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Biofuel from any source, with GM backing

General Motors has formed a partnership with Coskata to use the company’s ethanol production technology. Coskata’s process uses microorganisms and bioreactors to produce ethanol from almost any renewable source, including garbage, old tyres and plant waste.

Coskata’s process addresses the environmental concerns often raised about grain-based ethanol. According to the US Argonne National Laboratory, which analyzed Coskata’s process, for every unit of energy used, it generates up to 7.7 times that amount of energy, and it reduces CO2 emissions by up to 84 percent compared with a well-to-wheel analysis of gasoline. It also cost less than $1 a gallon, around half the current cost of producing gasoline.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner said: “We’re excited about what this breakthrough will mean to the viability of biofuels and, more importantly, to our ability to reduce dependence on petroleum. It could lead to joint efforts in markets such as China, where growing energy demand could jumpstart a significant effort into ethanol made from biomass.”

GM has been investing in production of flex-fuel vehicles capable of driving on E85 bioethanol fuel blends, but only around one per cent of filling stations in the US sell E85. The OEM wants to encourage greater uptake of E85 is the best way to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the medium term.

That’s logical, considering how Saab has seen its market share increase in Sweden as uptake of E85 has grown. GM plans to make half its production flex-fuel capable by 2012. This year it will have more than 15 flex-fuel models on its range.

Coskata CEO Bill Roe said: “We will have our first commercial-scale plant making 50 to 100 million gallons of ethanol running in 2011.”

The partnership includes an undisclosed equity stake for GM, joint research and development into emissions technology and investigation into making ethanol from GM facilities’ waste and non-recyclable vehicle parts.