Recommitment To Lower Carbon Footprint Through Biofuel

The federal government mandate to produce 36 billion gallons annually by 2022 has prompted a recommitment to biofuel production.

There has been a cap on ethanol made from corn which is set at 15 billion gallons, the rest must come from other sources such as plant waste or dedicated biofuel crops that grow on marginal land. The new fuel must also reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions, when compared with petroleum, by at least 50 percent.

The problem with corn ethanol is that it doesn't reduce greenhouse gas emissions by very much at all.

The holy grail of new biofuels research is finding ways, on a massive and sustained scale, to extract sugar locked away in huge piles of plant material now considered waste, such as corn husks, straw and wood chips.

A very promising source of potential biofuel is algae because it produces more energy than other biofuels. The speed with which algae reproduces makes its use even more attractive.

As a means of reducing the carbon footprint of the petroleum industry, biofuel has still got a great deal of distance still to travel. Finding a viable source for the creation of ethanol will be a challenge in itself.