RPT Biofuel not feasible as alternative auto fuel in China – expert

The processing of gasoline and diesel from crops is not a realistic alternative for China’s growing fleet of cars, said Professor Ni Weidou, an energy expert at Beijing University.

At a seminar at Tsinghua University, Ni said that 50 mln tons of grain – a tenth of China’s total output – would be required in order to produce only 10 mln tons of gasoline.
‘China has only 7 pct of the world’s arable land to feed 21 pct of the world’s population, and it isn’t realistic to develop biofuel on such a wide scale,’ he said.

He said that China has to figure out a way of processing vehicle fuel from coal.

‘Everyone says that we have to change our energy structure, but it isn’t that we like coal, but we just have no choice,’ Ni said. ‘We have to change the structure but there’s no way to do it.’

Forbes