Maria Rapoza, vice president of science and technology development at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, has written a guest column on biofuels and its impact on the state's economy.
Rapoza will be moderating a panel discussion on alternative energy at CED's Biotech 2007 conference on May 15 in Durham, NC.
Here are excerpts of her column:
Political, environmental, social and economic forces are aligning around the tools of biotechnology as the best hope for developing the new generation of biofuels needed to supplement traditional petroleum-based products.
That bodes well for North Carolina – a global powerhouse in biotechnology entrepreneurship that also imports 5.6 billion gallons of petroleum-based liquid fuel annually.
Despite the fact that Midwestern corn-belt states have made great progress with their first-generation technology making ethanol from starches like corn, we as a nation will not reach the kind of production capacity that is needed if we focus solely on corn as a feedstock. North Carolina is not a major corn-producing state – and we know it is not going to turn into one. Nor is it our goal to import large amounts of corn for ethanol production and drive up the cost of animal feed, harming our own large agricultural economy...
(Visit WRAL Local Tech Wire to read the article in its entirety.)