Biofuel Industry Development
About | The Benefits | Research | Outreach
Above: Rapeseed crop. Biofuel consists of mono-alkyl esters of fatty acids that are derived from the triglyceride molecules of vegetable oils or animal fats
Continuing run up in petrol-related costs borne by Americans is generating measurable and increasingly severe impacts on transport, housing and business costs. Biofuels have been touted as a partial answer to such trends especially for transportation, but biofuels require their own energy inputs and often necessitate diversion of cropland from other uses. The perceived 'food versus energy' conflict offers timely opportunities for public issues education and for an assessment of biofuel production models capable of avoiding this conflict and contributing sustainably-produced feedstocks for such fuel.
We are increasingly confronting limits in the way our economy uses resources, the manner in which we light and heat our homes and places of work, the way we move about, grow our food and buy and use goods. Each and all of these issues and concerns involve the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development. Our development and use biofuels needs to be addressed within the framework of sustainability as well.