Burning biomass better than converting it to biofuel?

Well, it seems to be more efficient.

This article and the companion editorial in Science magazine compare the efficiency of powering cars using biomass converted to ethanol in combustion engines versus burning the biomass to generate electricity that is then used to power a plug-in electric car.

Their conclusion: With current technology it is far more efficient to burn the biomass and convert it into electricity. For biomass-to-ethanol less than 10% of the original energy stored in biomass is available to power the vehicle. For biomass-to-electricity the numbers go up to 20-25%.
The study looks at conversion efficiency from biomass to transportation only. What is missing is things like environmental impact of old batteries, but also things like using the excess heat for residential heating, which is used quite successfully in Europe.

Also, and importantly, a plug-in electric vehicle would allow to decouple the energy source from the intended use of the energy. Electricity from biomass, sun, wind, coal, atom - everything would feed into the same grid and end up being usable for transportation (or something else).

The authors estimate that the current grid is sufficient to charge up to 70 million vehicles overnight, but fueling this number of cars with 60 billion gallons of biofuels would require additional infrastructure and would require much more land being dedicated to biofuels. Using biomass-to-electricity to power that same number of cars would require only little additional farmland.

Now, burning things has gotten a bad reputation lately, so remember that the only CO₂ released would be what was captured by the plants when they grew. If you start to sequester the carbon-dioxide produced during burning, you would in effect remove CO₂ from the atmosphere.

So, considering current technology, where would you put your money?

Discomfortingly, the current focus at DOE and USDA seems to be on biofuels. In 2008 an estimated $9 billion was dedicated to investments and tax advantages in that area, which could go up to $30 billion under current legislature (these numbers are from the editorial).