Understanding Recent News

Understanding Recent Report

Whether one is concerned about oil prices and foreign control of oil, or the generational impact of carbon emissions and recent environmental calamities, ethanol is all over the news.   Perhaps it helps that ethanol both burns clean removing carbon buildup while reducing dependence on petroleum.

The environment has gotten increasingly more press since carbon levels were first reported as having long-lasting implications.   Back in April (2007), there was talk of the Virgin Group and Al Gore teaming up to create a contest for a carbon-negative process that sucks carbon emissions from the air.   A process for cellulosic ethanol can certainly reduce one’s carbon footprint, but our process also removes it.

With the advent of cellulosic ethanol, there is even now a plausible method of extracting vehicle fuel from municipal solid waste, further adding to its long list of benefits.   The catch is the amount of energy to produce it.   Most cellulosic processes only can make about 67% of what it takes to produce corn ethanol.   That number is the primary reason behind slow changes in recent House Energy legislation and GM Flex-fuel production lines.   No one wants the risk of all of their eggs in one basket, until they hear about our process.

Even plant biologists are saying “It’s not a silver bullet.”   In an early November interview with Fareed Zakaria, Director of Plant Biology at Carnegie Institute, by the name of Chris Somerville indicated that ethanol is certainly important but it is still in question whether it would

be enough to provide all transportation fuel.   Corn ethanol has an upper limit of 12 to 15 billion gallons that it can contribute, leaving around an 83% gap in the market.   However, our numbers show that our process can produce as much as 87.6% of the nation’s supply.

In the October issue of National Geographic, corn ethanol shows promise in the fact it produces 22% less greenhouse emissions, but last year it cost $1.09 per gallon in petroleum-based energy used to produce it.   Growing the corn takes massive amounts of water, nitrogen fertilizer, and diesel equipment, not to mention creating an increase in feed prices due to the uneven economic weight between fuel and grain.   From this report, it is believed there is no magic-bullet fuel crop that can solve the American energy dilemma without impacting the economy and environment in the process, except that our process utilizes trash and not grain.

The Washington Post reported October 19 that microbes are raising investor’s hopes and may provide both the cellulase and fermentation needed for high enough yield.   Now, Fuel for Freedom has beaten Danisco-Genecor and SunEthanol to the punch by its recent discovery and patenting its proprietary blend of microbes and enzymes.

Fuel for Freedom proprietary process not only removes trash with an environmentally safe method and product, but also depletes carbon dioxide from the air to add additional ethanol yield, while at the same time can be generated in sufficient quantity to stave off economic and security concerns.   Thus, the magic bullet is not in a crop at all, it is the bugs beneath our feet.