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Second-generation biofuels on the verge of commercial reality, report says

| By Scott Jenkins

New technology developments in the pre-treatment and gasification of biological feedstocks could reduce the production costs of biofuels enough to make them commercially viable as liquid fuels for transportation, according to a new report from consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
 
The report, titled "Worldwide Market Analysis of Second Generation Biofeedstock," asserts that advances in discrete hydrolysis and fermentation, on the pre-treatment side, have the potential to reduce production costs of second-generation biofuels, such as agricultural residue, forest residue and black liquor. Developments in catalytic synthesis for later stages of biofuel production also have potential to lower costs. 

These advancements, along with a widespread push by many companies to address greenhouse gas emissions, will drive commercial production of second-generation biofuels to 5 billion gal/yr by 2015, Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst Phani Raj Kumar Chinthapalli notes. Greenhouse gas emissions over the full lifecycle of second-generation biofuels are negative, which implies net carbon consumption, Chinthapalli adds.

Chinthapalli points out that it may take until 2017 until large-scale production capacity reaches a level where it can have significant effect on the global energy picture, but beyond that time, "the impact is likely to be high."