The Top 10 Biofuels Stories of 2008: #3, Gasification, pyrolysis, green fuels

2008 was supposed to be the year when cellulosic ethanol went mainstrean, with Range Fuels’ planned launch of its DOE-supported demonstration scale plant.

Instead, it was companies such as Sustainable Power, Sapphire, Virent, Amyris and LS9 that attracted attention with their green diesels and gasolines – made from biomass but otherwise having the same molecules and performance characteristics of fossil fuels. Gasification and pyrolysis attracted new attention, among other technologies, not only as an economically viable strategy but for the emissions potential of biochar.

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