(ICIS) -- US cellulosic ethanol production will sharply fall short of targets mandated under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), an industry executive predicted on Tuesday. Cellulosic ethanol is identical to regular ethanol, except that the product is made from biomass that does not include edible feedstocks, such as corn.
Under the RFS, the US would have to use 10.5bn gal of cellulosic ethanol by 2020, but global production of that type of biofuel will likely only total 500m gal that year, said Phil Madson, president of KATZEN International.
Cellulosic ethanol production is still at the lab stage and there will not be enough of it to meet those targets, he said on the sidelines of the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) in Indianapolis.
Madson pointed to a recent move by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which last week proposed reducing the mandate for US cellulosic ethanol consumption for 2012 to 3.45m-12.90m gal, from a previous 500m gal target.