Technological advances along with strong societal and economic forces make the timing perfect for development of biorefineries for the production of biofuels and biomaterials from renewable energy crop resources. The integration of bioenergy crop development and biorefinery conversion technology will "lead to a new manufacturing paradigm," according to authors of a Jan. 27 Science perspectives paper by a team of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology and Imperial College of London. "?More, bigger and better,' the mantra of modern consumerism, also summarizes ? ironically ? the goals of (proposed) research aimed at modifying plant species for use in sustainable biomass production," the authors write. The paper, titled "The path forward for biofuels and biomaterials," comes on the heels of last year's Department of Energy/U.S. Department of Agriculture billion-ton biomass study, which found that biomass could play a significant role in supplementing energy needs in the United States. ORNL authors were funded by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.
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