(75d) Cost Competitive Cellulosic Ethanol: The National Renewable Energy Lab's Perspective

In 2007, after President Bush’s State of the Union address where he stated America was “addicted to oil”, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Biomass Energy Technology Office (BETO) in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) established the goal of demonstrating cost competitive cellulosic ethanol production.  To reduce the production costs and to eventually demonstrate their ultimate cost target, BETO devised and implemented a multi-pronged strategy that combined consistent funding for both fundamental and applied R&D at NREL and other national labs and academic institutions with targeted Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) that attracted industry participation to solve very specific technical barriers.  Through this approach, a series of technical accomplishments that had a direct impact on cost improvements were achieved.  This presentation will summarize the culmination and integration of these technology improvements into NREL’s integrated pilot scale demonstration of cellulosic ethanol production from corn stover.