US Leads Cellulosic Ethanol Quest While Europe Lags
January 9, 2009| |
The United States continues to lead the quest to develop second-generation biofuels while European legislators continue to drag their feet. A paper published by the journal Nature Biotechnology looks into the attitude of legislators from the two sides of the Atlantic on cellulosic biofuels.
A recent US$ 12 million US Department of Energy (DoE) grant to Denmark-based Novozymes for the development of improved cellulase enzymes underscores the country’s commitment in ethanol sourced from biomass. The support for cellulose-based biofuel is expected to continue in the US, when President-elect Barack Obama assumes office. During his election campaign, Obama expressed his support for continued subsidies of corn-based biofuels. This is in stark contrast with Europe. Inertia still prevails in the continent. Author Cormac Sheridan noted the backlash over the environmental and economic sustainability of first-generation biofuels appears to have paralyzed progress in establishing definitive European legislation and biofuel targets.
The energy policy of Europe and the US could not be more different. Sheridan pointed out that energy security has been the main driver of US biofuels policy, whereas in Europe, reducing greenhouse gas emissions has received more focus.
The abstract of the article is available at http://10.0.4.14/nbt1208-1319 Subscribers to Nature Biotechnology can download the full paper using the same link.
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