Biofuels or biochemicals: Are you ready to get in? (1)

According to AE report, although many alternative energy investors suffered huge losses in 2008 when several prominent stocks fell by 70% or more, they have not lost hope in alternative energy stocks and their future. The measured optimism from financial community is also a stimulus to alternative energy under the current deeply challenging business climate. So does the government support!

For biofeuls and biochemicals industry, it is still uncertain when the great potential become reality. To use biomass as feedstocks, the utilization of hemicelluloses is the key because it accounts 20-28% of the chemical components in biomass and will have significant impact on the production cost. However the available cost effective technology for commercialization is not ready yet: the scalable microorganisms to ferment C5 sugars under toxic environment, the process to achieve high sugar recovery yield from biomass….

So it is the time for scientist and engineers to get in. It is also great time for investors to jump in if the opportunity has a solid fundamental support. Certainly, a detailed and solid technical evaluation before jumping in is very critical.