New energy act to fuel flow of 'biogasoline'

[From CNET]Posted by Martin LaMonica
The recently passed energy act is a boon for ethanol. But other biofuels, including plant-derived fossil fuel look-alikes, are also poised to get a boost.

A handful of companies are using different approaches to designing synthetic versions of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. They include including LS9, Amyris Biotechnologies, Codexis, and J. Craig Venter-founded Synthetic Genomics.

These biofuels, which some refer to as "renewable petroleum," will be designed with the same properties of hydrocarbons that now fuel our vehicles, but be made from biomass, rather than petroleum.

Custom-designed synthetic fuels are very appealing to established fossil fuel providers because, unlike ethanol, they should not require significant changes to the existing fuel infrastructure, said Nathanael Greene, a biofuels policy analyst at the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC).

"I think (fuel providers) are going to dramatically step up efforts to find different molecules because...the stuff they have to do at their own facilities (to handle ethanol) is really a nontrivial cost," Greene said. "I think they are eager to find a more fungible fuel within their system."

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