Research: Biofuels still a mere drop in barrel as fuel alternative

For those of you studying bio-fuels and bio-based materials developments, there's a new report out you might want to grab. It finds that the total capacity for biofuels today is only about 3 percent that of petroleum-based fuels and that some pretty serious corporate and government action will be needed to encourage growth.

According to the paper from Lux Research called "Bio-based Fuels and Materials Through 2015: Growing Capacity Past a Drop in the Bucket," data pegs the potential market for biofuels at about 53 billion gallons by 2015. That represents an annual growth rate in capacity of about 7.8 percent, according to the report. Incumbent technologies including ethanol and biodiesel will have less of an impact in the future, Lux predicts. The analysts who produced the report believe these alternatives will give way to advances in bio-based jet fuel, algal oil, butanol and renewable diesel.