Biofuels, liquid fuels produced from renewable plant or biological materials, are becoming a significant investment target for "big"-oil, "big"-pharma, governments and private investors. With an overall forecasted global biofuels market reaching between $200 and $600 Billion in 2020 (depending on whether or not an Oil-Peak had occurred), it is easy to see why energy-savvy investors are buying into this evolving market.

Consider the following:

• Exxon/Mobile invested $600 Million in joint ventures with Synthetic Genomics.
• Chevron formed a joint venture with Solazyme (undisclosed amount).
• BP announced a $10 Million algal algae-oil investment in Martek Biosciences.
• Dow Chemicals is backing Algenol Biofuels in its quest to secure $25 Million from the Department of Energy for a pilot biofuel plant.
• DuPont and BP partnered in 2007 to develop commercial production capacities for bio-butanol.
• The US government is investing nearly $800 million of stimulus funds in advanced biofuel research, development and test projects.
• The Swedish Energy R&D Board decided to invest SEK500m (€ 49m) in an industrial-scale demonstration of Chemrec technology for production of renewable motor fuels.
• The US government recently stipulated that, by 2020, the US will consume as much as 61 BGallons of cellulosic ethanol - a 2nd generation fuel. That is roughly 10% of the total liquid fuels consumed in the US in a given year or roughly $200B in revenue at todays pump prices.
• The EU has stipulated similar amounts - which translates to roughly $150B in revenue.

Market Intel Group LLC (MIG) has just published a new market/technology research report titled: "Biofuels - Global Markets and Technologies Outlook - 2010-2020". The new report examines the current and future biofuels market based on economic, environmental and political considerations. The report analyses and predicts the evolution of technologies, markets and outlays (expenditures) for three generations of the most common biofuels (ethanol, biodiesel, and butanol) over the next ten years. This forecast takes two separate scenarios into account: the world has recently passed peak crude oil production or that Oil Peak will occur in the future.

The report covers these biofuels:

• Corn and sugar-cane based ethanol.
• Soy-bean based biodiesel.
• Cellulosic ethanol ("grassoline") made from the tropical switchgrass miscanthus and other plant-matter waste products (i.e. wood chips).
• Biodiesel produced from crops grown in saline, non-arable land.
• Butanol from engineered microbes.
• Biodiesel from algae-oil.