As stressed in the overview of “production,” second-generation biofuels are largely in the research-and-development stage as of present. That being understood, opportunities related to consumption are considerably limited. Consider the graphic above, which displays the thought-process involved in this particular scenario. In order to arrive at the end user, intense technological innovation need still occur; illustrated above is gasification, a practice employed by fewer than ten providers worldwide when considering second-generation biofuel.

However, when examining the consumption of biofuels as a generic category (i.e. not separated by generation), one might observe a steady increase over the past decade. In fact, while 2004 witnessed the consumption of only 485.7 thousand barrels per day domestically, 2012 experienced a much larger figure of 1866.2 thousand barrels per day. Thus, the following conclusion stands as reasonable: when the technology to produce second-generation biofuels in larger and more impactful portions emerges, demand will certainly emerge as well.

Presently not a category characterized by an abundance of data, trends from the first fifteen years of the current century allow one to forecast high demand with respect to this generation of biofuels on the eve of their feasible implementation.

(Composed by Robert King, edited by Eli Karp)

References

Labrie, Marie-Helen. “Gasification Technologies: Making Second-                  Generation Biofuels a Reality.” Biomass Magazine. BBI                                  International, 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

“Monthly Biodiesel Production Report.” U.S. Energy Information                          Administration. EIA, 30 Mar. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.

“Total Biofuels Production and Consumption.” International Energy                 Statistics-EIA. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.