Tomorrow, General Motors is hosting a backgrounder on cellulosic ethanol feedstocks at the Thousand Oak (CA) based laboratories of Ceres, Inc.

Coverage of non-food based ethanol tends to focus on fuel production technologies, but Ceres works one step further up the supply chain: they’re using genetic technology to engineer plants optimally suited for conversion into something you’d want to put in your gas tank.

I’ve already had the chance to speak with Richard Hamilton, President and CFO of Ceres, about the potential to produce super-strains of perennial grasses like sweet sorghum and switchgrass, and I’m looking forward to hearing more details tomorrow.

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This mean-lookin’ machine may wind up in your rear-view mirror someday, as GM is thinking hard about bringing this 40mpg car to America.  Don’t you just love the way some cars take on an actual head-on personality.  Engineers must love to do this sort of thing.

It’s called the Beat, and it’s a car that would normally be sold in other markets, such as Asia and Latin America.  But with the high price of gas, and GM’s plunging losses ($38.7 billion in 2007), the company that brought you the Hummer may just have to re-invent itself.  And, no, it isn’t a hybrid.

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Editors Note: This guest post was contributed by Charley Territo, spokesperson for the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers, in an effort encourage better dialogue between the auto industry and the environmental movement. Charley also contributed a guest post on Grist on May 20. I asked him to weigh in on a question I’ve had for a long time: How can automakers like GM complain that consumers only want to buy big cars when they spend hundreds of thousands advertising brands like Hummer? Here is his response. Feel free to weigh in with your own comments below.

For years it’s been assumed that, using their superior marketing skills, automakers have the ability to trick consumers into buying SUVs and pickup trucks…when, in reality, the consumers really only
wanted to buy compact cars.  While that’s probably quite flattering to the marketing departments, it doesn’t have the important benefit of actually being correct.

Current events are now allowing people to see more clearly the greater force at work driving consumer demand: Gas prices.

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According to Swedish car safety specialist Claes Tingvall, GM has wrapped up a multi-year project which used dead human bodies instead of crash dummies. Specifically, the tests were made with Saab automobiles.

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General Motors announced today it would be entering into a strategic relationship with Mascoma Corp., a second-generation biofuel company with the technology to produce cellulosic ethanol from non-food sources via a single-step biochemical conversion.

The undisclosed equity share aims to contribute to joint research and development along with technology exchange, plant siting, and rapid commercialization of cellulosic ethanol technology and infrastructure. This is GM’s second investment in a cellulosic ethanol company, after announcing partnership with Coskata back in January.

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Trees, agricultural waste, storm debris and trash are all viable fuel sources for ethanol, using the Coskata process. This highly flexible technology allows future manufacturing plants to cater to locally available materials, making ethanol viable in parts of the globe that would not use corn or sugar cane for fuel. Argonne National Laboratory tests show that greenhouse gas emissions are up to 84% lower for Coskta ethanol than conventional gasoline. It has a net energy balance of up to 7.7, compared to 1.3 for corn-based ethanol. These results were achieved with a production cost of $1 a gallon when timber was used as an ethanol fuel source.

On face of it, you would think that garbage would be the cheapest way to produce fuel, given the flexibility of the Coskata process. In fact, one of the most available and economically viable fuel sources is trees, with the low price tag of $50 a ton. There is a very efficient infrastructure for harvesting and transporting trees. They are available throughout the year, unlike some agricultural products. It is actually cheaper to use trees than sorted garbage and agricultural waste.

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Mr. Wagoner addressed a variety of issues, including the Coskata ethanol announcement, the future of the Hummer brand (hint: smaller), the risks associated with producing the Chevy Volt, and the impotency of CAFE standards. In case you wanted to hear it straight from the top, here you go:

Download Breakfast with Rick Wagoner

As you’ve almost certainly already heard by now, General Motors has announced a partnership with Coskata, Inc. to produce ethanol less expensively and without using food materials as feedstock for the process. This is exciting for a number of reasons. First of all, Coskata is close to completing a continuous demonstration stream at their laboratory. They also expect to have a pilot demonstration plant in place by the end of the year that will produce 40,000 gallons of ethanol. And later this year, they expect to announce the site for their first full-scale plant which will be capable of annual production of 100 million gallons of ethanol. The process also consumes less water resources (less than one gallon of water per gallon of ethanol produced) and delivers 7.7 units of energy per unit of energy used in the process.

The process relies on using anaerobic microbes that consume carbon monoxide and hydrogen and produce ethanol. Because the process uses specially bred strains of microbes, they produce ethanol exclusively, unlike other fermentation processes, which often produce a range of alcohols and which require further distillation. Furthermore, the flexibility of the Coskata process allows for other microbes to be used in the same process setup (or even a parallel setup). Other strains of microbes that produce other useful alcohols, including some used as precursors for plastic production, so that the same technology could be used in other applications to provide a petroleum replacement.

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The words ‘green’ and ‘Hummer’ don’t usually occur together, except when compiling a complete list of oxymorons. But earlier today at the Saab/Hummer press conference, GM debuted it’s concept H-X Hummer, calling it the “Green Hummer”. The new model is smaller, lighter, and intended for a younger demographic, with the added capability of running on E85 ethanol. It also has an interesting modular construction that allows you to reconfigure the cab at will. Martin Walsh, General Manager of the brand, told us that the new model could get mileage in the mid-20s (although no hard numbers were available).

Ok, this isn’t exactly the 60 mpg Hummer I’ve mentioned before, but that’s a 10 mpg increase in efficiency over previous models. To be honest, it also looks a lot less like a Hummer, being smaller and sportier-more like a lunar explorer than the H2 (that’s my take). But Mr. Walsh said Hummers will continue to decrease in size as customers demand greater fuel efficiency and continue to voice environmental concerns.

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GM already has a vested interested in ethanol, with 2.5 million FlexFuel model vehicles already on the road (15 models planned for 2009), and plans to make half their fleet ethanol-ready by 2012. The partnership is a win-win situation as Bill Roe, President and CEO of Coskata puts it: “GM is enabling Coskata to produce the next generation of biofuels - without using a food source - making it economically viable and commercially available.”

GM will test Coskata’s ethanol at the Milford Proving Grounds by late 2008, followed by completion of a 40,000 gallon per year commercial demonstration facility by the end of the year. A larger, 100 million gallon per year facility is currently being sited for construction in the U.S.

Coskata claims it can produce ethanol for under $1.00 per gallon from almost any carbon-containing feedstock, while reducing greenhouse gas emission by 84% compared to gasoline, using only 1 gallon of water for each gallon ethanol produced, and returning 7.7 times as much energy as is used in the production process.

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We’ve looked at the Rush to Ethanol paper, read media reports and listened to the arguments its authors have presented.

It seems the group supports Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) increases and endorses a sea change in American culture toward mass transportation more than reducing our dependence on oil.

The intention of CAFÉ was not to increase fuel economy, but to reduce U.S. gasoline consumption. If we found a better mousetrap and achieved the desired result, shouldn’t we consider it?

We don’t agree with many of the points presented in Rush to Ethanol. But we do agree that corn ethanol alone is not the ultimate solution. Corn ethanol, however, is today’s technology and it helps reduce U.S. gasoline consumption today.

In the near term, the best opportunity for reducing gasoline consumption, oil imports, and greenhouse gas emissions is through increased use of bio-fuels. And the bio-fuel with the greatest potential to displace petroleum in the U.S. is ethanol.

Consider the differences between CAFE and ethanol.

A 4 percent-per-year increase in CAFE would save 8.5 billion gallons of gasoline annually by 2017, less than half of the projected growth in American oil consumption.

In other words, even with this proposed CAFE increase, America will still be using more – and likely importing more—oil than ever.

But if all of the E-85 capable vehicles on the road today and committed to by the manufacturers were to run on E-85, we could displace 22 billion gallons of gasoline annually. And if all other manufacturers made the same commitment, the savings increase to 37 billion gallons.

That’s more than quadruple the savings that proposed CAFE increases would achieve. And it’s enough to reduce America’s oil consumption more than 10 percent versus today’s levels, and reduce CO2.

The vehicles are on the road today, but they are not being fully utilized because of constraints on E-85 supply and distribution. The automakers are doing their part, but the infrastructure side is not catching up.

With continued commitment from the automakers and energy producers along with support from government to grow bio-fuel production and distribution, including next-generation cellulosic ethanol, we can make a big difference.

CAFE has fallen dramatically short of its goals. And yet, for our nation, the original goals of the legislation are more important than ever.

It is time to address reducing U.S. gasoline consumption and oil imports, as well as the challenges presented by CO2 emissions.

The solutions are within our grasp.

This move is more than symbolic as it shows an actual transition from the R&D and into the initial stages of commercialization of the vehicles. When pressed for a timeline on hydrogen vehicles showing up in dealerships, Larry Burns, vice president of research and development, offered that they could be available within five or six years. From the article,

Burns said he's not yet willing to say exactly when hydrogen vehicles will be mass-produced, but he said it should happen before 2020, the year many experts have predicted.

"I sure would be disappointed if we weren't there" before 2020, he said Wednesday at his office in GM's sprawling technical center campus in the Detroit suburb of Warren.

Of course, the promises of a hydrogen economy have been whispered in ears for decades without much to show beyond some "proof of life" concepts at trade shows and celebrity parties. There are still massive questions regarding high-price, fueling infrastructures, range, and storage capacity. To GM's credit however — and based on interviews I've had with their executives — there appears to be a genuine push to lead this market and take the crown of innovation before anyone else. Starting this Fall, more than 100 consumers will have the opportunity to test-drive their own personal fuel-cell vehicle for several weeks in New York, Washington and Los Angeles. That's a huge step towards realizing the future of alternative energy vehicles — even if we're still faced with a chicken/egg type scenario. Let's hope GM's big picture allows the other pieces of the puzzle to fall easily into place.

Hit the jump for more.

This is a multi-year program, which has already gone through two years of evaluations and awards. And, while the initial information I had about the program was that this was the conclusion of the challenge, I learned that there is going to be a fourth year to the program, which will focus on consumer acceptability issues.

The top three programs for this year's competition were Mississipi State (1st place), University of Wisconsin (2nd place), and Virginia Tech (3rd place). The vehicles went through a multi-day testing at GM's proving grounds, and were judged on numerous criteria. More information about the ChallengeX results can be found on GM's FYI blog.

I talked for a bit with Dr. Andrew Frank, the faculty adviser, and with Terrence Wiliams, the project team leader for the team from University of California at Davis, who call themselves Team Fate. Of the 17 teams in ChallengeX, only the team from UC-Davis had a plug-in hybrid vehicle. (Unfortunately, a broken clutch kept them from completing the competition, and their vehicle was not one that was availalbe to be driven.) To help demonstrate their vehicle's ability to travel without needing to use it's internal combustion engine, Team Fate had a demonstration trailer with a solar panel for charging their vehicle (though it wasn't able to be on display with the vehicle). Like the Volt, it was designed to be able to travel a reasonable range based on a charge collected from a plug in source (be it a solar PV array on a garage roof or just a grid-tied circuit) and avoid the use of the fuelled half of the system altogether.

Plug-in Hybrid EquinoxSeveral other ChalengeX vehicles were available to be driven (albeit just a trip around the block at GM's Renaissance Center headquarters in Detroit). Most of the teams (12 of the 17 competitors) used biodiesel (all were using a B20 blend) as their fuel. One team which went a bit farther with their entry, however, was the University of Waterloo's vehicle, which was powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, rather than some form of internal combustion engine. (I had the chance to drive that vehicle, and that will be covered in a forthcoming article.)

In addition to the announcement of the winners in this year's stage of the ChallengeX program, I also had an opportunity to meet with a couple of GM executives, who were discussing aspects of GM's forthcoming Volt program, which was the topic of everyone's interest.

Micky Bly, engineering director for GM's hybrid vehicle integration contols, spoke to several bloggers present as a special outreach. Much of the discussion dealt with the issue of batteries for the new Chevrolet Volt. When GM committed to the Volt, the question of where they were going to find the batteries with sufficient technology seemed to be one of the key obstacles to bringing a plug-in hybrid to the marketplace. The week before, GM had announced their selection of two suppliers to work with in moving toward the development of a suitable battery. This is a big step forward in bringing this car to the market, and there were many questions about the program.

The focus is on lithium-ion batteries, which are, esentially, a scaled up version of what you have in your cell phone or your laptop computer, in all likelihood. Lithium-ion batteries have the working charge range and the energy density to serve as the batteries for this vehicle. But, as has been seen in several recent cases, sometimes these batteries can overheat and cause fires, and those problems need to be solved if GM is going to be able to offer a 10 year/100,000 mile warranty on them (which, according to the discusions I had, is what GM is planning).

While no one would give us a release date for the Volt, there is strong enthusiasm for this program among all the people I spoke to. Both Larry Burns (GM's Vice President, Research & Development and Strategic Planning) and Micky Bly spoke about "displacing petroleum." Much of the focus with the new vehicle systems that GM is developing, as well as the ChallengeX entries, are working to reduce the amount of petroleum that is required for transportation.

Other blogs present:

Autoblog Green

Podtech.net

GM-volt.com

Other coverage:

After Gutenberg

Green Car Congress

General Motors is one of the few American automakers to see the writing on the wall and has quickly begun adding shades of green to its future vehicles and manufacturing processes. Today's announcement, that the automaker will reduce carbon emissions by 40% (below year 2000 levels) by 2010, is another step in the right direction.

GM plans on making these cuts by harnessing energy from landfill gases, as well as utilizing solar power at various manufacturing facilities. Production efficiency (and let's hope recycling) are also being implemented for further gains.

This isn't the first time GM has pledged to reduce emissions. Back in 2002, a tiny 10% was promised after the automaker helped found the EPA's Climate Leaders Program. The program is designed to help major corporations find ways to cut their emissions. I imagine, however, that even those involved with the program have only recently taken use of its advice.

It's an interesting road that lies ahead of us. On one hand, it seems to me that the industry is testing the waters with new technologies and green publicity to gauge public reaction. On another, there appears to be a genuine push to take auto manufacturing in a new direction that can benefit from the increased efficiency and reduced costs associated with 'going green'. My only hope is that business follows the science and not the fads we're likely to see with consumer interest in "all things green". If we can standardize green auto additions and not hype the hell out of them, people won't think twice about how unusual a hybrid is or the oddity of an all-electric vehicle. They'll just get in and go. GM just hopes it's a Volt, and not a Prius, that they're driving.