Comments on: Is this the end of the road for first gen biofuels? http://www.corporateresponsibility.net/2008/06/22/is-this-the-end-of-the-road-for-first-gen-biofuels/ Corporate Responsibility (CSR) News, blogs and information Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:44:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Karl Ramjohn http://www.corporateresponsibility.net/2008/06/22/is-this-the-end-of-the-road-for-first-gen-biofuels/comment-page-1/#comment-430 Karl Ramjohn Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:25:28 +0000 http://www.corporateresponsibility.net/?p=162#comment-430 It must be remembered that the objections have never been about the actual concept of using biofuels, but more the source of the material. For example, the ideal sources of biofuels would be "biomass wastes" such as the by-products of crop, livestock, forestry, municipal and related industrial production systems. However, that mainly from the perspective of sustainable solutions waste management and creating value from by-products; this is highly unlikely to be an adequate source of biomaterials demand in the case of widespread adoption of biomass energy and biofuels. The whole idea of using food crops could be described (at the very least) as highly myopic - the issues of food competition, biodiversity and other "opportunity costs" associated with the use have been described in detail elsewhere. The talk of "second generation" biofuels from algae and other sources has been around for a while, but little tangible information has been forthcoming in relation to how close the research into those sources, is to becoming a practical (and economically feasible) reality... It must be remembered that the objections have never been about the actual concept of using biofuels, but more the source of the material. For example, the ideal sources of biofuels would be “biomass wastes” such as the by-products of crop, livestock, forestry, municipal and related industrial production systems. However, that mainly from the perspective of sustainable solutions waste management and creating value from by-products; this is highly unlikely to be an adequate source of biomaterials demand in the case of widespread adoption of biomass energy and biofuels.

The whole idea of using food crops could be described (at the very least) as highly myopic – the issues of food competition, biodiversity and other “opportunity costs” associated with the use have been described in detail elsewhere. The talk of “second generation” biofuels from algae and other sources has been around for a while, but little tangible information has been forthcoming in relation to how close the research into those sources, is to becoming a practical (and economically feasible) reality…

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