Iogen’s demonstration facility in Ottawa Canada has been producing cellulosic ethanol, although not for retail sale, since 2004.

Valero Energy would support a 5-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax increase in order to pay for road and bridge infrastructure repairs – but only alongside a repeal of tax credits for farmers and ethanol producers.

Since EU leaders fixed renewable targets last year, concerns have risen about possible negative effects from biofuels, including their impact on food prices and the environment.

Japan started selling ETBE-blended gasoline last April, but prices of sugar and corn are relatively high in Japan and globally, have risen even more sharply since.

Although the EU is considering the region as a whole in crafting its bioenergy policy, how to implement the policy would be left to the member states and to the companies residing in them.

Such an undertaking would be worth between one and two billion dollars, though the company would prefer that the technology not involve corn.

The government is also considering whether to make a 3% biodiesel blend binding in July of this year, and may require a 4% blend next year.

ZeaChem uses a novel bacterium, called an acetogen, found in the termite and many other places in nature, which does not produce CO2, but converts all of the breakdown products of wood into acetic acid, Verser said.