David M. Mousdale - Böcker

What role will biofuels play in the scientific portfolio that might bring energy independence and security, revitalize rural infrastructures, and wean us off of our addiction to oil? The shifting energy landscape of the 21st century, with its increased demand for renewable energy technology, poses a worrying challenge. Discussing the multidisciplinary study of bioenergy and its potential for replacing fossil fuels in the coming decades, Introduction to Biofuels provides a roadmap for understanding the broad sweep of technological, sociological, and energy policy issues that intermingle and intertwine.Copiously illustrated and with numerous examples, this book explores key technologies, including biotechnology, bioprocessing, and genetic reprogramming of microorganisms. The author examines the future of biofuels from a broader perspective, addressing the economic, social, and environmental issues crucial for studying the sustainable development of bioenergy. Each chapter begins with questions and provides the answers later in the chapter as key informational points. Embedded Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) sections provide detailed derivations and equations for a subset of topics that can be found easily as buzzwords in popular media and on web sites. Together, the STEM topics form a thread of essential technologies and a guide to how researchers have established quantitative parameters that are crucial to the ever-growing biofuels database.With so much information scattered throughout the literature, it is often difficult to make sense of what is real and what is an optimistic selling of ideas with no scientific credibility. This book does an excellent job of filtering through volumes of data, providing a historical perspective on which to anchor the information, and outlining the strengths and constraints of the different biofuels.

Evaluating a wealth of quantitative data, Biofuels: Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Sustainable Development discusses different types of biofuels, the science behind their production, the economics of their introduction to the marketplace, their environmental impacts, and their implications for world agriculture. It broadens the discussion on biofuels beyond bioethanol and biodiesel, taking into account the data, ideas, and bioproducts that have appeared over the last 50 years. An Insider’s Look at the Biotech Industry Written by a seasoned expert in the biotech industry, the book analyzes in detail the present status and future prospects of biofuels, from ethanol and biodiesel to biotechnological routes to biohydrogen. It emphasizes the ways biotechnology can improve process economics as well as facilitate sustainable agroindustries and crucial elements of a biobased economy. The author also explores the additional innovations required in microbial and plant biotechnology, metabolic engineering, bioreactor design, and the genetic manipulation of novel biomass species of plants, such as softwoods and algae. The Role of Biofuels in the Future With over 1,000 references and nearly 200 graphs and tables of data, this well-researched, comprehensive work examines the past and present of various biofuels while considering the future of a biocommodity economy.