It doesn't take you hours of reading to figure out that the biodiesel industry is in trouble. Unless of course you are in Malaysia or Indonesia where palm oil is still overflowing and cheaply.

One of the key reasons for the problems that the biodiesel industry face is the choice of feedstock - or to be more precise, the lack of choice. In most parts of the world (especially in countries like India), use of soy, palm or sunflower as a feedstock is out of question as these countries do not even produce enough of these oils to meet their citizens' food requirements!

Plus anyway, the yields of any of the above mentioned feedstock is such that they cannot replace petroleum even if all the crop land in the world are used for cultivating them!

So, what is the answer? Algae? But algae is still in the research stages...

Ultimately, we need to find feedstock whose yields are very high and that can grow in marginal lands with relatively low inputs of water, fertilizer and pesticides.

What is your opinion on the future of biodiesel and the future of biodiesel feedstock?

http://bit.ly/aFdXZm