A Change for Survival

Biofuel companies are abandoning, at least a little, making biofuels to make ends meet, reports Technology Review. "As the difficulty of producing cellulosic biofuels cheaply becomes apparent, a growing number of advanced-biofuels companies are finding it necessary to take creative approaches to their business, even though that means abandoning some of their green credentials, at least temporarily, and focusing on markets that won't have a major impact on oil imports," Tech Review's Kevin Bullis writes. As an example, he points to the company Gevo, which is turning to corn, and is making butanol rather than ethanol. "Gevo is not entirely abandoning the fuels market, however. It has an agreement with a distributor that can sell the butanol for use in small engines and marine engines, two applications where ethanol doesn't work well," Bullis adds.