A series of cellulosic-biofuel plants are finally starting to come on line after years of delay. But the new wave of plant openings, good news as it is for the emerging industry, also shows just how far it still has to go.

Earlier this year Kior, a startup based in Pasadena, announced that it had shipped its first renewable diesel, made from pine wood chips. Last week, the chemical company Ineos started making ethanol from wood chips and other plant materials at a facility in Columbus, Mississippi, that can produce up to 8.5 million gallons of fuel a year. By next year more than a dozen multimillion-gallon plants are scheduled to be finished in the U.S. Although the plants are considered commercial scale, they’re still relatively small compared with corn ethanol plants, which often produce 100 million gallons of fuel per year.

The facilities won’t come close to meeting the requirements set out by the 2007 renewable-fuel standard, which was central to President Bush’s efforts to bring fuels made from biomass to market. What’s more, many of the new plants will struggle in an already saturated ethanol market.

Cellulosic biofuels, made from materials such as wood chips and corn stalks, were mandated as […]