Significant research and policy effort can supplement
transportation fuel needs
Megan McRainey
Institute Communications and Public Affairs
| |
 |
| |
Wood
chips used to make bioethanol. Researchers argue
that a broader spectrum of biomaterials and improved
biomass processing can reduce petroleum usage
by one-third. |
With world oil demand growing, supplies dwindling and
the potential for weather- and conflict-related supply
interruptions, other types of fuels and technologies
are needed to help pick up the slack.
A group of experts in science, engineering and public
policy from Georgia Tech, the Imperial College London
and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory recommend a comprehensive
research and policy plan aimed at increasing the practicality
of using biofuels and biomaterials as a supplement to
petroleum. The review article, called “The Path
Forward for Biofuels and Biomaterials,” appeared
in the Jan. 27 issue of Science.
“We can readily address, with research, 30 percent
of current transportation fuel needs. But reaching that
goal will require 5-10 years and significant policy
and technical effort,” said Arthur Ragauskas,
a professor in the School
of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a lead on the
project.
While many think of ethanol when they think of biofuels,
the group recommends a much broader spectrum of possible
materials including agriculture wastes such as corn
stovers and wheat stalks, fast-growing trees such as
poplar and willow and several perennial energy crops
such as switchgrass.
In addition to including more diversity in materials,
the group also recommends some changes to the plants
themselves — using techniques such as accelerated
domestication to make them more efficient energy crops.
But doubling the productivity of energy crops will mean
identifying constraints and correcting them with genomic
tools.
To make biofuels a truly practical alternative to petroleum,
the group says there will need to be significant improvements
in how biofuel is processed. Their vision is for a fully
integrated biorefinery, designed to take advantage of
advances in plant science and innovative biomass conversion
processes and equipment to produce fuels, power and
chemicals from biomass.
The biorefinery would work much like a petroleum refinery,
which produces multiple fuels and products from petroleum.
The group based its recommendations on research studies,
including studies on the development of rapid-growth,
high-energy content trees and perennials, novel environmentally
friendly biomass extraction technologies, innovative
catalysts for the conversion of agriculture and wood
residues to bioethanol/diesel and hydrogen, bio-fuel
cells and next-generation green plastics and materials
prepared from sustainable sources such as plants, sunlight
and wastes.
| 
