The UK Carbon Trust has just launched a new consortium of British businesses, to develop ‘carbon efficient' transport biofuels (15th of March). It will work on the enhancement of pyrolysis, a chemical process which can be used to produce biofuels out of organic waste.
The declared goal of the 7 million pound project - funded by the Department for Transport and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) - is to deliver a viable alternative to the controversial crop-derived biofuels. The consortium will have time till 2014 to produce its first biofuel from a pilot plant. If the project is successful, pyrolysis-based biofuels will allegedly bring about a reduction of 95 percent of CO2, compared to traditional fossil fuels, and avoid the issues related to land use and species extinction. However, the project is still at an early stage, and nothing can be taken for granted yet. The biggest challenge of the pyrolysis project consists in delivering a better quality oil which is directly usable in transportation. This is still not possible at the present state of the research.
What is sure is that biofuels are still an appetizing solution for both governments and business, as they are a good mean to avoid real changes in behavioural and consumption patterns. In the words of Richard George, Roads and Climate Campaigner for campaign for better transport, "this, in political terms, would be the Holy Grail: government hits its carbon reduction stargets without anyone having to change their behaviour."
Check the article below to know more about the consortium
Check these other articles to learn more about biofuels
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7044708.ece
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/biofuels-green-dream-or-climate-change-nightmare-20070509
Comments