Second-generation biofuels

Samuel Dalzell

Friday, February 13, 2009

4:48 PM

Energy/Alternative Energy

Today in Munich, F.O. Licht, a German commodities analyst that monitors the global supply of many agricultural products, organized a conference to discuss the next generation of biofuels and the future of the biofuel industry in general.   In recent years, concern about global warming has lead to the advent of new, cleaner "green" fuels such as ethanol aimed at reducing carbon emissions.  Controversy has since developed as to whether biofuels cause more harm than good---first generation biofuels are produced from many foods such as corn, sugar, wheat, and vegetable oils; it has been speculated that the increased production of biofuels and the accompanying strain on certain agricultural products lead, in part, to the dramatic spike in global food prices experienced in 2007 and 2008.  Today's conference asserted the necessity for modifying biofuel production to ensure that the rapidly growing demand for alternative forms of energy will not negatively affect other areas of the market.  New standards mean that the biofuel industry will need to find new feedstocks---and the choices are wide open.  Non-food plants and crops mentioned at the conference as possibilities for use in future biofuel production range from cornhusks, grasses and algae to jatropha oilseeds, tree bark and twigs.  Governments hope that conflict with food can be avoided by producing more biofuels from lower-grade crops and materials such as these.

This is tremendous news, and it couldn't have come any sooner.  This opens up many possibilities for this much needed and sorely underdeveloped industry.  The choices for new generation feedstocks (that is, raw materials such as corn and grasses) is wide open and very diverse.  This means that no single type of feedstock will dominate---it is possible that a wide range of differing feedstocks will be used in different parts of the world.  This is exactly the kind of momentum the world needs at this time, a push towards cleaner, renewable energy that will not have any adverse side-effects.  In a few years, I imagine that we will have the technology to effectively turn industrial and agricultural waste into clean-burning fuels.  This move makes it very clear that the environmental and new-energy movements are building steam---we can only hope that more and more people start moving in this direction.  2009 will prove to be a big year.

All I know for sure is, RIGHT NOW is the time to invest in biofuel companies.

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE51C5R320090213