The Possibilties of Producing Environment-Friendly Biofuels

The biofuels industry has been demonized by higher food prices, the biotech industry executives said in interviews on the sidelines of the fifth annual World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing.

"You have to look at what all the factors are that go into rising food prices," said Steve Fabijanski, president and chief executive of Agrisoma Biosciences Inc, a Canadian company that engineers oilseeds with oil content that is tailored for biodiesel manufacturers.

Commodity costs are only one component of higher prices at the grocery store. Other factors, such as soaring crude oil prices and fertilizer costs that cut into farmers' profits, also contribute.

In the Midwest -- the so-called Corn Belt of the United States -- Missouri is considering rolling back a mandate supporting ethanol production amid growing outrage over rising prices for food and livestock feed.

"They missed the fact that it has been biotechnology that has expanded the productivity of farmers by 30 percent," said James Greenwood, president and chief of executive of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Developments in cellulose technology, which produces ethanol from non-food sources, are ready to be used in refining plants now, said Tjerk de Ruiter, chief executive officer of Genencor.

Genencor, a unit of Denmark's Danisco A/S, is developing a system that uses enzymes to break down cellulosic materials in the production of biofuels. But Genencor's process, which can be used on leftovers of agricultural products such as corn, still needs to be tested on a large scale to see if it is profitable.

"It needs to be produced in plants (that can process) up to 1 million gallons, de Ruiter said. "That will truly tell us what the efficiencies are."

View the Reuters story by clicking here.

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