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Technology and Program Market Data – Biomass Technologies
This Web page includes a summary of market data for the ethanol industry. Data includes market penetration; industry trends; cost, price, and performance trends; policy and market drivers; as well as future outlook. The following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.
2007 Year in Review: U.S. Ethanol Industry, the Next Inflection Point
The report on the ethanol industry in the United States (PDF 1.6 MB), which covers January 2007 – February 2008, weighs the factors surrounding these possible policy and program changes: reform or elimination of the volumetric ethanol excise tax credit (VEETC); increased grant funding for further mitigation of technology and adoption risk; and strengthened loan guarantee programs. Chapters 1 and 2 address the current state of the industry and the coming rise of advanced biofuels. Chapter 3 discusses how the U.S. government is acting as a catalyst for industry growth while encouraging healthy industry fundamentals, helping the industry move through the next inflection point. Chapter 4 presents public policy considerations based on the analysis presented. Chapter 5 provides profiles for 30 significant private sector participants across six categories, including "ag/bio/chem," producer/marketer, growth stage, integrated energy, services, and finance. Highlights include:
The ethanol industry is showing strength in several areas:
- Corn ethanol has been solidly established as a foundation for the industry.
- Technology and innovation are being developed and applied across much of the value chain for both conventional and advanced biofuels.
- Feedstock supply is improving as planting patterns shift, new technologies enhance agricultural practices, and new biomass sources are developed.
- New feedstock sources are more geographically dispersed, providing better transport economics and balancing infrastructure loads.
- Logistical bottlenecks are being worked out as infrastructure catches up with rapid production capacity increases.
- There is a long-term legislative trend of and programmatic support for the ethanol industry. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) provides an aggressive renewable fuels standard (RFS) reaching out to 2022. The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Biomass Program is actively supporting industry development and technology commercialization. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a wide range of supporting activities, including programs for feedstock development, small-scale production, and farm-based use.
In other areas, the ethanol industry is showing challenges:
- A blending limit exists as production volumes approach the E10 level across the country in the next five years.
- Feedstock pricing—for both grain and non-grain biomass sources—will face upward pressure as the industry achieves greater scale.
- Blending terminals and rail capacity are under stress.
- Technologies to produce advanced biofuels, in particular cellulosic ethanol, have yet to be proven at commercial scale.
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