Analysis of China's Technological Evolution and Interdependence in Its Emerging Biofuel Industry

Interesting insights into the "evolving technological interdependence for China's emerging biofuel industry" have been reported recently by Mei-Chih Hua of the National Tsinghua University (Taiwan) and Fred Phillips of the Alliant International University (United States). The full paper is published in the journal, Technological Forecasting & Social Change (URL above).

The researchers applied "two-stage interactive data collection methods" and used the European Patent Office worldwide patent database for their study. They found that technological developments in China's biofuel industry was dependent on fields related to food or non-alcoholic beverages before the year 2000, and this shifted to the biochemical field (microorganisms, enzymes) beyond the year 2000. They see China's biofuel technology as one that is "largely based on the evolutionary strength of the foodstuff and chemical fields".

Development of biofuel technology was also observed to be led by Chinese universities, rather than by public research institutes. Based on patent map and technology trajectory analyses, China's biofuel technology is found to be "application-oriented and highly intertwined with the pharmaceutical industry" since the year 2000.