POPULAR PRESS ARTICLES

Bourne, Joel K. 2007. "Green Dreams:  Making fuel from crops could be good for the planet--after a breakthrough or two." National Geographic.
A readable National Geographic article with supporting activities comparing different forms of ethanol with gasoline and algae-based diesel for transportation fuels.  Try the "Compare Biofuels" option to investigate net energy and green house gas emissions for each fuel.
 
Monahan, P. 2008. “Biofuels: An Important Part of Low-Carbon Diet.” Catalyst 7(2).
This article assesses sustainability of biofuels and also address the creation of biofuels. It is written in a way that it could be understood by high school students.
 
Martin, A. 2008. Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-pointing. New York Times. New York, New York.
This article from the New York Times does a good job of laying out the complexities of the food verses biofuel crop production debate without oversimplifying. It should be readable by high school students.
 
Rosenthal, E. 2008. New Trend in Biofuels Has New Risks. New York Times. New York, NY.
This is a short and easy read on the problems of using invasive plant species as biofuels crops. It should be readable by high school students.
 
SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES
 
NOTE: Not all of these articles may be available for free public use and the links may not work for all users.
 
Sustainability:
Dale, V., K. Kline, et al. 2010. Ecological Society of America. “Biofuels: Implications for Land Use and Biodiversity.” 
This report provides a thorough scientific summary of the issues associated with biofuel crop production, and the corresponding potential changes in land-use and biodiversity. It is appropriate for high school and college students.
 
Ecological Society of America. 2000. "Carbon Sequestration in Soils."
This is a readable explanation of how carbon is stored in soil, the benefits of soil carbon and practices that help maintain higher levels of carbon in the soil.
 
Field, C. B., J. E. Campbell, et al. 2008. “Biomass energy: the scale of the potential resource.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 23(2): 65-72.
For those interested in the food verses fuels debate, this scientific article looks at the global base of abandoned cropland and the corresponding productivity of these areas. This article is scientifically dense and is likely best for advanced high school students.
 
Hill, J., E. Nelson, et al. 2006. “Environmental, economic, and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels.” PNAS 103(30): 4.
What are the net energy balances, and the energy inputs and outputs for biofuels? This article details a life-cycle analysis of both corn grain ethanol and soybean biodiesel biofuels. While this article is technical, with some guidance, it should be understandable by high school students.
 
Hill, et al. 2009. “Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt.” Science 319(5867): 1235-1238.
Research on the greenhouse gas and particulate matter emissions coming from different biofuel production techniques.
 
Hillel, D., C. Rozenzweig. 2009. "Soil Carbon and Climate Change." CSA News. 54(06): 4-11.
This article from the Crops, Soils and Agronomy CSA News discusses the role of soil carbon and how agricultural management can alter the amount of carbon sequestered in the soil. It addresses specific practices and how those affect climate change by releasing more or less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
 
James, L. K., S. M. Swinton, et al. December 2009. “Profitability of Converting Biofuels to Crops.” Michigan University Extension Bulletin E-3084.
This bulletin discusses the economics of farming various biofuel crops and break-even points to convert from corn to other feedstocks.
 
Robertson, G. P., V. H. Dale, et al. 2008. “Agriculture - Sustainable biofuels Redux.” Science 322(5898): 49-50.
The 2008 Farm Bill provides a subsidy for the production of cellulosic ethanol. The large group of authors associated with this article looks at the sustainability implications of this subsidy, and detail environmental and ecological research that they feel is needed. This article is likely readable by high school students.
 
Tilman, et al. 2009. "Beneficial Biofuels—The Food, Energy, and Environment Trilemma."
A two page summary of what a prominent group of scientists propose as the best way to develop the cellulosic biofuels industry in a sustainable way.

 
Pretreatment:
Yang, B. and E. Wyman, 2007. “Pretreatment: the key to unlocking low-cost cellulosic ethanol.” Wiley Interscience: Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining 2:26-40.
Gives a nice background of the use of petroleum and biofuels in the introduction. Also provides a comparison each pretreatment method, including pros and cons, on page 31. Figure 1 (page 29) provides an outline of the biological conversion of cellulosic biomass into ethanol, including effects of pretreatment processes on other operations. Best suited for high school students or teachers who want to know more about pretreatment methods.
 
Mosier, N., Wyman, C., Dale, B., et al. (2005). “Features of promising technologies for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass.” Bioresource Technology 96 (2005) 673-686.
Overview of plant structure and challenges of accessing cellulose provided on pages 673-676. Also provides detailed descriptions of pretreatment options. Useful for high school students and teachers, especially chemistry teachers who may be interested in mimicking procedures outlined for pretreatment.View
 
Microbes:
Rubin, E. M. 2008. Genomics of cellulosic biofuels. Nature 454.
An overview of the most common microorganisms in biofuels research and status of genome sequencing.
 
Plants:
Pauly M., Keegstra K. Cell-wall carbohydrates and their modification as a resource for biofuels. The Plant Journal. 2008;54(4):559-568.
"A technical overview of plant cell wall structure and a good introduction to sugar content in plants being researched in biofuels. Appropriate for those who already have background in biology, but need an introduction to the cell wall issues related to biofuels."