Making the transition to large scale ethanol use in the US Transportation Sector
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States). Alternative Fuels Division
- Argonne National Lab., Washington, DC (United States). Center for Transportation Research
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
A recent US Department of Energy study indicates that under current conditions (e.g., taxes) cellulosic ethanol could be one of the key fuels used to achieve the 30% replacement fuel goals of the US Energy Policy Act, as well as significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. However, the study also concludes that transition costs and issues could be significant and need to be evaluated. This paper examines (a) the costs and issues associated with ethanol use in various submarkets and how these costs will affect market penetration and (b) the costs and issues resulting from ethanol production from alternative feedstocks and their effect on the likely penetration of various feedstocks. The paper concludes that: technical opportunities exist to make major transitions in ethanol end-use and production; the end use transition has few and relatively small hurdles; the transition in feedstocks and production faces more significant technological and investment hurdles; but continued low gasoline prices are such that policy stimuli will be needed to start the transition to large scale ethanol use and may be required to maintain a growing market.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 230602
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ES/CP-88617; CONF-960488-2; ON: DE96008397
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 11. international symposium on alcohol fuels, Sun City (South Africa), 14-17 Apr 1996; Other Information: PBD: [1996]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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