»biomass«

Claudia Deutsch writes in the NY Times (28.2.2006) how the chemical industry looks for alternatives of crude oil as a basis for their products. They look for processes using biomass like wood, straw or crops as a feedstock for producing principle chemical compounds. Actually, it's a challenging vision because the chemical industry has optimized processes in refineries for many decades. Substituting these processes today is not economical, and some companies even don't put research money into a field that may have no alternative in the coming decades.

Soaring oil prices made biofuels more economical. But is it all good. Fred Pearce goes in the New Scientist (27.9.2006) into the details. Besides the known positive effect to substitute fossil fuels, can biofuels meet the demands? And, what happens to the environment and other areas when biofuels are produced on a mega-industrial scale? However, is it appropriate to turn food crops like corn into fuel?