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New biofuel competes with gasoline

by Sonya Artero

Imagine if Guam's overburdened dump could be alleviated from household garbage, agricultural waste or any other organic material that's non food-based.  Now imagine taking all that garbage and literally turning it into fuel that would sustain our own island environment.

Well, such has become a reality thanks to a renewable energy company, Coskata, whose president of research & development, Richard Tobey explains.  He first said the benefits are an ability reduce green house gases up to 96%, create economic growth and achieve the energy independence our country has been seeking for decades.

"We start with a feedstock such as wood biomass or virtually any non food based organic material. This feedstock is then turned into a hi energy gas through a process called gasification.  The next stage called fermentation involves feeding the gas to our patented micro organisms to conversion into ethanol. The final step is a proven distillation process to get fuel grade ethanol to your car.

The pure simplicity and efficiency of the process is what allowed Coskata to directly compete with gasoline, without government subsidies.

William Roe is president of Coskata, and says, "The next step is construction of full scale facilities.  We're prepared to begin licensing the technology to leading developers around the world so that we can begin making a meaningful impact on the country's overall energy mix."

Other benefits of flex ethanol include reducing green house gases by up to 96%, creating economic growth, and achieving the level of energy independence our island has been seeking for decades.