Diverse feedstocks key to sustainable, successful biofuels

Ethanol Producer Magazine
August 2010
News release posted August 12, 2010

The debate continues as scrutiny increases over the sustainability of ethanol derived from crops developed for food production. Concerns about net energy and greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to its effect on food and feed pricing are driving researchers at the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) at the University of Illinois and at the University of California Berkeley to find cropping options that will produce ethanol sustainably and without taking more of the land currently used for food and feed production.

Sugarcane and Miscanthus top the list of bioenergy crops that could produce enough ethanol to replace the United States’ use of petroleum and escape U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, said Stephen P. Long, Deputy Director of the EBI at the U of I and Gutsgell Professor of Crop Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.

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