Mention the word biofuels and ethanol, or perhaps biodiesel, immediately comes to mind. But gasoline? Isn’t that what biofuels are supposed to replace? The fact is that while ethanol has been grabbing all of the attention and the lion’s share of federal R&D funding, a small but growing cadre of researchers is betting on a different sort of biofuel, one that would circumvent most of ethanol’s drawbacks. Their “green gasoline” can be made from the same renewable biomass as ethanol, and it is virtually indistinguishable from petroleum-based gasoline.
As the price of gasoline fluctuates wildly from very expensive to just expensive, and as the US strives, however improbably, to achieve energy independence, the federal funding spigots have flowed for research into expanding the nation’s output of renewable fuels. The US Department of Energy alone has pledged more than $1 billion over the past two years for R&D and for subsidies...
