MIT centers, laboratories, departments and programs provide a multi-faceted approach to solving the world's energy challenge.
Biofuels
Liquid fuels derived from oil supply 96 percent of the nation's transportation sector. This reliance — together with growing global demand for oil, the concentration of oil reserves in the Middle East and greenhouse gas emissions from oil production and consumption — raise significant geopolitical and environmental concerns about oil dependence.
Conversion of renewable sources of energy to liquid fuels provides an avenue to address these concerns. However, today's technology for converting biomass to liquid fuels is not scalable to amounts sufficient to displace a large fraction of oil consumption. Currently, ethanol made from corn is a renewable resource used to produce liquid fuels in the United States, but this new market and the associated increases in demand for corn have already significantly affected food prices and agricultural practices.
Producing alternatives to gasoline from other types of biomass — alternative crops, switchgrass and agricultural waste, for example — would eliminate "food vs. fuel" concerns. However, economic, scalable and sustainable production of ethanol from cellulose is difficult and expensive. It requires focused, multidisciplinary research involving biochemistry, genetics, enzymes and catalysts to identify the best plant candidates, enhance plant growth, improve biomass fermentation and optimize biofuels processing. As with other renewables, the dynamics of the natural resource base — including the effects of droughts, floods, and infestations — must be taken into account to ensure that biofuels represent robust, sustainable, affordable and environmentally benign supplies of energy. Land use, water use and biodiversity are examples of important issues for biofuels production at a scale that materially reduces petroleum use and carbon dioxide emissions.
