Energy experts all over the country last Tuesday converged at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to attend a 3-day workshop on the development of second generation biofuels.The chairman, Prof. Francis Momade at the launch of the programme on Tuesday 29th June, 2010 emphasised the need for research institutions to collaborate with the universities and with each other to facilitate rapid exchange of ideas.The programme, a collaboration between the KNUST, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the University of Southampton seeks to develop biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels.The Director-General of the CSIR, in his address stated that the recent increases in fuel prices and volatility of these prices constitute and important rationale for considering biofuels for Africa, adding that the workshop could not have taken place at any better time than this.He stated cost, distribution systems and standards as barriers that must be overcome if biofuels are to be widely used in the country.For her part, the minister of Environment, Science and Technology in a speech read on her behalf expressed grave concern at the security of energy supply in Ghana, adding that though Ghana hopes to start producing crude oil later this year the output may not be enough to generate our future energy requirements.Story by Bernard Buachi, KNUST, Kumasi.