Growing Better Biofuel Crops

The Scientist
By Heather Youngs and Chris Somerville
July 1, 2012

Research is underway to reduce the use of food crops for biofuels by shifting to dedicated energy crops and agricultural residues.

Our current dependence on fossil fuels is on a collision course with the need of future generations for a habitable environment. Supplying more than 80 percent of human energy consumption globally, fossil fuel combustion contributes to the rise of atmospheric greenhouse gases such as CO2, nitrous oxide, and methane, which are widely believed to cause detrimental climate change. We can mitigate these effects by using the many available no- or low-carbon methods to harvest energy, including wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and solar approaches, such as the harvesting of plant biomass that can be burned as solid or liquid fuels.

Conversion of biomass is currently the most cost-effective route to produce renewable liquid fuels, and contributes 78 percent of the total renewable energy worldwide.1 At present, liquid biofuels are derived primarily from plants that are also used for food and feed, such as corn and sugarcane, raising concerns that the industry may not be sustainable in the face of expanding demand for food, feed, and fiber. However, efforts to grow biofuel crops on land unsuitable for food and feed crops, to increase biomass yield, and to facilitate the conversion of biomass to liquid fuels may change that mind-set. With continued improvements, we believe that biofuels can be produced on a large enough scale to meet roughly 30 percent of the demand for all liquid transportation fuels in the United States within 25 years—more than four times the current contribution of roughly 7 percent.

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