This biofuels stuff isn't as easy as we thought. We found out that corn ethanol isn't that efficient. Cellulosic is hard to make. And clearing any more land to make it is a no-go. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL) new report on biofuels in the Northwest doesn't have all the answers, but it contains lessons that the rest of the country should take note of.

As in most parts of the nation, Oregon and Washington are struggling with how to make their states more sustainable. Biofuels is just one front in this battle. Although these two states have plans to install 527 million gallons of ethanol and biodiesel production capacity, most of the crops used will be from the Midwest. The purpose of the report is to illuminate the ways that they can make biofuels locally.

Mike Davis, who leads PNNL's Energy and Environment Directorate says, "If we want to develop an industry that makes sense for the local economy and environment and is big enough to make a difference, we need to be willing to look beyond the Midwest model. We need to develop unconventional approaches that are consistent with regional resources and economics."

By leveraging currently available local resources and adding municipal solid waste (MSW), the Oregon and Washington can supply 10-15% of the 7 billion gallons of transportation fuels they consume each year. If that number seems low, and it did to me, the reasons why can provide lessons for other regions ramping up biofuels. First, many of the crops already being grown are more valuable as food, seed, and other useful products. Further, even the waste products from agriculture and forestry are often spoken for, used as feed and fiber. And, as I found out at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, the standards and government support for biomass projects simply aren't very robust yet.

Still, the report says that OR and WA have a lot of treasure in their trash. Seventy percent of the 7.8 pounds of trash produce by each northwesterner each day is organic (and just itching to produce some petrol). The authors note that the infrastructure for gathering our rubbish is already in place and concentrated in a way that agricultural wastes are not. Not to mention the NIMBY-driven increase in the price of finding a place to put it. They estimate that 7 million tons of MSW may be available in the region for this purpose annually.

So trash runs our cars, everyone's happy, The End. Not yet, actually, say the authors. We still have that detail of the technology. Neatly put, we cannot make biofuels cheap enough yet to compete with good ol' gasoline. However, near-future chemical processes could convert our MSW into super fuels like bio-crude that can be processed in northwest refineries, use existing fuel infrastructure and fill regular tanks.

"A new look at conversion technologies can give the region a chance to leapfrog from the existing suite of biofuels technologies to the next generation of biofuels that work with today's vehicles and gas stations," said Stiles.

Meanwhile, the Alternative Energy Technology Center, a biofuels developer, is in negotiations to build the first commercial biocrude plant in the U.S. But from the looks of things, the three R's of renewable energy (Research, Research, Research) still apply.