By Scott Malone
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts Wed Oct 13, 2010 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell, which is investigating about 10 second-generation biofuel technologies that would use nonfood raw materials, expects to narrow its research to about five options next year, its top scientist said.
“I am putting a lot of time and energy into sustainable biofuels, second-generation biofuels, in essence, the conversion of redundant material, straw, into ethanol,” Gerald Schotman, the Anglo-Dutch oil company’s chief technology officer said on Wednesday. “We’re also playing with ideas on algae, growing algae and then converting algae directly into gasoline and diesel.”