A report from the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presents a new analysis on the benefits of corn-based ethanol with respect to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Among the findings of the study are: (1) a gallon of corn-ethanol can displace 0.67 gallon of petroleum, assuming a similar in-use efficiency, (2) ethanol-blended fuels showed lower greenhouse gas emissions, only if “co-product credits” are considered. (“co-product credits” can be seen as deductible energy savings associated with by-products that can be obtained from ethanol production), (3) corn-ethanol for transport fuel is seen as a “stepping stone” to the future scenario of cellulosic-ethanol for transport fuel.

A related MIT news article (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/ethanol.html), mentions that the energy balance of corn ethanol is presently so close (compared to fossil fuels), that several factors can easily tip the scale for corn-ethanol being an energy beneficial alternative or not.

In a recent article from the journal Science (URL is posted above), scientists have called on the need to weigh-in the economic benefits of biofuels with the ecological risks associated with the introduction of non-native biofuel crop species into new agricultural landscapes (i.e. species invasiveness). Many of the ideal ecological traits for biofuel crops (like high water-use efficiency, C4 photosynthesis, no known pests/diseases, etc) are said to contribute to invasiveness. The article cites situations where the introduction plant species initially thought of as beneficial have resulted in “long term economic and environmental costs owing to invasiveness”. The scientists stressed the need for the establishment of agronomical and ecological analysis (which is presently mandated for the case of transgenic plants and biological control agents) to establish the safety of potential biofuel crops..

Sandia Laboratories, of the U.S. Department of Energy, has embarked on a project (funded by Live Fuels, Inc.) to produce an economically feasible “biocrude” from algae (algae biodiesel) by 2010. The cultivation of algae and the extraction of oil for biodiesel production has been considered from the viewpoint of (1) utilization marginal lands (i.e., barren desert lands receiving high solar radiation) for algae cultivation, and (2) as fill-in to the projected shortage of vegetable oil in the United States. The project hopes to find ways to produce a competitively priced algae biocrude by looking to algal strains with high oil content (“fat algae”), and by innovative processing technologies..