Royal Dutch Shell recently began selling gasoline blended with
cellulosic ethanol for a 30-day period. The E10 (1o% ethanol,
90% gasoline) fuel currently available only at its designated
service station in Ottawa, Ontario in Canada was made in
association with Iogen as a pilot program. Cellulosic ethanol is
a second-generation ethanol production technology which uses
plant biomass as feedstock. The four main groups of plant
biomass are, wood residues, tall woody grasses, agricultural
residues and municipal paper wastes. The Shell-Iogen biofuel was
made from agricultural residues (wheat straw). There are
potential benefits to the use of agricultural residues such as
wheat straw in the production of biofuels. For example, there is
the freedom from food-fuels crises (the wheat grains are used
for food while the residual straw is used for ethanol
production) which plagued the corn-based program. It optimizes
crop acreage (the same acreage is used simultaneously for both
food and fuel) and utilizes in the main, ex