printChris Somerville, director of the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley [2], Lawrence Berkeley National Lab [3] and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [4], imagines what the United States’ energy future could look like with advanced research in this presentation at BIO’s Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy [5] in Vancouver Sept. 10.
Somerville calls for production of “responsible biofuels” that do not displace food production, do not convert undeveloped land, do not increase erosion or runoff, and show a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through a full life cycle analysis.
“There is adequate land and a number of possible feedstocks that can be used to produce biofuels. Further, there are new technologies that can lead to better biofuels,” Somerville says.