Potential reductions in greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and decreased dependence on for eign oil are fueling interest in the development of biobased products. Bioproducts represent a small but increasing market as petroleum substitutes. In 2006, U.S. production of ethanol and biodiesel was 4.9 billion gal and 90 million gal, respectively. Cur rently, 14 of the U.S. corn crop is consumed for pro duction of ethanol (7), which is predominantly used as an oxygenate in gasoline. Table 1 shows the ma turity of several biobased commodity technolpgies. Additional new products are developing rapidly.
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