Transgenics for Biofuel Crops

Fossil fuels, like petroleum and coal, are fast-depleting, nonrenewable sources that were produced over million years ago, when the higherand lower-order plants were buried under the surface of the earth by volcanic activities and sedimentation. These were further acted upon by microorganisms leading to the formation of nonrenewable fuels. There is an urgent need to find alternative sources of energy in order to cope with the energy demands of the human race and the much-debated global climate change in the coming years. So intense is the problem that the world has been divided into energy-independent producers and energy-dependent consumer economies, triggering trade war and political unrest, leading to monopoly over production and pricing issues. In such a scenario, there is a greater urge for the fossil-fuel-dependent economies to look for alternative sources of energy to become more self-reliant when it comes to their own energy needs (Hill et al. 2006). Several alternative energy sources, which exist and are being exploited today, include wind, solar, hydroelectric, nuclear energy and possibly methane gas reserves entrapped in the underground seabed. These may provide a part of the solution. There are practical problems associated with harnessing, storage and transport of these new renewable resources compared with other popular nonrenewable sources. Biofuels or agrofuels are basically carbon-derived fuels (solid, liquid or gaseous state) where the source of carbon is either plants or animals, and are therefore indirectly solar energy sources. They can be derived from animal fats, vegetable oils (biodiesel), or from agro-residues (bioethanol, biomethanol, or biobutanol), or can be derived from solid forms (like refuse fuels, pellets, wood, sewage, and