Cellulosic biomass could help * meet California ’ s transportation fuel needs

C biomass, a structural material in plants that can be converted into ethanol, is the only large-scale sustainable resource for producing alternative liquid fuels that can be integrated with our existing transportation infrastructure. Cellulosic biomass includes agricultural residues such as corn stover (the corn plant minus kernels and roots), forestry residues such as sawdust and paper, yard waste from municipal solid waste, herbaceous plants such as switchgrass, and woody plants such as poplar trees. Because a dry ton of cellulosic biomass could provide about three times as much energy as a barrel of petroleum, cellulosic biomass would be worth about $200 per dry ton when crude oil sells at $65 per barrel. It can be purchased for about a third of that amount. To utilize this abundant resource, we must develop low-cost technologies for transforming biomass into fuels that can compete with petroleum (Lynd et al. 1999). The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy (DOE) project that nationwide about 1.3 billion dry tons of cellulosic biomass (equivalent to 1.5 billion barrels of petroleum) could be available annually nationwide, enough for a major impact on energy use (Perlack et al. 2005), and that largescale biomass use is possible without threatening food supplies (Lynd et al. 2007). Overall, the conversion of cellulosic biomass into ethanol and other organic liquid fuels can improve energy security, reduce trade deficits, enhance global competitiveness and create rural employment. In addition, biotechnology can be harnessed to further reduce costs and realize the high yields vital to economic success (Wyman 1994). Perhaps of greatest importance, when appropriately utilized, cellulosic ethanol can release very little if any net carbon dioxide, because carbon dioxide released during processing and combustion only slightly exceeds the amount sequestered by cellulosic biofuel feedstocks such as trees and grasses. This provides a powerful and not readily matched mechanism to cut greenhouse-gas emissions due to transportation, the largest U.S. contributor with about a third of the total (Farrell et al. 2006). Both President Barack Obama and his predecessor in the White House have identified production of ethanol from cellulosic materials such as switchgrass and wood as vital to overcoming the U.S. “addiction” to oil. In recent years, California also adopted several bold new initiatives, including: (1) AB32, The Global Warming Solutions Laboratories at the Center for Environmental Research and Technology at UC Riverside focus on understanding and improving pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation technologies for the biological conversion of cellulosic biomass into ethanol and other products.