Dwight Tomes & Prakash Lakshmanan 
Biofuels [PDF ebook] 
Global Impact on Renewable Energy, Production Agriculture, and Technological Advancements

This comprehensive volume developed under the guidance of guest editors Prakash Lakshmanan and David Songstad features broad coverage of the topic of biofuels and its significance to the economy and to agriculture. These chapters were first published by In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology In Vitro Plant in 2009 and consists of 15 chapters from experts who are recognized both for their scientific accomplishments and global perspective in their assigned topics.

Table of Content

Chapter 1 : Historical Perspective of Biofuels: Learning from the Past to Re-Discover the Future.- Chapter 2 :The DOE Bio Energy Science Center – a U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Center.- Chapter 3: Drivers Leading to Higher Food Prices: Biofuels Are Not the Main Factor.- Chapter 4 : The Economics of Current and Future Biofuels.- Chapter 5 : A multiple species approach to biomass production from native herbaceous perennial feedstocks.- Chapter 6 : Development and status of dedicated energy crops in the United States.- Chapter 7 : Genetic improvement of C4 grasses as cellulosic biofuel feedstocks.- Chapter 8: Short-rotation woody crops for bioenergy and biofuels applications.- Chapter 9: The Brazilian experience on sugarcane ethanol.- Chapter 10: Biofuels opportunities and challenges in India.- Chapter 11: Biofuels in China: opportunities and challenges.- Chapter 12: Genetic modification of lignin biosynthesis for improved biofuel production.- Chapter 13: Commercial Cellulosic Ethanol: the Role of Plant-Expressed Enzymes.- Chapter 14: Integrated biorefineries with engineered microbes and high-value co-products for profitable biofuels production.- Chapter 15: Biodiesel production, properties, and feedstocks.

About the author

Dwight Tomes is a Research Fellow in the Trait Discovery & Technologies group at Pioneer, a Du Pont Company in Johnston, IA. My primary responsibilities since 1982 have been in transformation technology development in multiple crop species and trait development in several agronomic trait areas of corn. Dwight is currently the Editor-in-Chief of In-Vitro Plant. Prakash Lakshmanan, Ph D, leads Molecular Breeding Program in David North Plant Research Centre, BSES Limited, Australia. His research focuses on crop improvement with particular emphasis on regulation of plant growth and resource use efficiency. Since 1998 he is working on sugarcane, a major industrial and biofuel crop. David Songstad is originally from South Dakota and attended South Dakota State University for his BS (Microbiology) and MS (Botany) and received his Ph.D. in Plant and Soil Science from the University of Tennessee. He has worked for the University of Illinois, Plant Biotechnology Institute (Canada), Pioneer Hi-Bred and Monsanto where he developed enabling technologies for corn tissue culture and corn transformation. He is currently the Global New Products Lead for Monsanto.