US biofuel makers look to alternative feedstock

18 September 2008 19:50  [Source: ICIS news]

AUSTIN, Texas (ICIS news)--Ethanol and biodiesel experts defended on Thursday using food crops to create alternative fuels, but acknowledged that renewable fuel producers would have to invest in the next wave of feedstock.

Such alternative, non-food feedstock as jatropha seeds, switchgrass and algae would soon become just as important as corn and soy for biofuels producers, said Bob Avant, director of the bioenergy programme at Texas A&M University.

He was speaking as part of a panel discussion at the Third Annual Texas Biofuels Conference and Expo.

“Algae is a huge opportunity out there. There is a theoretical estimate of 15,000 gal/acre of oil from algae," Avant said.

"Once you get into actual production, even if that number is 2,500 gal/acre, that’s better than any terrestrial crop,”  he said.

There were up to 10 engineering problems researchers had to overcome before algae-derived fuel production could be commercially viable, Avant said.

Other experts estimated that it could take up to five years for algae oil to go into large-scale production. 

Until algae and other alternative feedstock become viable, biofuel suppliers using corn and soybeans needed to make their case to government regulators and the US public, said Dee Vaughan, director of the Corn Producers Association of Texas.

“We allowed the debate to be framed as food versus fuel versus [animal] feed. We should call it fuel, food and feed, because we can do all three," Vaughan said.

"Between biotech and other advances we make in the industry, we will see huge rewards in the future and become more sustainable in the future,” he said.

Biofuel and agriculture experts said factors mostly outside the renewable fuel arena contributed to recent global food price increases.

“We just went through a perfect storm of financial speculation and crop failures in parts of the world where crop failures normally doesn’t happen,” Vaughan said.

Recent dramatic gains in fertilizer prices also played a bigger role than biofuels production, said Robert Young, chief economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Bookmark Simon Robinson's Big Biofuels Blog for some independent thinking on biofuels
To discuss issues facing the chemical industry go to ICIS connect

By: Ben Lefebvre
+1 713 525 2653

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly