Waste as feedstock growing

With bioplastics production already forecast to rise to 5.8 million tons by 2015,  a new report suggests that growing demand for biofuels will quickly place great stress on feedstocks.

Using today’s technologies, an area the size of Russia would need to be cultivated to replace all of petroleum use for chemicals and fuels, according to Lux Research.

“Today, biofuels and biochemicals need more than a billion metric tons of material annually to replace a mere 3% of total petroleum products,” says Kalib Kersh, Lux Research analyst and one of the authors of a new report, Finding Feedstocks for the Bio-Based Fuels and Chemicals of Today and 2030. “By 2030, this number will soar to 3.7 billion metric tons, and meeting the growing challenge will require feedstock innovations such as crop modification, new value chain configurations, and agronomic technology improvements like irrigation and biosensors.”