Emphasis is shifting among biofuel manufacturers toward chemical production and away from fuel production, according to early presentations at the Advanced Biofuel Leadership Conference held in Washington in early April. The major reasons: bio-chemicals are both easier to produce from biological feedstock and are more valuable than fuels.
Biofuels are unlikely to provide significant relief from high fuel prices any time soon or before oil prices climb considerably further. But they could eventually limit the degree of escalation in fuel costs and evade restraints that governments may put on hydrocarbon fuels.
