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News and Trendshttp://www.bayercropscience.com/bayer/cropscience/cscms.nsf/id/20080109_EN?open&ccm=400 Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company, Bayer CropScience AG, and Daimler AG (leading companies in agricultural processing, crop development and car manufacturing, respectively) have recently signed a memorandum of agreement “to jointly explore the potential for a biodiesel industry based on Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.)”. One of the objectives of the collaboration is to develop production and quality standards for Jatropha-derived biodiesel. Under the project, Bayer CropScience has plans for the development/registration of disease and pest control agents that can be suitably applied in Jatropha plantations. Daimler, after its successful vehicle test study using Jatropha biodiesel, “will continue to explore the interactions between fuel and engine in vehicles powered by Jatropha biodiesel and mixtures of this and other fuels”. ADM would most likely collaborate in the processing of Jatropha into biodiesel.. http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN747406.html According to Dr. Josef Schmidhuber, senior economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo, is one of the most promising countries in Africa with a potential to become a top biofuels producer. A major reason is the country’s vast amount of farmland which is suited for planting a wide variety of biofuel crops. In some countries, the land use for food versus biofuels is often a contentious issue. For the case of Congo, Schmidhuber says this need not be an issue, as “there are substantial amounts of arable land outside the precious rainforest areas”. Land allocated for energy crops “should not necessarily be at the expense of food production”, he added. It could actually boost agricultural productivity, because the necessary energy that is required to jumpstart agricultural production can be provided. Among the listed countries with similar biofuel potential are Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe..
http://biopact.com/2008/01/mission-biofuels-signs-jatropha.html Australian biofuel company, Mission Biofuels, is developing its upstream feedstock for Jatropha-based biodiesel production in India. Recently, it announced that its subsidiary, Mission Biofuels (India) signed an agreement with a government district authority granting exclusive rights to purchase Jatropha curcas seeds. The district authority has recently transferred about 60,000 acres of Jatropha (planted in the last five years) to a newly formed farmer federation cooperative. Under the agreement, Mission Biofuels will provide technical inputs/know how to farmers, provide nurseries, and support land development for Jatropha. The company, in turn, will obtain exclusive right to purchase the Jatropha seeds that will be harvested from the district plantations.. http://biopact.com/2008/01/renewables-in-germany-in-2007-91-of.html In its report on the state of clean energy in the country, the German National Association for Renewables, (Bundesverband Erneuerbare Energie or BEE) reported that 9.1% of Germany’s primary energy is sourced from renewable energy. Biomass energy which is mainly used for electricity generation, heating and transport fuel, accounted for 68% of the 219.5 billion kilowatt hours attributed to renewables. This resulted in a reduction of 115 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions and a savings in fossil fuel imports worth 5.9 billion euros. Biodiesel and ethanol, the main biofuels for transport, now account for about 7% of Germany’s total transport fuels; biodiesel had a higher growth in sales compared to ethanol.. Energy Crops and Feedstocks for Biofuels Production
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0704767105v1 (access to full paper may require paid subscription) Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) has been identified as a promising bioethanol feedstock with good net energy and GHG (greenhouse gas) balances. A recent study by the team from the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (US DA-ARS) revealed that the net energy yield and GHG reduction from switchgrass-based ethanol may be much greater than previously estimated. In their study, the researchers mentioned that previous net energy estimates were based on small research plots of less than 5 square meters. Based on field trials in larger plantation areas (30,000 square meters to 90,000 square meters) in marginal farmlands “across wide precipitation and temperature gradients in the mid continental United States”, the results showed that switchgrass yields a 540% net energy. The switchgrass biomass and net energy yields were said to be 93% higher than previous estimates. The estimated GHG emissions were also found to be 94% lower than gasoline. Energy sustainability and biofuel potential of switch grass could be further enhanced by “improved genetics and agronomics”. More information about the study can be obtained from their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (URL above).. Biofuels Processing
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/enfuem/asap/pdf/ef700275w.pdf Thermophilic environments are said to be good sources of new microorganisms. A bioprospecting expedition to the Icelandic hotsprings yielded some microorganisms which can produce hydrogen and ethanol (both having biofuel applications) under thermophilic conditions (50 degress Celsius to 78 degrees Celsius). The results of the findings, headed by Perttu Koskinen, of the Tampere Institute of Technology, in Iceland, are published in the ACS (American Chemical Society) journal, Energy and Fuels (URL above). Dominant bacteria from enrichment cultures were found to be “closely affiliated with Thermoanaerobacter thermohydrosulfuricus”, and produced 1.21 moles of ethanol per mole of glucose and 0.68 moles hydrogen per mole of glucose at 78 degrees Celsius. The paper concludes that the full potential for hydrogen and ethanol production of the isolated samples “have yet to be revealed”.. |
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