BP says new technology is needed to fuel biofuels growth
Phil New, the president of BP Global Biofuels thinks that biofuels may comprise up to thirty percent of transport fuel needs by 2030. However, to reach that point, new methods of production will have to be developed. Large scale biofuel use will require that they be sourced from something other than food stocks. The worlds increasing food demands are at odds with the increasing demand for fuel. One of the steps to overcome this will be the commercial development of cellulosic biofuel production, that will allow higher yields from non-food crops. Ethanol is also a rather poor fuel molecule compared to the more complex molecules of petroleum fuels. Ethanol only has about sixty percent of the energy content of gasoline. New sees ethanol as a jumping off point before developing more complex alcohols like biobutanol. BP has a partnership with DuPont to produce biobutanol at a British Sugar plant in England.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1985 Gripen 3:01PM (1/30/2007)
Can anyone point me to a resource which gives a breakdown of the current state of biofuels development and an estimated timeline as to when we can see such technologies in full production?
Whenever the argument of foodstock availability for biofuels production comes up or people bringing up how inefficient the current way we derive ethanol from corn is we hear advocates screaming "cellulosic!" or "algae!" but how close are those technologies to getting out of the lab and into our cars?
When can I expect to be pumping biobutanol created from waste biomass into my EV with multi-flex-fuel "range extender"?
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