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W 5. Rentech (U.S.) - coal or coke as feedstock 6. Choren Industries (Germany) - 7. Syntroleum (U.S.) - used natural gas as feedstock in a demonstration for the U.S. Air Force. In addition, there are a number of research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to use organic materials as feedstocks. These include the Renewable Energy Laboratory and Louisiana State University. The Fischer - Tropsch process is an established technology that has been applied on a large scale in some industrial sectors. Large -scale commercialization is impeded by high capital costs, high operation and maintenance costs, the uncertain and volatile price of crude oil, and environmental concerns. As mentioned in Appendix B, Section 1.3.2, biogas production from wastes is a mature technology with both large- and small -scale units in production worldwide. In India alone, there are over 2 million farm units that produce biogas from animal manures and other wastes. As of 2006, there were thousands of plants in Europe; Germany alone had 3,500 that produced a total of 1,100 MW. The newest of these plants range between 400 and 800 KW, using crops and manure for feedstock. In southern Europe, the production of biogas is primarily from landfills. In 2007, a report on the potential of biogas in Europe by the Oko- Instituts and the Institut fur Energetik in Leipzig concluded that Germany alone can produce more biogas by 2020 than all of the European Union's (EU) current natural gas imports from Russia. Table 3 -3 shows the production of biogas in Europe by country with the production broken into three categories of feedstock: landfill gas, sewage sludge and other. Summarized by feedstock, this results in 64 percent landfill gas, 18.8 from sewage sludge and 17.2 other. The largest producer of biogas is the United Kingdom, closely followed by Germany. The biogas is approximately 50 percent methane, mixed with carbon dioxide and other gases. GBB/C08027 -01 9 August 15, 2008