Despite USDA record research grant, poplar biofuel can’t compete with cheap oil

In Washington state, research to produce biofuels from poplar trees at commercial scale has been negatively impacted by low fuel prices as well. More than four years after the University of Washington received $40 million from the USDA to research tree-based biofuels, commercial production still requires oil to be above $80 per barrel. At $100 a barrel, the fuel would have a lot of demand, the program’s researchers say. Washington State University was also among the $136 million research consortium, the largest ever awarded by the USDA.