The Future of Ethanol Plants

A nobel prize winning scientist says renewable fuels should make up more of the nations energy supply Dr Steve Chu says biofuels only make up about 2 percent of the worlds energy supply But Chu says the future may include a major change He says ethanol and biodiesel plants may have to change their missions Chu says in as little as five yearsthose plants may be processing grasses for fuel Dr Chu We need to develop and we will develo mechanisms from first transitioning from food crops like Corn to cellulosic thingsgrasses that can grow in rangeland without much irrigation with very little fertilizer So here s the big question Will our ethanol and bio diesel plants be obsolete when the transition is made from crops to grasses 10 21 The issue here the concern is you ve made all of these bio-refineries for doing corn are they now wasted 5 or 10 years from now the hope is no Dr Chu is in Bismarck as past of the Renewable Fuels Action Summit taking place at Bismarck State College The idea behind the summit is to boost energy production in North Dakota to create jobs and to also reduce our depenDance on foreign sources of energy