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News and Trends
(full access to technical paper may require paid subscription) Land-use-change and the "food-versus-fuel debate" are contentious issues related to the adoption and use of biofuels in many countries. As a way to mitigate potentially adverse impacts related to the use of food-based bioenergy crops and associated land-use changes, many national biofuel policies are geared toward (1) the use of non-food-based feedstocks for bioenergy crop cultivation; and (2) the utilization of marginal lands as cultivation areas. A question about the availability of these lands and whether these are sufficient for cultivating biofuel crops to meet global demand has been raised. To answer these questions, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Central Florida (both in the United States) attempted to assess land availability in areas with "major agricultural capacities". These areas include Africa, China, Europe, India, South America, and the continental United States. The researchers first assessed land availability from a physical perspective, using the best available data. Fuzzy logic modeling was also used "to address uncertainty and ambiguity in analysis where researchers considered multiple scenarios for land availability". Among the highlights of the study are: (1) regions with major agricultural production capacities have an estimated 320 million hectares to 702 million hectares land available for bioenergy crop cultivation, if only abandoned or degraded cropland is used; and (2) cultivating second generation biofuel feedstocks on these lands can supply 10% to 52% of world energy consumption. The full results are published in the journal, Environmental Science and Technology (URL above).
(full access to paper may require paid subscription) Impacts to biodiversity are considered one of the environmental consequences of converting land to biomass energy crop plantations. Scientists from the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Michigan State University (United States) studied the impacts of biofuel production areas utilizing perennial grasses, on avian biodiversity. Their studies showed that compared to corn, bioenergy crop plantations using perennial grasses (a second-generation biofuel feedstock) provided benefits to grassland bird populations. This benefit can be realized if the bioenergy feedstocks (perennial grasses) "are cultivated in large patches within relatively unforested landscapes. According to researcher, Bruce Robertson, "Native perennial grasses might provide an opportunity to produce biomass in ways that are compatible with the conservation of biodiversity and important ecosystem services such as pest control." He also said that their work "demonstrates that next-generation biofuel crops have potential to provide a new source of habitat for a threatened group of birds". The full study is published in the journal, Global Change Biology (GBC), Bioenery (URL above). Biofuels Processing
(complete access to technical paper may require paid subscription) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V24-51MJYM6- Glycerol is a by-product in the production of biodiesel from plant oils, and it is produced in quantities that are approximately 10% (w/w) of the biodiesel produced. As the demand for biodiesel increases, there are fears that high biodiesel production would result in a "glycerol glut", and problems may arise in glycerol management/disposal. Although glycerol can be used for pharmecutical and other applications, the high volumes of this by-product (generated from biodiesel operations) have prompted research into other resource-recovery strategies. One option is the fermentation of glycerol to ethanol. In this production scenario, two biofuels can be produced: biodiesel (from plant oils), and bioethanol (from the fermentation of the by-product, glycerol). Compared with lignocellulosic feedstocks, the ethanol production from glycerol is considered to be cheaper because no feedstock pretreatment is required. One of the challenges in the fermentation of glycerol to ethanol, however, is finding an efficient microorganism for the process. Korean scientists from the Jeonbuk Branch Institute, Chonnam National University, Chonbuk National University, and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, reported the development of a microbial strain which efficiently produces ethanol from glycerol. They obtained a mutant strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae GEM167, which was obtained by gamma-irradiation of the microorganism. Ethanol production of the mutant strain increased to 21.5 g/L, and this was reported to be the "highest level [of ethanol yield from glycerol fermentation] reported to date". Genetic engineering of the mutant strain further increased the ethanol yield to 25.0 g/L. The results are published in the journal, Bioresource Technology (URL above).
(complete access to technical paper may require paid subscription) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V24-51K993H- Scientists from the National University of Singapore report a resource-recovery strategy for the utilization of crude glycerol from biodiesel production operations into a value-added product. They used a corn fungus called, Ustilago maydis, to convert crude glycerol into glycolipids. Glycolipids are compounds with carbohydrate and lipophilic moieties, and these structural feature make them promising surfactants for applications in "enhanced oil recovery, crude oil drilling, lubrication, surfactant-aided bioremediation, health care and food." They optimized the medium composition and environmental factors for the microbial bioprocessing of crude glycerol to glycolipids, and used a fed-batch culture system for bioreactor operation.. They were able to show that Ustilago maydis "is able to efficiently utilize and convert crude glycerol to glycolipid-type biosurfactant in a relatively simple synthetic medium using crude glycerol as the sole carbon source." The results of their findings are published in the journal, Bioresource Technology (URL above). Biofuels Policy and Economics
http://policyschool.ucalgary.ca/files/publicpolicy/BiofuelsJordaanfinal.pdf A paper released by the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary (Canada) looks into the ethical dimensions of environmental policies which are related to biofuels. The paper titled, "Ethical risks of environmental policies: the case of ethanol in North America" is by Michal Moore and Sarah Jordaan. According to co-author, Michal Moore, "Policymakers, especially in the [United States], have been in a rush to expand biofuel protection." The race to promote biofuels is based on the motivation that these "green fuels" are renewable and emit less greenhouse gases. The paper states, that "while there are some biofuels that can be developed with relatively few impacts, others can result in broader, complex social concerns that should be included in the policy debate. These concerns include impacts arising from the conversion of natural landscapes and changes in food supply." Before encouraging and supporting the production of more biofuels, the paper raises some basic questions to "encourage a fuller debate": (1) What is the effect of biofuel production on food costs, especially for poor populations?; (2) Should more land be used for biofuel when the return of energy per acre is low? Are there better uses for that land?; (3) In addition to worrying about the impact of global warming, should we not consider the impact on land of massively expanding biofuel production?; (4) What are the other economic impacts of large scale production of biofuel? A methodology is also proposed to capture ethical risks related to the energy and environmental choices. The full paper can be accessed at the University of Calgary's Institute of Public Policy's website (URL above).
http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/icraf-releases-paper-on-biodiesel-in-the-amazon/?referrer=climate-change-daily-feed The World Agroforestry Center (formerly the International Center for Research in Agroforestry, ICRAF) recently released a report on biodiesel in the Brazilian Amazon. The report looks at agroenergy policy in the Amazon, and highlights "approaches taken by Brazilian Federal and state governments to consider the social and environmental sustainability of soybean and palm oil production in the Amazon." The traditional biodiesel feedstock has been initially soybean, but recent initiatives have been made for the use of palm oil. Interviews with Brazilian policy officials were conducted to examine the extent to which the "palm oil initiatives" are considered sustainable with regard to social and environmental impacts. The paper mentioned that the biodiesel industry and the federal and state governments are taking into account recent studies, which question the "social and environmental sustainability of the oil palm production model currently being adopted in the Amazon." With the present situation, the paper concludes that "palm oil developments will need improved policy and monitoring." The full paper can be accessed at the World Agroforestry website (URL above). |
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