Chapter 12: Pongamia pinnata, a Sustainable Feedstock for Biodiesel Production
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Published:16 Dec 2010
S. H. Kazakoff, P. M. Gresshoff, and P. T. Scott, in Energy Crops, ed. N. G. Halford and A. Karp, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2010, ch. 12, pp. 233-258.
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Fuel and not energy may be the most critical bottleneck for sustainable maintenance of the global economy. The biggest challenge facing the future of the emerging liquid biofuels industry is selection of appropriate crops that will provide reliable and sustainable feedstocks for the increasing energy demands of a growing world population. With few exceptions, current first generation biofuel feedstocks are food crops that have been bred for attributes that are desirable for food production and quality, not biofuel content. In selecting the most appropriate bioenergy candidate species, a number of important issues should be addressed. Upper most in the thoughts of both scientific and lay communities is the so-called ‘food versus fuel’ debate. Further, it is argued that lands currently, or projected to be cultivated with biofuel crops should not be destined for food production. Similarly, lands currently not under agricultural production are being cleared for the cultivation of energy crops. In this chapter we describe the emerging biofuel feedstock Pongamia pinnata and in doing so address the issues concerning opponents of the biofuels industry and current biofuel feedstocks.