Milestones

Site location(s) identified with preliminary feasibility plans

Next Generation Multi-Feedstock Conversion Technology

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Identifying/Secured a sustainable, non-food, positive-climate change friendly feed-stocks

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According to the report "Destination Iowa" getting to a sustainable bio-fuels future, renewed interest in energy security and global warming in the US has spurred amazing changes in Iowa over the last decade, bringing bio-fuel refining to small towns and making farmers into energy producers. This transformation has created jobs (directly and indirectly). Surging corn prices have benefited some, but have caused a host of other problems, from pricing small farmers out of the market to putting conservation land back into production- increasing concerns about air and water pollution as well as the loss of economically important recreational and hunting areas. Current world agricultural system, like the world energy system is unsustainable. Unless it’s fixed, rising production of both fuels and food will wreak havoc.

The same report poses the following question: When will the negative effects of corn ethanol begin to outweigh any positive economic benefits? One of the limits to grain ethanol is the amount of land available for growing the feedstock. Even if the entire US corn harvest for 2006-2007 were devoted to ethanol, it would still provide only enough fuel to replace 15% of current national gasoline use.

The other main limit to corn ethanol is the ability of the environment to cope with more acres under production, and the associated rise in fertilizer and pesticides use. Currently, more than any other US crop - so much, in-fact, that 70 % of the energy inputs needed to grow the corn is embodied just in the fertilizer. Producing fertilizers is one of the most carbon intensive processes associated with ethanol production

These studies provide important new evidence to reinforce a message that the World Watch Institute produced in its pioneering 2007 book, Biofuels for Transport: "Because increases in the land area used to produce feedstock’s can result in large releases of carbon from soil and existing biomass, they can negate any benefits of biofuels for decades." Now, it turns out, the expansion of some biofuel crops could actually make the world’s climate problem worse.

As one of the Science studies concluded, "Biofuels made from waste biomass or from biomass grown on abandoned agricultural lands planted with perennials incur little or no carbon debt and offer immediate and sustained GHG advantages."

World Watch worked with the Sierra Club on the report, Destination Iowa: Getting to a Sustainable Biofuels Future, which sets forth recommendations on how, the state of

Iowa, a leading U.S. ethanol producer, could do just that. Some of the report’s suggestions for moving toward a more sustainable biofuels future include:

"Ethanol blending could help ease U.S. refining bottlenecks and that could be ultimately reflected in lower prices at the pump," said Eric Wittenauer, an analyst at AG Edwards in St. Louis. While ethanol is typically produced from the starch contained in grains such as corn and grain sorghum, it can also be produced from cellulose. Cellulose is the main component of plant cell walls and is the most common organic compound on earth. It is more difficult to break down cellulose to convert it into usable sugars for ethanol production. Yet, making ethanol from cellulose dramatically expands the types and amount of available material for ethanol production. This includes many materials now regarded as wastes requiring disposal, as well as corn stalks, rice straw and wood chips or "energy crops" of fast-growing trees and grasses.

Producing ethanol from cellulose promises to greatly increase the volume of fuel ethanol that can be produced in the U.S. and abroad. A recent report found the land resources in the U.S. are capable of producing a sustainable supply of 1.3 billion tons per year of biomass, and that 1 billion tons of biomass would be sufficient to displace 30 percent or more of the country's present petroleum consumption.

Importantly, it offers tremendous opportunities for new jobs and economic growth outside the traditional "grain belt," with production across the country from locally available resources. Cellulose ethanol production will also provide additional greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

2008 Traction include

These are just five of the dozens of companies working on a replacement for today’s corn or sugarcane-based ethanol. It’s a packed party, and with no clear leader in the field, the company to get to market first will have a significant advantage.

Several cellulosic ethanol companies, such as Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Verenium, have already begun work on pilot or demonstration plants. Many more, such as Broomfield, Colorado-based Range Fuels, say they plan to make their next-generation ethanol commercially available before the end of the decade.

But besides speed to market, what will it take to be successful in this competitive industry? The simple and predictable answer is cost, say analysts, and that will be driven by two major factors. The first is the cost of processing the biomass, like wood chips, into ethanol, and the second is securing a steady stream of low-cost feedstock.

Global Fuels will develop the largest permitted single-site in CA, with its site strategically located in the heart of the dairy/livestock and refinery and terminals markets. This coupled with energy crop production gives the company a distinct advantage in distribution cost over other plants in the market. The Destination Site is planned to become the cornerstone of an anticipated Energy Corridor

Global Fuels AltE, LLC, A California Limited Liability Company, is an Early-Stage Bio-Fuels Producer. The company’s mission is to capture a significant amount of the projected 4 billion-gallon annual bio-fuels market in California. The plant will produce cellulosic ethanol as its main product and several other additional co-products.