Baker Published in Energy Journal

Energy, The International Journal, has published a paper co-authored by Dr. Erin Baker, professor of industrial engineering and operations research at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst and TIMBR faculty member. The paper is entitled, "Cellulosic biofuels: Expert views on prospects for advancement". Dr. Baker performed an expert elicitation to gather information on the relationship between U. S. government Research & Development funding and the likelihood of achieving advances in cellulosic biofuel technologies. In the paper, experts address several distinct strategies to generating fuels from cellulosic feed stocks, with diverse results. While selective thermal processing is considered the most promising path, there remain questions about how much funding is necessary to succeed. Fundamental disagreements are expressed over whether success is possible with gasification even at higher funding levels. The hydrolysis path generated the widest range of responses from the experts.