Industrial applications of biotechnology – the new “Bioeconomy” – hold out the promise of being able to produce biofuels and renewable chemicals and provide an alternative for society’s chronic addiction to goods that are produced using the finite supplies of petroleum and fossil fuel feedstocks. “Biorefining” is based on using biomass as its basic feedstock. Biomass is a renewable resource produced by agriculture. However, the scale on which such biomass will need to be produced and used to effectively begin to replace petroleum-based feedstocks will start to rival the current scale of agriculture for food and feed – and therein lies the problem.
There have been impressive demonstrations of the possibilities of “biorefining” technology – whether it is the conversion of a variety of sugars derived from woody biomass to advanced biofuels or production of renewable bioplastics from corn. Some of these products are already commercial. The mantra for the scientists working in this area is “sugar is the “new oil” – the sugar being derived from the breakdown of biomass.
See full Article: http://forumblog.org/2013/02/sustainable-solutions-from-the-sea/
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