The development prospects of biofuels in the United States

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The future prospects of biofuels in the United States: Under the laws enacted in the United States at the end of 2007, to meet the ethanol production standards set by energy regulations, the country will need to invest $170 billion in new technology development projects, infrastructure construction, and the establishment of biofuel refineries. Brent Erickson, executive vice president of biotechnology organizations, said it may take at least 100 years to fully establish new energy infrastructure. Laws enacted in the United States require the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, of which 15 billion gallons will come from grains and 21 billion gallons from cellulose-based materials. By the end of 2007, the United States was producing 7 billion gallons of grain ethanol, with no ethanol plants using commercial cellulose feedstocks yet. The United States consumes about 140 billion gallons of gasoline per year. According to experts, the United States will need to build 300 new bio-refineries, 210 for processing cellulose-based materials, and 75 for processing grains. With the construction of these bio-refineries, more pipelines will need to be built, as well as facilities for harvesting, storing, and processing large amounts of cellulose feedstock, and enzymes for breaking down cellulose will need to be developed and produced. Biotechnology organizations suggest that, in order to process cellulose-based raw materials, some bio-refineries that use grains as feedstock will need to be modified to handle cellulose, and by 2012, some companies will begin building large-scale commercial cellulose ethanol refineries.