Biofuel articles

A couple of articles in today's Science for the energy discussion

Preston G.

Science 27 January 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5760, pp. 484 - 489
DOI: 10.1126/science.1114736

The Path Forward for Biofuels and Biomaterials
Arthur J. Ragauskas,1* Charlotte K. Williams,4 Brian H. Davison,6
George Britovsek,4 John Cairney,2 Charles A. Eckert,3 William J.
Frederick, Jr.,3 Jason P. Hallett,3 David J. Leak,5 Charles L.
Liotta,1 Jonathan R. Mielenz,6 Richard Murphy,5 Richard Templer,4
Timothy Tschaplinski7

Biomass represents an abundant carbon-neutral renewable resource for
the production of bioenergy and biomaterials, and its enhanced use
would address several societal needs. Advances in genetics,
biotechnology, process chemistry, and engineering are leading to a
new manufacturing concept for converting renewable biomass to
valuable fuels and products, generally referred to as the
biorefinery. The integration of agroenergy crops and biorefinery
manufacturing technologies offers the potential for the development
of sustainable biopower and biomaterials that will lead to a new
manufacturing paradigm.

1 School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
2 School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
3 School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
4 Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
5 Division of Biology, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
6 Life Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge,
TN 37831, USA.
7 Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak
Ridge, TN 37831, USA.

Science 27 January 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5760, pp. 506 - 508
DOI: 10.1126/science.1121416

Ethanol Can Contribute to Energy and Environmental Goals
Alexander E. Farrell,1* Richard J. Plevin,1 Brian T. Turner,1,2
Andrew D. Jones,1 Michael O'Hare,2 Daniel M. Kammen1,2,3

To study the potential effects of increased biofuel use, we evaluated
six representative analyses of fuel ethanol. Studies that reported
negative net energy incorrectly ignored coproducts and used some
obsolete data. All studies indicated that current corn ethanol
technologies are much less petroleum-intensive than gasoline but have
greenhouse gas emissions similar to those of gasoline. However, many
important environmental effects of biofuel production are poorly
understood. New metrics that measure specific resource inputs are
developed, but further research into environmental metrics is needed.
Nonetheless, it is already clear that large-scale use of ethanol for
fuel will almost certainly require cellulosic technology.

1 Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA
94720-3050, USA.
2 Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California,
Berkeley, CA 94720-3050, USA.
3 Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of
California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3050, USA.
Received on Fri Jan 27 02:11:28 2006