Detroit 2008: Videos of GM-Coskata ethanol partnership and BMW's diesel plans
If all the AutoblogGreen coverage of the GM-Coskata cellulosic ethanol partnership wasn't enough to satisfy your curiosity about just how these two companies hope to make living green and going yellow that much better for the environment (at least until Coskata gets into the coal-to-ethanol stuff, which a lot of us have questions about), Green Fuels Forecast has a few videos for you. In the clip above, GFF talks with Coskata's Richard Tobey about the technical aspects of the syngas-to-ethanol process.
After the jump, you'll find video interviews with various GM and Coskata representatives (Coskata CEO Bill Roe and GM's Mary Beth Stanek and Candace Wheeler) as well as a DieselForecast interview with the CEO of BMW USA, Tom Purves. Purves talks about how BMW plans to introduce diesel engines to the U.S. market.
[Source: Green Fuels Forecast]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 12:21PM (1/22/2008)
How does the Coskata process compare to traditional syngas-based fuel synthesis via F-T and especially, MTG? The enzymatic process should waste less energy, but ethanol's low energy density and hygroscopic quality make it an inferior end product. If Coskata could produce butanol instead, those drawbacks would be substantially reduced. I suspect they focused their R&D on ethanol primarily because of subsidies, protectionist tariffs and the E85 loophole in CAFE.
BMW's hydrogen pitch is getting stale. T2B5-compliant diesels are perfectly fine, CNG/ANG systems with dual turbo engines the next wave for those markets that have plentiful NG or biogas. Why waste additional resources on a supposed hydrogen future that will likely never happen? Well, because CARB is still fixated on its zero tailpipe emissions program.
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