OUTLOOK
Gas from grass? The future of biofuels
Even if the government goes ahead with its biofuel targets, it’s likely that biofuel production will undergo a major transformation in the coming years, switching from food crop fuels to alternative feedstock. Two new forms of biofuels seem to be especially promising.
Researchers at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) in Aberystwyth are already busily researching the production of fuel from ryegrass.
“Something like two thirds of the UK’s agricultural land is actual grassland, so you have a potentially very large resource that’s already there, without any impact on the landscape, biodiversity, water quality and so on”, says IGER’s Dr Iain Donnison.
“Of course, grasslands are already used for another purpose, feeding livestock; however, livestock numbers are falling as a result of things like the common agricultural policy reforms; so in effect there is an excess of grass.”
The main obstacle to commercial grass fuel production, says Dr Donnison, is the difficulty in breaking down the cellulose, but he is optimistic that his research team will soon achieve a breakthrough.
Elsewhere, there are high hopes in algae fuels. While still in its infancy at the moment, the UK will see full commercial production of algae-based biofuels within five years, according to Green Fuels Ltd director Colin Hygate.
“We will have a range of algae-based technologies, from small algae generators in your backyard to large-scale algae production associated with power stations, absorbing their CO2 emissions.”
But environmental organisations are criticising the new biofuels. Norfolk Green party councillor and co-director of campaign group Biofuelwatch Andrew Boswell, for example, says that grass fuels are not as promising as they sound.
CEO of the Royal Society of Chemistry Dr Richard Pike has cautioned against algae fuels, saying they might have an impact on marine ecosystems.
But Mr Hygate said he couldn't understand the critics' reasoning. “Usually, the arguments against algae are presented by those who would like to see us marry our cousins and not travelling out of the valley. I don’t believe our society wants that.”
Dr Donnison agrees that research into new biofuel technologies is necessary.
He adds: "There’s a phrase that says: ‘We didn’t wait till we ran out of stones until we left the stone age.’ It’s going to be the same with oil. We’re not going to wait till it runs out. It’s just the better thing to do.”