Biofuels Companies Drop Biomass and Turn to Natural Gas

/biofuels-companies-drop-biomass-and-tur

  • Biofuels Companies Drop Biomass and Turn to Natural Gas | MIT Technology Review
    http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506561/biofuels-companies-drop-biomass-and-turn-to-natural-gas

    Retour sur la « science des promesses » : quand ça ne marche pas, on recommence à zéro... avec les mêmes promesses pour la nouvelle voie. Sauf que cette fois, on reprart de l’extractivisme (gaz de shiste) pour se concentrer sur l’amélioration des processus de raffinage via des méthodes biotechnologiques.

    En attendant la prochaine promesse qui ne fait que ralentir la capacité des sociétés à penser l’après-pétrole...

    Shaw, who led Codexis’s efforts to convert cellulosic materials into simple carbohydrates and then convert those into hydrocarbons and other liquid fuels, now says that he was wrong to think biofuels produced from biomass could replace fuels made from petroleum.

    “Biomass doesn’t cut it,” he says. “Carbohydrates are not a substitute for oil. I was wrong in that, and I admit it. That will never replace oil because the economics don’t work. You can’t take carbohydrates and convert them into hydrocarbons economically.”