Here at Anthonares.net I will be expanding my discussion of energy issues as they become politically and economically more prominent. This week’s Published Research Synopsis examines a review paper in the journal Science that lays out the path we will need to take to make biofuels and biomaterials competitive with petroleum-based products. The authors of this week’s paper look at each portion of the biomass product chain and discuss the engineering research (both chemical and genetic) that will enable the biomass revolution.
Producing products like plastic from biomass rather than petroleum will be an essential step in our global efforts to live sustainably. Petroleum and gas supplies are dwindling and finite (more on this in a later blog entry, I’ve gone too long without addressing this as a geoscientist), and our future settlements and civilizations in space will never have access to vast fossil fuel reserves. Additionally, improvements in biomaterials and biofuels processing can lead to total carbon neutrality; the carbon used to make fuel and plastics comes from plants and will eventually be recycled back into plants via the atmosphere.
Citation (online at CiteULike.org):
Ragauskas, A.J. and 13 others (2006). The Path Forward for Biofuels and Biomaterials. Science 311(5760), pp. 484-489.
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