The 10 Top Biofuels Stories of the Year

1. The October Surprise: BP Cancels Plans for US Cellulosic Ethanol Plant

Editor’s Note: “If it bleeds, it leads” goes the old newspaper saw — and this story, on BP’s cancellation of a Florida cellulosic ethanol project, did much to confirm the saying when it became the most widely-read article of the year in the Digest. 

In Florida, BP announced it is canceling plans to build a 36 million gallon commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Highlands County. The company said that it would refocus its US biofuels strategy on R&D, as well as licensing its industry–leading biofuels technology.

“Given the large and growing portfolio of investment opportunities available to BP globally, we believe it is in the best interest of our shareholders to redeploy the considerable capital required to build this facility into other more attractive projects,” said Geoff Morrell, BP vice president of communications.

BP originally announced plans to build the Florida facility in 2008 with the intention of turning thousands of acres of energy crops into 36 million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol.

While BP did not directly comment on its plans to build a second, 72 million gallon plant in the southeastern US by 2017, the company, in a statement, said that was “ending its pursuit of commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol production in the US.”

As recently as the London Olympics, BP had described its long-term lower-carbon strategy as investing in the right feedstocks and technology ‘to do biofuels well’. In London, BP continued to guide media and its shareholders that it was “developing a commercial facility in Florida, where the first 2,000 of a future 20,000 acres of energy grasses are being grown.”