Challenges and Suggestions Toward Developing Full-Scale Commercialization of Transportation Biofuels Within the United States

The potential for transportation biofuels to displace petroleum fuels is recognized. Biofuels are produced from either cultured or waste biomass. This potential has spurred a tremendous amount of research and development. Yet, past commercialization efforts have not been particularly successful with many efforts outright failing (other than corn-based ethanol). While the potential is there, better holistic, non-biased due-diligence efforts are needed to ensure future investments are sound. Example key due diligence evaluative factors are presented along with suggestions to perform thorough techno-economic analyses and utilize non-food-based feedstocks.