The Future for Biofuels

August 18, 2008

Only a few years ago biofuels were hailed as a key element in fighting global warming and reducing America's dependence on middle-eastern oil. But today those predictions are questionable while the future of the industry is in peril.

In the US, there are great government incentives for the production of ethanol, a biofuel that is widely accepted to be worse for the environment than oil when the full lifecycle is taken into account. Political pressure against these subsidies has been gradually mounting, and is reaching a peak now.

The use of food crops, namely corn, in the production of fuel has come under fire as the worldwide prices for food are climbing fast and pushing millions of people into poverty and hunger.

As the effects of global warming are increasingly felt in the form of unpredictable weather patterns and extreme weather disasters such as floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes, the reliability of biofuels is coming under scrutiny as well. For all the downsides of oil and coal, one can’t argue with the fact that it is reliable and relatively stable on a year to year basis, although there are changes over the course of many years.

This challenge is something that will lead researchers to develop new sources of biofuels. Other forms of biomass, such as woodchips, grass, and algae (seen as a possibility for jet fuel) are being developed and will one day reach commercial production. However, even these will not be perfect solutions.

The true future of biomass will come from crops that can be grown on a massive scale in controlled environment. Algae shows potential for being produced in storage, and if this comes to fruition it could become the leader in the biofuel industry.

Future development of biofuels will also need to be separate from food production. Even if the crop of choice changes from corn to grass, farmers will simply change their crops to meet the needs of the biofuels industry as this is where the most money is. Again, this begets the need for developing the crop in storage and puts algae at the front of the list.

As oil prices increase and different forms of biofuels become commercially viable, the pressure on the industry will continue to mount to find an ideal crop, whether it be algae or some other new crop that meets the political and commercial needs of the industry.

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