments moot by technological advances and corresponding increased production of non-ethanol renewable fuel.