Once-promising field of advanced biofuels is in ‘shambles’—can it be revived?

[Jay Keasling, a synthetic biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and chief executive of the Joint BioEnergy Institute] did as much as any single individual to advance the field and sell the promise of such fuels. In addition to running JBEI, he cofounded several well-funded startups, including LS9 and Amyris Biotechnologies, to turn that vision into reality.

But a decade later, the field is in shambles. JBEI and other federally funded bioenergy labs still survive, but most advanced biofuels companies, including Keasling’s, have given up on the dream.

…

JBEI has made scientific strides, but if the institute’s crops, techniques, and bugs were rolled out on a commercial scale today, a gallon of the resulting fuel would cost 14 times what we pay at the pump.

Producing cheap advanced biofuels simply ended up being a far harder problem than expected.

…

For all the effort and funding, some in the field believe there hasn’t been much real progress made on these challenges during the last decade or so.

…

Keasling disagrees, arguing that JBEI and other labs have made significant scientific strides.

…

JBEI’s researchers have genetically altered types of switchgrass and sorghum so that they produce far more sugars, and much less lignin, than standard plants.

Read full, original post: The scientist still fighting for the clean fuel the world forgot