Faulty Economics Misdirect Biofuel R&D

摘要

FOR FOUR days in June, the European biofuel industry gathered in Milan, Italy, for the 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition. The event attracted more than 1,500 participants, including researchers, engineers and technologists, as well as people from standards organizations and financing institutions. A key day-long workshop during the event considered the European Multilevel Integrated Biorefinery Design for Sustainable Biomass Processing (EuroBioRef) project. Launched two years ago, EuroBioRef deals with the entire biomass transformation process, from non-edible crops production to final commercial products. It involves 29 partners - both corporate and academic - from 14 different countries in a highly collaborative network focused on topics such as crop production; biomass pretreatment; fermentation, enzymatic, catalytic and thermochemical processes; assessment by a lifecycle analysis (LCA); and economic evaluation of the value chain.