Recently I have been in AIChE annual meeting at Minneapolis, MN. There I sensed a different atmosphere compared to what I felt last year: Less attendance and pessimistic in biofuels.
Indeed, in the past twenty years, DOE and other government agents spent tons of money to support technology development in biofuel production from biomass. People are expecting a sun-rising industry like IT in the past to boost the economy. Therefore, green technology once became a hot green waves hitting every aspects of people’s life, especially for biofuels. Unfortunately, the current dominant technologies claimed in patents and highlighted for biofuel production from biomass have actually been existing there for hundreds of years; none of them seems to solve the cheap sugar problem. Therefore, some anti-biofuel people even anticipate that there would be no biofuels in the next 20 years.
It is true that at least cellulosic bioethanol will be dead if these technologies continue to control the government funding for 10 years. It really needs game-changing technology. Among all of the highlighted technologies, Agrivida technology recently stands out from nowhere and looks like a real solution for cheap sugar production from if it works as it claims. Therefore, hope is still shining somewhere as long as creativity is alive.
In addition, more interests and attention are shifting toward hydrocarbon fuel production from lignocellulosic biomass. And more value-added biochemicals are being produced from biomass although not heavily funded by government funding. Although a lot of uncertainty still exists for biofuels and biochemicals, one thing that never changes is that they are from renewable resources. Biodegradable materials and chemicals may become leading green products in the near future.
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