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Ethanol producers see a future in which their product is no longer an additive to gasoline, but the primary fuel for America’s vehicles. It’s a vision of energy independence, eliminating imports for fuel.

Using new technology and new feedstocks is the only way to make the notion a reality, and one company claims that technology is on the verge of hitting the market.

The most common source of renewable fuel has been corn ethanol; however, companies and governments across the globe have been researching the potential for cellulosic ethanol production and we are finally on the cusp of it becoming a reality.

Cellulosic ethanol is derived from natural, plant waste products such as rice straw, sugarcane, switchgrass, wood chips, corn cobs or other woody substances. Cellulose is found in nearly all plant life and is the most common organic compound on earth.

However, breaking down these types of biomass to create ethanol requires an enzyme very different from what’s used to produce ethanol from grain.

Cellulosic ethanol plants require somewhat different equipment and use different processes than grain-to-ethanol facilities, but the two processes also have much in common. Rather than building new plants for cellulosic ethanol production, converting existing facilities provides opportunities to share resources such as water and energy.

POET, the nation’s largest ethanol producer, will produce cellulosic ethanol at their pilot plant in Scotland, SD this year, and they’re ready to make it a commercial product at POET Biorefining in Emmetsburg, IA by 2011. The company has already reached out to farmers in the Emmetsburg area to harvest a cellulosic feedstock for that technology: corn cobs.

POET leaders are enthusiastic about the future of cellulosic ethanol because its production will help reduce our dependency on foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.