Scientists and researchers say renewable forms of energy can help provide a new energy future that is cleaner, improves global security, strengthens the economy and contributes positively to the quality of life for all. Contributing to the urgency of developing this new energy future is the prediction from the Energy Information Agency that U.S. energy consumption will grow nearly 20 percent by 2030. Global energy consumption, says the EIA, is expected to grow nearly 60 percent by 2030.

Authorities in the field also say that meeting those pressing demands for energy will require a wide array of resources. “I don’t think we should assume there is a perfect technology,” says Chris Somerville, director of the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of California at Berkeley. “What we need is a basket of every conceivable technology,” including wind energy, geothermal, solar power and biofuels.

Liquid fuels derived from a wide variety of plant feedstocks make up a key component of a new energy future, researchers say. A University of Tennessee study commissioned by 25x’25 concluded that the United States has adequate land resources to secure 25 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by the year 2025 without compromising the ability of the agricultural and forestry sectors to reliably produce safe and abundant food, feed and fiber at reasonable prices.

Specifically, the UTenn study says production and conversion into energy of land-based feedstocks from America’s fields, farms and forests, including cellulosic ethanol after it becomes commercially viable, have the potential to decrease gasoline consumption by nearly 60 billion gallons in 2025, while the production of energy from biomass and wind sources will offset the growing demand for natural gas and coal-generated electricity. Additionally, developing these land-based energy resources will generate an additional $700 billion in economic activity annually, and create 5.1 million jobs in 2025, most of that in rural areas.

The current use of sustainably produced biofuels is aiding a growing transition to cleaner and more dependable energy solutions to meet the ever-growing demand for electricity and transportation fuels. Bruce Dale, a professor of chemical engineering at Michigan State University, says that “by any measure, ethanol is better for the planet than gasoline-and it is getting better all the time. Today’s ethanol made from corn is priming the market for the coming generation of alcohol fuels that will also be made from wood chips, urban waste and other feedstocks, not just agricultural crops.”

Looking to the future, it will be non-grain crops and materials now considered waste that will become the primary feedstocks for biofuel production, says Dale. Ongoing and growing research is optimizing cellulosic feedstocks, including energy crops such as switchgrass, hybrid poplars and other prairie grasses, and residues such as corn stalks, wheat straw, forest trimmings, sawdust, wood chips, yard waste, municipal solid waste and even animal wastes.

Ethanol can be made from cellulose much as it is today from corn – once the very tightly bound sugars in the plant fiber are broken down by enzymes. Thanks to biotechnology, the cost of these enzymes is dropping rapidly, down 30-fold in the last five years – to 10-18 cents per gallon of ethanol produced. However, that cost “has to be reduced even more to make it a viable technology,” says Joel Cherry, senior director of bioenergy technology at Novozymes, a company that develops enzymes for industrial solutions.

(Alternative Energy Press)