The American Chemical Society’s Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) is a leading organization in the storage and retrieval of chemical information. As such, CAS is in an excellent position to judge trends in development and commercialization of chemistry-related research. On June 24, 2010, CAS posted a research report titled, “China Takes Lead in the Commercialization of Bioethanol“. Although the number of journal articles on biofuels published in the U.S. is still tops, the number of patents filed is significantly larger in China.

Your students are probably interested in biofuels in general and bioethanol in particular. The CAS report divides biofuels into three generations: first, fuels derived from food sources such as corn; second, fuels derived from non-food sources such as cornstalks or grasses; and third, fuels derived from algae. Research on second generation biofuels has burgeoned during the past four or five years, with the number of research papers increasing by nearly six times and the number of patents increasing by more than 23 times.

This is an area that is ripe for discussion with students, both with respect to the research needed to develop first, second, and third generation biofuels and with respect to how research translates into commercial practice. This brief CAS report is an excellent source for the latter, but other resources will need to be considered for the former. A good one is listed below.

What Are Biofuels and How Much Do We Use?