S71: Biofuels in the noughties: Viewpoint from inside a national laboratory

To someone active in biofuels R&D within a national laboratory, the noughties was a decade that saw tremendous growth in conventional grain- and sugar-based biofuels production as well a resurgence of government funding to catalyze more rapid research, development and commercialization of advanced biofuels technologies based on the use of lignocellulosic materials (a. k. a. fibrous non-food plant matter). Visionary, aggressive national goals were established for ramping up domestic production of advanced biofuels, and substantial funding was competitively awarded to foster achievement of these goals. Many of the advanced biofuels projects funded in the second half of the noughties remain active today.

Over the course the last decade, government funding for advanced biofuels shifted from predominantly R&D to also emphasize scale up and commercialization. The drivers for biofuels remained domestic energy security (ensure liquid transportation fuel supply), environmental security (reduce greenhouse gas emissions) and economic security (stimulate rural economies), and which driver was most prominent depended on the political climate, particularly whether concerns related to petroleum price stability or global climate change were being emphasized in the national dialogue. The importance of sustainability and the broadening of the factors considered when evaluating sustainability also substantially evolved over the decade, and improving sustainability metrics and analysis methods are expected to remain key areas of focus going forward. This talk will review these developments through the lens of biochemical cellulosic ethanol technology progress achieved in the noughties as well as speculate on what we will see in the coming decade.