Biofuel issue needs work

IMPROVEMENT in the profitability of growing and processing of crops for biomass will be required if the desired changeover is to become a practical reality, according to independent farmer research.

Bernard Rice, Bio-fuel Researched, Teagasc, Oakpark Research Centre, has advised that while opportunities are beginning to emerge for the transfer of significant areas of land from conventional food production into energy crops, there is still a lot of work to do to achieve the potential.

“We still need to improve the profitability of producing and processing biofuel crops. This will require a number of changes at policy level, and an intensive research effort in agronomy, cost of feedstock crop production and profitable utilisation of the by-products of biofuel production and processing,” he says.