Petroleum products are a pretty convenient way to store energy. It's just unfortunate that burning the stuff releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Biofuels could be a solution, but relying on natural biological processes can be difficult to scale up -- especially if we expect biofuels to try to match up with the current energy demands. Researchers are working on ways to modify biology or circumvent it with chemical engineering to make some carbon neutral hydrocarbon fuels in large quantities. Here are a few possible examples.

• A copper catalyst system can produce ethanol (and acetate) from carbon monoxide at room temperature and pressure -- without any kind of fermentation. This copper-based system relies on an electrochemical cell and could be a environmentally-friendly way to produce a non-toxic, renewable fuel. [url]
• Scientists have played with Escherichia coli bacteria that can generate propane gas. The process needs a lot more work to become a practical way to produce propane as a fuel, but a bioreactor to make propane could be viable in a decade or so. (Maybe.) [url]
• Some species of bacteria have been found that can consume pure electricity for food. These naturally-occurring microorganisms usually live near hydrothermal vents on the seafloor, but if they can feed on electrons directly (instead of soluble bits of iron), then they might be able to store energy in biomolecules for us and turn electricity into convenient biofuels. [url]

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Weaning ourselves off of a hydrocarbon-powered economy is not going to be easy. The infrastructure to distribute and use petroleum distillates is ubiquitous, so biofuels that can easily use the same equipment could be a convenient way to start replacing fossil fuels. Using more and more biofuels sounds like an easy solution, but the real trick is scaling up the processes in an economical way. Here are just a few biofuel projects that might be worth keeping an eye on.

• Companies making biofuels from plant waste -- avoiding corn as a feedstock -- are starting to ramp up production, with capacities to make millions of gallons of cellulosic ethanol in a year. A few million gallons of alcohol isn't that much compared to the hundred of billions (with a b) of gallons of petroleum distillates that the US uses as fuel, but these biofuel technologies could become price competitive with corn-based ethanol in a few years. [url]
• Enzymes from the wood-eating gribble could help turn cellulosic waste into biofuels. Not to be confused with the furry creatures hated by Klingons, the gribble produces this robust catalyst that breaks down a variety of polysaccharides into simple sugars -- potentially creating a key step in a process that would make sustainable liquid biofuels. [url]
• A genetically modified strain of Pyrococcus furiosus might be useful for converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into chemicals and fuels. This microorganism usually lives near geothermal vents in ocean water, but an engineered colony of P furiosus could live in less extreme conditions and be fed a diet of hydrogen and carbon dioxide in order to skip the somewhat inefficient use of plant biomass to produce biofuels. [url]

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Fossil fuels presumably came from decaying animal and plant matter, so it seems reasonable that there might be a way to replace old oils with freshly-grown biofuels. The trick is getting biological organisms to step up and start churning out fuels on a massive scale. Growing fuel from solar power, water and carbon dioxide would be a great solution, if the process didn't require huge swaths of land and wasn't insanely expensive. Here are just a few links on some ways to grow instead of drill for oil.

• The widespread use of algae to produce biofuels seems like a possibility to directly grow fuel from solar power. We just need about 10 million acres of algae vats that can soak up some sun and spit out fuel (in a cost-effective process). [url]
• Yet another strain of yeast can convert xylose to ethanol. But growing the sugar in the first place seems like an extra step... and ethanol doesn't sound like the best biofuel available. [url]
• Algaes aren't the only microorganisms that can grow biofuels -- cyanobacteria can do it, too. But this super-secret process claimed by a small biotech firm sounds a bit too good to be true. [url]
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Although ethanol has been touted as a legitimate alternative to traditional energy sources, we've been intrigued by the frequent reports of "agflation", the soaring price of agricultural commodities, as a result of ethanol subsidies. It's hard to see what good it is to switch away from expensive oil and gas if the result is simply another expensive fuel that makes other goods more expensive. As the New York Times notes today, interest in ethanol has helped push the price of Midwestern farmland to new heights. This is good news if you happen to be sitting on large tracts of land that you're looking to unload. But if you're a farmer in any other business than corn, it's trouble. Small farmers are particularly hard hit. Defenders of agriculture subsidies often argue that they help preserve the farm industry and the way of life that comes with it. But as anecdotes like this show, they mainly help large agricultural conglomerates, while independent farms continue to suffer.