Huge challenges in scaling up biofuels infrastructure

Penn State
Monday, August 23, 2010

University Park, Pa. -- Ramping up biofuels production to replace fossil fuels and provide a significant portion of the nation's energy will require nothing short of a transformation of the U.S. agricultural, transportation and energy sectors in the next few decades, according to a bioenergy expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Major changes will be needed to grow, handle, transport and store the immense quantities of biomass -- mostly lignocellulosic feedstocks such as switchgrass, crop residues and forest wastes -- necessary to continually feed electric power generation stations and produce biofuels for transportation, noted Tom Richard, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, who is director of the University's Institutes of Energy and the Environment.

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