The head of energy crop company Ceres told the National Academy of Sciences this week that biotechnology-based innovations across the biofuels production chain will bring the cost of a new generation of cellulosic biofuels down significantly, while vastly increasing supply.

According to a company release, Ceres president and CEO Richard Hamilton said, “Biofuels produced from dedicated energy crops will be able to compete economically with gasoline, but the industry will need support early on to get the first several cellulosic biorefineries built.”

Hamiliton made a presentation to the academy’s Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable.