The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) awadred financial assistance to four companies addressing research and development of enzyme systems to hydrolyze and saccharify pretreated lignocellulosic biomass, meeting the goal of producing ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass cost competitively by 2012. By 2007, a number of advances had been made ...

Microalgae are a diverse group of prokaryotic and eukaryotic photosynthetic microorganisms that grow rapidly due to their simple structure. They can potentially be employed for the production of biofuels in an economically effective and environmentally sustainable manner. Microalgae have been investigated for the production of a number of different biofuels including biodiesel, bio-oil, bio-syn...

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expresse...

California Policy Should Distinguish Biofuels by Differential Global Warming Effects Richard J. Plevin Energy and Resources University of California, Berkeley Biofuels such as ethanol offer potential greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions compared to petroleum-based liquid fuels. However, while the combustion of biomass is considered carbon neutral, the production of biofuels can result in considerabl...

The biofuel project is an agro-industrial development and politically contested policy process where governments increasingly become global actors. European Union (EU) biofuels policy rests upon arguments about societal benefits of three main kinds - namely, environmental protection (especially greenhouse gas savings), energy security and rural development, especially in the global South. Each ...

Venice, 21 September 2007 – With the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stating the need to reduce the anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and the directive of the European Community calling for biofuels to meet 5.75 percent of European transport needs by 2010, and 10 percent by 2020, an urgent need for action in plant sciences arises ...

Pakistan is an agrarian country, and the main agricultural products are cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits, and vegetables. Fuels derived from agricultural sources offer an alternate to the rapidly increasing price of petroleum fuels and the increasing scarcity and the toxicity of such fuels. This paper seeks to examine the impact of biofuels industry on the Pakistan economy. The paper furt...