Biofuels in a clean, green future

Abstract

The United Nations' advisory body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, gave in its fourth assessment report a range of possible future outcomes depending on the pattern of future fuel use and taking into account uncertainties in the science. Professor Gretchen Daily of Stanford University posed a rhetorical question to a forum in Sydney in 2003: "How concerned would the US administration be about human rights in Iraq if it had 10% of the world's broccoli?" Most decision-makers are still in denial about the approach of the peak in world oil production. With increasing concern about climate change, there is growing interest in using other crop residues like the thinnings and residues from forestry operations, or the straw left behind when grains like wheat are harvested./n The Future The most likely future for biofuels will involve small-scale production for local use, taking advantage of by-products like crop residues and other waste materials.