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October 12, 2008 10:29:55 AM CDT

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Gas From Garbage Finally Gets Momentum

Posted Jul 24, 08 9:18 AM CDT in Business,  Technology 

(Newser) – After decades of dreaming, schemes to turn waste into fuel are finally getting traction in the US, with some 28 plants in the works and a handful even up and running, the New York Times reports. They consume everything from wood chips to garbage, as once-prohibitively expensive processes become competitive with $4-a-gallon gasoline. “American innovation is going to come up with the solution,” one researcher tells the Times.

In the frenzy to be first to market, small start-ups are now getting a boost from corporate giants (Honeywell, Dupont, General Motors, Shell, BP) newly interested in acquiring stakes. There are many hurdles, but the government is giving the nascent industry a big push, as studies tout its potential to replace half the gasoline used in the US. Legislation passed last year mandates the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year by 2022, less than half of it from corn ethanol.

Source New York Times

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Biofuel friendly palm oil plants, in central Sumatra's Riau Province.   (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
A handful of corn is shown before it is processed at the Tall Corn Ethanol plant in Coon Rapids, Iowa.   (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
A machine cuts cane in a plantation in Batatais, Brazil for use in manufacturing ethanol.   (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Sawdust flows off the shaker tray at Hancock Lumber sawmill, in Casco, Maine.   (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach)
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