Science Edges Towards a New Generation of Biofuels

DW-World.de

Energy 15.09.2008
Alternatives to biofuels such as ethanol from sugar cane could still help support economies

DW-WORLD.DE talked to Prof. Eva-Mari Aro, an expert on plant physiology and molecular biology at the University of Turku in Finland, about the current developments in the pursuit of new biofuel technologies.

DW-WORLD.DE: What are the most viable alternatives to biofuels like ethanol and how do they work?

Eva-Mari Aro: New generation biofuels can be roughly divided into two groups: fuels, which use biomass as a raw material and systems where living organisms (or biomimicing devices) produce some liquid fuel, hydrogen or other gas directly from sunlight and carbon dioxide.

Biomass based biofuels are already close to real application and their breakthrough is mostly dependent on oil price. However, accumulation of biomass is thermodynamically inefficient process and the conversion of biomass into the form liquid fuel decreases the efficiency more. Biomass has very low efficiency to store energy from sunlight and even in ideal situation they can replace only some percents from fossil fuels. Anyway, they are considered to be a good business when oil prise increases enough.

Biomass independent systems, in contrast, have very high efficacy in theory, and have real potential to replace fossil fuels. However, there are still unsolved technical barriers against the real breakthrough of biomass free systems.

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