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GM launches partnership with cellulosic ethanol startup Coskata
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 13 - 01 - 2008


General Motors Corp. said
Sunday it has taken an ownership stake and formed a
partnership with Coskata Inc., a renewable energy startup
company that plans to produce ethanol from agricultural
leftovers and municipal and industrial waste, according to AP.
The announcement was made at the North American
International Auto Show in Detroit after the two companies
briefed reporters earlier at Coskata's headquarters in this
western Chicago suburb. The extent of GM's investment and
minority stake was not disclosed.
The partnership represents a rare foray by a major
automaker into the production side of non-fossil fuels as
GM and its rivals, under pressure from tougher U.S. fuel
efficiency standards, pursue a mix of fuel-efficient
vehicles and technologies.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said it will
take more than 12 years to replace most of the vehicles now
on the road with more energy-efficient electrically driven
vehicles.
In the meantime, ethanol is needed to decrease oil
dependence «because there are already millions of
flex-fuel vehicles on the road right now, for example, more
than 6 million in the U.S. alone. Vehicles that could be
running on ethanol if it were more readily available.»
If all the flex-fuel vehicles produced by GM, Ford Motor
Co. and Chrysler LLC, plus those the companies have
committed to producing by 2010, were to run on ethanol,
they would displace 29 billion gallons (110 billion liters)
of gasoline annually, or 18 percent of the projected
petroleum usage at that time, Wagoner said.
«Nothing else we can do gets even close to that kind of
impact that soon,» he said, adding that ethanol requires
little change in consumer behavior.
The cellulosic ethanol being developed from Coskata's
biology-based technology won't be available at retail gas
stations until the end of 2010 at the earliest.
But the Illinois company maintains its process is
commercially viable now and is a platform for producing
other biofuels in the future. It aims to have a
40,000-gallon (151,410-liter) demonstration facility
operational by the end of this year to deliver ethanol to
GM for testing in its vehicles before building a
100-million-gallon (378.5-million-liter) commercial plant
at an undetermined U.S. location.
Bill Roe, president and CEO of 18-month-old Coskata, said
that at full production the company will be able to make
ethanol for less than $1 a gallon. He said pump prices
should dramatically reflect widespread production of the
cheaper new ethanol by 2015 or 2016, when it expects to be
building 20 to 25 fuel plants a year.
«GM is enabling Coskata to produce the next generation of
biofuels _ without using a food source _ making it
economically viable and commercially available,» he said.
«Alternative transportation fuels are coming faster than
people think ... and will be available at a lower cost than
people have imagined.»
More ethanol is needed as the Big Three automakers ramp up
production of flexible-fuel vehicles, with 6 million U.S.
cars and trucks now capable of running on 85 percent
ethanol blends and other biofuels to meet renewable fuel
standards and reduce dependence on foreign oil.
GM has pledged to double its annual flex-fuel production
to 800,000 by 2010 and make half its annual production
E85-capable by 2012.


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