Food vs Fuel? 1st vs 2nd Generation Biofuels.

Second generation fuels are going to be orders of magnitude more efficient and sustainable, deriving their biomass from non-food farming and management of un-cultivatable lands. Some technology still needs R&D (cellulosic ethanol is probably 5 years from mass production, algae biodiesel is in R&D stages) and other seed money. F-T (Fischer Trop)biomass-to-biodiesel technology is older and tested but requires a large overhead and scale to make profitable. The German government has provided overhead and there is a F-T based BTL pilot plant making biodiesel from crude (non-food) biomass: http://www.choren.com/en/ So, while these first generation biofuels are temporarily linked to the larger food problem, they are also opening up the route to more efficient biofuels that will decouple them from food issues yet bring the benefits of energy independence and lowering environmental impact.
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