Experts foresee efficient ethanol production

In recent days, two MIT chemical engineering professors have weighed in on ethanol’s potential — Professor Gregory Stephanopoulos, in a Feb. 9 article for Science, and Assistant Professor Kristala Jones Prather, who testified during a Senate hearing on biofuels Feb. 1.

“The technology to produce cellulosic ethanol is not there yet,” he said. However, he estimates that large-scale, economically feasible production of ethanol from cellulose could happen within 10 to 15 years.

One of the major advantages of cellulosic material is its abundance, according to Stephanopoulos. He cited a recent Department of Energy report that estimated the United States could sustainably produce about 1.4 billion tons of such material per year.

“If we can convert that into liquid fuel, that could become a pretty significant percentage of liquid fuels in the U.S.,” he said.

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