Novozymes will be “in a position to offer enzymes than can help make cellulosic ethanol economically viable within 4 years from now”, according to Emmanuel Petiot, global business development manager at the Danish enzyme producer.
Mr. Petiot made his remarks in an interview with Ethanol Statistics in which he discussed his experience and expectations regarding cellulosic ethanol technology. Although he doesn’t think that the industry will have a clear winning cellulosic ethanol technology in four years time, he does think that several plants will produce ethanol from lingo-cellulosic feedstock, such as agricultural residues, wood residues and industrial waste in the same time-line.
“But each of these companies will have different technologies combined in their process. They will have different pre-treatment methods, different enzymes blends, different fermentation technologies and also different organisms. All these companies will have proprietary processes or would have acquired pieces of the process through licensing, and, step by step, the less efficient processes will be filtered out.”
The entire interview, titled ‘Cellulosic ethanol enzymes in 4 years?’, can be found
here.
In the interview, Mr. Petiot discusses the main challenges for cellulosic ethanol, current production costs levels, compares developments in cellulosic ethanol technology in the United States, Europe, Brazil and Asia, in addition to the time frame mentioned above.