Ethanol made from straw flows at Shell pump

A diagram of Iogen's enzyme-based ethanol-making process.

(Credit: Iogen)

A Shell service station in Ottawa on Wednesday will pump gasoline mixed with ethanol made from wheat straw, what the company is calling the first commercial delivery of cellulosic ethanol.

The ethanol was made by Iogen which has a process that uses enzymes to break down straw so it can be converted into ethanol. Shell is an investor in the Ottawa-based Iogen, which has been working on a demonstration facility since 2004.

Shell Canada is hosting a press event at the service station where Canadian government officials are scheduled to be on hand. Cellulosic ethanol is less polluting than corn ethanol and offers up to 90 percent fewer lifecycle carbon emissions than gasoline, according to Shell.

The fuel at the service station will be 10 percent cellulosic ethanol, made from agricultural residue.

Shell has partnered with a few companies in an effort to create a biofuels business. Its demonstration on Wednesday, however, doesn't mean that Iogen is able to produce cellulosic ethanol at commercial scale yet.

"While it will be some time before general customers can buy this product at local service stations, we are working with governments to make large-scale production economic," said Shell executive vice president of future fuels and CO2 Graeme Sweeney in a statement.

There are dozens of companies developing processes for converting wood chips, agriculture residues, or grasses into ethanol, some of which have built demonstration facilities.

The Department of Energy has funded some of these projects but the biofuels industry overall has been stalled by the credit markets' meltdown which has made financing pilot projects more difficult.

[iptofar]

Hopefully, the gig is finally up on corn based ethanol but congress doesn't have the guts to do the right thing and kill it.

In a perfect world, they would cut funding/subsidies to corn based ethanol and give it to cellulose research and development. Any idea what it costs per gallon to make?

[Sam Papelbon]

kill the corn subsidies, and we might see the price of high fructose corn syrup go up, which would mean more food-makers dropping it and going back to real sugar, which could make our culture of obesity start to decline.

i say 'who cares how much it costs?'. let's get this ball rolling

[dbargen]

...And Shell gas (along with others) further gunks up my engine and decreases overall performance per gallon.

Ethanol is a leading contributor to engine gunk and *wasted* gas thanks to its chemical makeup. Hats off to all of our fav. legislators for requiring pumps to have at least some of this detrimental additive in you fuel.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Considering that racing engines are run on ethanol only in high performance engines, I would say that kills your argument effectively right there alone. Those teams in Indy cars aren't in the race to lose- they want and need high performance to win.

[sodapop2k9]

@Vegaman_Dan ethanol-only doesnt make the gunk. Its the blends. Ethanol-fossil fuel blends pollute more than fossil fuel. Racing cars are high polluters.

[jsjohnson]

Yeah I was just about to ask if any research has been done to verify whether this ethanol is any easier on a vehicle's fuel delivery/engine systems than corn ethanol. I know a lot of people are getting screwed from damage done by E85 fuel.

[DosEquisXX]

Well, you need to make sure your vehicle is Flex Fuel (designed to handle E85). You wouldn't put Diesel in your gasoline engine. The only difference between a Flex Fuel vehicle and a regular gas vehicle is that the fuel system is lined with something different so the ethanol doesn't corrode the fuel lines.

[Commander_Spock]

Why are the "Brazilians..." who have been using E85 for the longest while have not been complaining!!!

[trixielu]

I got screwed to the tune of $859 because I filled my tank with the "catch the green wave!" ethanol that the Shell station in my neighborhood is marketing. That doesn't include the $113 for two days rental car. I know it was dumb, but I also know I'm not the only one. My catalytic converter was jacked up and my car kept dying in the middle of traffic. Fortunately I only drove about 20 miles before taking car to the shop.

Yes, it should be obvious to some to check first about whether your car can take ethanol, but I believe that Shell can and should do more to make that clear.

[Cole_Brodine]

I don't believe that cutting the funding to corn related ethanol will help as much as many people think. I am no chemist (but I am an electrical engineer). My understanding of the cellulistic ethanol process, is that it is very similar to the corn or other grain stock ethanol processes. The major difference is processes applied before the start of the distilling process to get more sugars out of the feedstock. Isn't making ethanol very similar to distilling grain alcohol? It's all about how much sugars are in the feedstock.

I would think that, due to their similarities, any process improvements from corn (or other grain feedstock) ethanols would benefit the cellulistic ethanols also. If you are suggesting that more research be put into the cellulistic portion of the process (improving the feedstock for distilling) I wouldn't disagree, but I'm sure there are still plenty of improvements that can be made in the other parts of the process.

If worse comes to worse, I suppose we can always just convert them to whiskey distilleries. I'm sure we could all use a drink after discussing ethanol too much.

[Vegaman_Dan]

The big oil companies have no interest in ethanol- it's too easy to produce and there is an abundant supply which means the market demand can't force speculation like we saw with oil prices.

Currently, the closest ethanol available for my E85 vehicle is 60 miles away on a miltary base. The next closest publically available supply is over 100 miles away which makes it not an option for me.

It's not a viable option currently until someone else like Walmart gets involved that isn't part of the Big Oil group. It's been investigated locally and stations that get their fuel from the big names are prohibited from selling ethanol from the same property. Station owners are free to build their own separate station with its own pumps, tanks, signage, etc, but it cannot be sold in the same station that has Shell, Arco, Chevron, etc. That's the oil companies' requirement, not the local station, so don't blame that station owner.

[globalist_agenda]

Why is Shell gasoline always the most expensive? Outrageously more expensive then competitors. Talk about price gouging. I always cheer whenever I see a bastard Shell station with a chain link fence around it.

[sodapop2k9]

Ethanol is too costly - both to the wallet and the environment. It is not a green solution. The only issue it solves is an absence of fossil fuels.

[HeavyJim]

The gubbmint loves ethanol and blending it with gasoline, it makes you use more gas (AAA reports members are getting 6-20% less mpg with blends) so they get more in taxes you pay per gallon.

[CharliePeters]

Does fuel ethanol increase Big oil profit and oil use?

Some folks think so,

Ethanol is Big oil welfare

[E85RuinsEngines]

My wife inadvertently pumped E85 into our Honda. The car was out a week for diagnosis. After all new fuel injectors plus draining a near full tank of crappy E85 fuel, in starting working again. Over $625 in repairs.

Shell, and in our case Cary Oil Company in Cary NC, are hiding behind statements that the pumps meet minimum labeling standards. These pumps are NEW. People don't know what E85 is. It sounds like an octane rating! BTW, the nozzle head is the same, where diesel takes some real work to pump it in error.

I hope they rot in hell for allowing these mistakes to continue. My recommendation?

Make E85 pumps pay INSIDE for 6-12 months until consumers learn this crap is on the market.
Label the pumps better.

In the meantime PLEASE BOYCOTT SHELL until this is fixed. I'd love to hear your responses.