Biofuels Infrastructure Faces Major Barriers in Scaling Up

Ramping up the production of biofuels in order to avoid the usage of fossil fuels and offer a significant part of the country’s energy will need nothing less than a total transformation of the energy, transportation and agricultural sectors of the U.S. in the coming decades, as per a bioenergy expert at the College of Agricultural Sciences of the Penn State.

Major changes would be required for growing, handling, transporting and storing biomass in large quantities, mainly lignocellulosic feedstocks like forest wastes, crop residues and switchgrass that is necessary for continually feeding the electric power generating stations and resultantly produce biofuels for the purpose of transportation.

An article entitled as “Challenges in Scaling Up Biofuels Infrastructure” contends that the conversion to a system wherein biomass goes on to provide most of the nation’s energy would require novel ways in thinking about rural economic, agriculture and energy infrastructure development. Bioenergy has the necessary potential for providing up to 60% of the primary energy of the world while biomass seems to be poised towards providing a major alternative fuel to fossil fuels.