I bet that Miscanthus in Illinois can beat this, but even at these numbers, “cellulosic synthetic diesel”, which can be produced today using commercial off the shelf technology, would be commercially viable if feedstock costs could be locked down and kept in control (which is really the piece that mkes BTL difficult if not impossible to finance in today’s market).
Growing switchgrass to cost $60 a ton
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/03/10/news/agnews/doc47d36c3b81b86970403831.txt
“…. Goldman analysts Arjun Murti, Kevin Koh and Michele della Vigna said prices have advanced more quickly than Goldman had forecast back in 2005, when it predicted a range of $50 to $105 a barrel as part of its “super-spike” oil theory.
“We characterized the upper end of the band as more likely to be driven by geopolitical turmoil and that recession was a key risk to our view,” the analysts said. “In fact, oil prices have reached $100 a barrel without extraordinary turmoil, and the U.S. currently appears to be in recession.”
Tacking on $15 a barrel to all of its oil estimates, Goldman now sees average selling prices of $95 a barrel for 2008, $105 a barrel for 2009 and $110 a barrel for 2010. The high end of its range is now $135 a barrel — but Goldman hinted that prices could be headed even higher. ….”
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3709
Very entertaining video.
Before you dismiss his projection as too extreme, keep in mind that he is one of the very few people that accurately predicted our current oil price situation, and has produced some of the best analysis to date on the real state of our energy infrastructure. .