"Google offers a tool called "Trends," which shows the number of searches on a keyword over time. According to Google Trends, from 2004 to the end of 2023, internet searches for the term "biofuel" peaked in April 2008, which, coincidentally, was the date an article entitled "Scientists want to stop using food to make biofuel" was in the news. If internet searches are an indication of public sentiment, interest in biofuel has therefore fallen to approximately 25% of the peak level in 2008.
Whatever politics, preferences, or conspiracy theories might be at work here, the fact remains that despite any historical correlation between biofuel production and food prices, first-generation biofuels based on corn, soy, and rapeseed have lost public appeal and will likely not provide a singular solution in our search for sustainable energy sources.
End of the story? Not for Per Falholt, chief scientific officer at Novozymes. Previously, biofuel was only made by physically grinding corn, breaking down the starch into sugar with enzymes, converting the sugar into ethanol with microorganisms, and distilling the ethanol. Per's research team of 150 scientists, in seven different locations around the world, designed the enzymes converting waste corn stalks or wood chips into clean fuel—the second generation of biofuel technology."