Although the US and other nations currently produce ethanol from the sugars and starches of crops like sugar cane and corn, ethanol isn’t a good match for our existing fuel infrastructure—and this form of production runs the risk of putting energy in competition with food production for resources like land and water. As a result, attention has shifted to figuring out how to produce a new generation of biofuels from different sources that more closely approximate the diesel and gasoline in use today.
Yesterday’s edition of Science contained a perspective on the prospects for these next-generation biofuels. Although it’s very short, only a page long, it contains an excellent list of references to very current publications. The diversity of approaches it covers highlights how many options there are to produce different fuels, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. In the following sections, we’ll discuss different methods of producing biofuels; although the text presents them as alternatives, it’s important to emphasize that there are significant overlaps among them, and more than one technology might emerge for widespread use.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica – News
