Biofuels have taken some big hits on both practical and public relations points in the past year, but new research says the longer-term outlook for biodiesel and non-ethanol fuels is healthy.
While a major biofuels conference, the Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Expo, took place down the road in Denver this week, Colorado’s Pike Research issued its new assessment of how food, waste, and farmable feedstocks can become an integral part of the world’s transportation fuel mix.
From an estimated $76 billion market size in 2010, Pike projects $247 billion in biofuel sales by 2020.
And the progression towards that point includes 3 major market-oriented research watersheds:
- Waste grease conversion into fuel (i.e. vegetable oil to biodiesel) will advance to a commercial level in 2010.
- Jatropha, an energy-rich plant that grows wild in warm countries like India and Mexico, will have a "significant impact" in 2014.
- Finally, biodiesel derived from algae will become commercially viable in 2012 and strengthen further through 2016.
And in the U.S., the scenario includes much more than corn ethanol.
You can read more about Biofuels Markets and Technologies, here.
-Sam Hopkins
