Tag Archives: biofuel forcast

Maldives Eco Symposium: ‘Biofuel may not be the answer’

October 08, 2010   Karl
maldives

Maldives Eco Symposium: 'Biofuel may not be the answer'

Travel and tourism is crucial to sustainability and tackling climate change, as the world’s biggest business sector, according to World Future Council director Stefan Schurig.

Speaking at the Eco Symposium 2010 at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives, Schurig said travel and tourism was responsible for 230 million jobs and 10% of gross domestic product around the world.

The sector must make a rapid response to the environmental situation, mitigating its greenhouse gas emissions from transport and accommodation and helping businesses and countries adapt to the changing climate. He described the ideal model as “holistic ecotourism”.

Read More

2015: The future of biofuels and materials

October 07, 2010   Karl
back_to_the_future

2015 - The Future of Biofuel

Production of biomaterials will grow faster than biofuels and increasing biofuel capacity is highly reliant on technology from innovative startups. These are some of the conclusions in a report just issued by Lux research on the biofuel and biomaterial markets.

Biomaterials can be used instead of plastics and polymers currently produced from petroleum, but at current capacity the materials can replace a mere 1 percent of plastics. Lux research expects this market to grow by a minimum of 17.7 percent per year, driven by big corporations. Petroleum is used in a bewildering array of products and packaging, but fluctuations in oil prices make it difficult for companies to predict the cost of materials. Bio-based fibers for textiles and acetate, used for things like pens and toothbrushes, dominate the bio-based materials scene, accounting for 39 percent and 24 percent of the current $10.7 billion market.

Biofuel is produced from materials like sugar and vegetable oils. It currently supplies just 3 percent of the world’s fuel needs but is still a $53 billion market. Production is dominated by ethanol and biodiesel, both of which are mainly blended with gasoline and diesel for use in vehicles. The Americas are the biggest producers of ethanol (as shown in the graph below). Both fuels have drawbacks; ethanol does not have a very high energy density and biodiesel has a low cloud point, i.e. the point at which a liquid begins to solidify. These fuels have also been controversial since growing the raw materials requires land which could be used for food production.

As a result, many researchers and startups are working on new fuels such as algae oil. The major problem with these fuels is scaling up production to a commercial level. The report predicts that by 2015 startups like Enerkem, which produces fuel from garbage, will start to realize their capacity ambitions. We previously wrote about Enerkem’s first industrial-sized plant which is being built in Canada.

Butanol is a new fuel with a higher energy density than ethanol. The report suggests that butanol companies such as Cobalt, Cathay Biotech, TetraVitae and Gevo all show promise.It also concludes that technical innovations coming from startups will have a bigger effect on increasing biofuel capacity than government increases in the blend rate (the percentage of vehicle fuel which can consist of biofuels). Lux research expects the biofuels market to grow by 7.8 percent per year to 2015.

One striking aspect of these markets is the geographical distribution of production. The Americas dominate ethanol production (89 percent of capacity) and Europe leads in biodiesel (60.3 percent) while Asia controls biomaterials (38.5 percent). The report expects this landscape to change by 2015, with the Americas growing strongly  in biomaterials and Asia catching up in biofuels. However, current growth rates will still leave the biofuels and materials markets at replacement percentages similar to today’s, with massive improvements in scale required for further growth.

Source venturebeat.com

Read More

Canada Probes the Frontiers of Biofuel

October 04, 2010   Karl
canadian flag

Canada pushes the Biofuel Frontiers

Four enterprising Canadian firms have joined the race to replace fossil fuels with affordable and planet-friendly second-generation bio alternatives.

Toronto, Canada Despite decades of work, most next-generation biofuels — made from materials that do not compete with food production — are still at the reaserch and development stage. But a few Canadian operations are among the dozen or so that are either commercial or very near to it — and each has the potential to change how the world fuels up its vehicles.
Enerkem: Speeding to Market
Since its emergence from a small research laboratory in Sherbrooke University in 1999, Quebec-based Enerkem has continued to pursue aggressive growth, and it is now completing a large commercial facility to turn Edmonton’s municpal garbage into some 36 million litres of bioethanol a year. The plant, scheduled to begin operating from mid-2011 onwards, is set to become the world’s first commercial operation to turn municipal solid waste (about 100,000 tonnes annually) into ethanol for fuelling vehicles.

Read More

Hardest part of reaching biofuel goal awaits

October 03, 2010   Karl
biofuel sticker

halfway to achieving its goal of 36 billion gallons of renewable transportation fuel

The United States is roughly halfway to achieving its goal of 36 billion gallons of renewable transportation fuel by the year 2022, but the last half likely will be harder, and probably more expensive, than the first.

John Whitaker, Iowa executive director for Farm Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told a symposium last week that as many as 527 new biofuel plants will be needed, in addition to the 171 ethanol plants now working, to meet the mandate.

The cost: $168 billion.

“Corn ethanol has gotten consumers to accept ethanol as a fuel,” Whitaker said. But he noted that the congressionally imposed mandate sets a 16 billion-gallon limit on ethanol’s contribution to biofuels. The rest has to come from other sources such as switchgrass and miscanthus, algae, wood biomass and electrification.

Robert Brown, who directs biofuels research at Iowa State University, observed that Iowa and other corn states contributed to the big surge in ethanol production in the last decade without major technological breakthroughs.

Read More

AltAir Fuels may fly you on biofuel sooner than you think

October 03, 2010   Karl
AltAir Fuels

AltAir Fuels may fly you on biofuel sooner than you think Read more: AltAir Fuels may fly you on biofuel sooner than you think - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)

Flying commercial airplanes on alternative fuels isn’t some far-off goal. With the expected approval late this year or early next of new specifications, jet biofuel production could gear up.

Seattle-based AltAir Fuels, which received a $2 million federal stimulus grant this year, plans to begin construction next year on a jet biofuel plant in Anacortes, with production slated for 2012.

“We’re actually a lot closer (to using biofuels) than people think, and there continues to be a tremendous amount of money and resources going into this space,” said John Williams of Scoville Public Relations.

Williams has an up-close view of alternative fuels as a spokesman for the Seattle biofuel developer and for a nonprofit group promoting the commercial development of algae for fuels and other purposes.

Read More

Growth of biofuel industry hurt by GMO regulations

October 02, 2010   Karl
Regulations

Growth of biofuel industry hurt by GMO regulations

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Faster development of the promising field of cellulosic biofuels – the renewable energy produced from grasses and trees – is being significantly hampered by a “deep and thorny regulatory thicket” that makes almost impossible the use of advanced gene modification methods, researchers say.

In a new study published today in the journal BioScience, scientists argue that major regulatory reforms and possibly new laws are needed to allow cellulosic bioenergy to reach its true potential as a form of renewable energy, and in some cases help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

“It’s extraordinary that gene modification technology, which has been adapted more rapidly than any other technology in the history of agriculture, and had some profound environmental and economic benefits, has been regulated virtually out of existence for perennial cellulosic biofuels crops,” said Steve Strauss, a distinguished professor of forest biotechnology at Oregon State University, and lead author of the paper.

In the report, the authors noted that exotic plant species pose a serious risk of spread and ecosystem impacts, but face much less stringent regulation or obstacles than genetically engineered crops, which are carefully designed to solve problems, not cause them.

A genetically modified plant in which one or a few genes have been changed is treated as more of a risk than an invasive species that has thousands of new genes, and as a result is often resistant to multiple pests and has novel adaptive traits such as drought and heat tolerance, they said.

Read More

Congress passes algae biofuel tax credit legislation

September 30, 2010   Karl
biofuel tax credit legislation

Congress passes algae biofuel tax credit legislation

The US House of Representatives has passed a new law this week seeking to give algae-based biofuels parity with cellulosic biofuels in federal tax credit programs.

The Algae-based Renewable Fuel Promotion Act (HR 4168) means algae biofuel projects could access a $1.01 per gallon production tax credit and 50% bonus depreciation for biofuel plant property.

The bill sponsored by New Mexico Congressman Harry Teague amended Internal Revenue Codes to expand the cellulosic biofuel definition.

Along with the Democrat Rep. Teague, there was bipartisan support for the legislation, including backing from Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Dave Reichert (R-WA) and Brian Bilbray (R-CA).

Mary Rosenthal, Executive Director of the Algal Biomass Organization trade group, said: “Today, the House sent an unmistakable message of bipartisan support to the hundreds of companies, scientists, entrepreneurs and government agencies working to accelerate the development of algae-based fuels, which will create jobs, decrease emissions and reduce our nation’s dependence on imported fossil fuels.”

“The passage of this bill is a huge first step towards our goal of creating parity for algae-based biofuels within the tax code and among various other government programs,” added Ms Rosenthal.

Read More

Australia’s biofuel production to more than double by 2015

September 29, 2010   Karl

Australia Biofuel

Australia biofuel output seen doubling by 2015

Australia’s biofuel production is forecast to more than double by 2015 as new capacity is installed and demand for alternative fuels increases, a private consultancy forecast in a report.

Australia’s biofuel annual capacity is forecast to rise to 1.519 billion litres by 2015 from 636 million litres this year, APAC Biofuel Consultants said, adding that this would see more demand for sugar cane and soybeans as biofuel feedstocks.

“Biofuels are increasingly contributing to the Australian transport fuel mix, replacing imports, assisting fuel security and providing environmental advantages,” APAC joint chief executive Mike Cochran said in the report.

Australia’s crude oil production is declining, leaving biofuel production well placed to displace imported oil, which currently meets about 40 per cent of the country’s oil demand.

Biofuel demand in Australia grew 34 per cent in 2009/10 from 2008/09, more than double the global growth rate.

Most Australian demand is for ethanol, which is blended with gasoline, rather than biodiesel, another major type of biofuel.

Read More

  • Navigation


  • BioFuel Tweets!