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News and Trendshttp://www.cgiar.org/monthlystory/march2008.html The March 2008 Newsletter of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) features an analysis of the benefits and risks of the emerging biofuels revolution, particularly in developing countries. Under a global setting of drastically rising fossil fuel prices, and the environmental threats of climate change, developing countries are looking to biofuels development as a solution for (1) energy security and (2) reduction of greenhouse emissions for climate change mitigation. Biofuels could also (3) provide opportunities for “new sources of wealth”, since bioenergy crops for biofuels production are abundantly available in these countries. However, the benefits are also accompanied by risks, which require a cautious and well managed approach to bioenergy development policy. There are questions and concerns related to potential negative impacts of biofuels on agriculture/food security, poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability: “Will the rural poor benefit from the biofuels revolution?”, “Will large scale biofuel crop plantations destroy biodiversity-rich forests?”, “Will food prices like corn and maize increase as a result of high demand of these crops for biofuels?”. To address these questions, CGIAR formed the “Bioenergy Platform of the Alliance of the CGIAR Centers”. The alliance will join cooperative research efforts to ensure that developing countries will benefit from the biofuels revolution. Emerging solutions seem to dwell on (1) the development of “alternative” bioenergy crops which thrive on drylands/marginal soils, with low water requirements or low agricultural inputs, and (2) development of innovative public-private sector partnerships which harness research results into productive economic endeavors that benefit rural farmers..
http://www.biofpr.com/view/MTAzNTM4L05XLzUxL251bGw=/newsDetail.html A 1.5 million-gallon-capacity cellulosic ethanol plant is under construction in Westbury, Canada, and will be the first ever industrial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the country. The plant will use “creosited urban wood (end-of-lifecycle power poles)” and municipal solid waste as feedstocks, using a thermochemical route of production. The Enerkem website (URL above) describes the steps of the production technology as follows: (1) feedstock pretreatment and feeding (feedstock is sorted, shredded and dried), (2) gasification (feedstock is heated to produce synthesis gas), (3) syngas conditioning (syngas is cleaned), and finally, (4) syngas conversion into alcohols.. Energy Crops and Feedstocks for Biofuels Productionhttp://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=emerging08&id=20240&a= Although ethanol for transport biofuel applications is still largely produced using “first generation biofuel feedstocks” (such as corn, and sugarcane), many see “cellulose ethanol”, or ethanol from cellulosic biomass (a “second generation” biofuel crop) as the bioethanol of the future. Many studies have shown that cellulose ethanol has a better net energy yield and a better GHG (greenhouse gas) balance compared to corn ethanol. However, cellulose ethanol production technology (via the biochemical route) still has some hurdles that limit cost-effective applications on a large scale such as the identification of effective cellulases. Cellulases are enzymes which break down the cellulose into simple sugars that can be fermented into ethanol. Frances Arnold, a scientist from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in the United States, aims to develop new cost effective cellulases, by using a tool called, “directed evolution”. This tool is described as a method of protein engineering that “harnesses Darwinian selection to evolve proteins or RNA with desirable properties not found in nature” (wikipedia.org). It may involve creating variations of the gene that codes for cellulases, inserting the mutated cellulase genes into a microorganism, and then screening it for a particular/desired characteristic..
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080320182932.htm Researchers from the Iowa State University (ISU), in the United States, are developing a themochemical catalytic process which can produce ethanol from plant biomass. The thermochemical route is an alternative to the biochemical route (i.e., via fermentation) for ethanol production. The research, which is funded by a grant from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy, is headed by Victor Lin, ISU professor of chemistry. In their process, the plant biomass (like corn stalks or grasses) is heated at 900 oF in the absence of oxygen (“fast pyrolysis) to produce a “bio-oil”. The”bio-oil” is then heated in a gasifier at 1100 oF to 1500 oF to produce “synthesis gas” ( a mixture containing carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and short chain hydrocarbon chains). Finally, the hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the synthesis gas are combined in a reactor, containing a metal catalyst embedded in solid nanosphere particles. The technology is said to solve some problems related to selectivity and control of the reaction.. http://www.biofpr.com/view/MTAzNzUzL0pBLzUxL251bGw=/journalArticleDetail.html The production of cellulose-ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass usually takes four main processing steps: (1) “Pretreatment”, where the cellulose fibers are liberated from the tough “lignin wrapping” in the plant biomass, (2) “Saccharification”, where the liberated cellulose fibers are broken into simple sugars, (3) “Fermentation”, where microorganisms (usually yeasts) convert the simple sugars into ethanol, and (4) “Distillation”, the thermal separation of high purity ethanol from the fermentation broth. A recent review paper by Bin Yang and Charles Wyman (in the journal “Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining”) mentions that the pretreatment step is “projected to be the single, most expensive processing step, representing about 20% of the total cost”. The use of chemical agents is said to “offer the high yields and low costs vital to economic success”. The review paper lists the following chemical pretreatments as the “most promising”: dilute acid, sulfur dioxide, near-neutral pH control, ammonia expansion, aqueous ammonia, and lime, with significant differences among the sugar-release patterns”. There is a need to improve knowledge of pretreatment systems to “substantially reduce costs and to accelerate commercial applications”.. Biofuels Policy and Economics
http://www.icrisat.org/Media/2008/media3.htm Dr. William Dar, the Director-General, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, (ICRISAT) describes smart biofuel crops as “those that ensure food security, contribute to energy security, provide environmental sustainability, tolerate the impacts of climate change on shortage of water and high temperatures, and increase livelihood options”. He has urged developing countries “to adapt the development of smart crops for biofuels to ensure food and environmental security”. In its “BioPower” program, ICRISAT is promoting sweet sorghum, as a smart biofuel crop for biofuel ethanol. Among sweet sorghum’s advantages as a bioenergy feedstock are its: (1) high sugar yield (in stalks) for ethanol production, (2) low water and fertilizer requirement, and (3) ability to thrive in marginal soils. Sweet sorghum is also said to have a “strong pro-poor advantage” because of it’s “triple product potential”: (1) grain (for food security), (2) juice (for ethanol), and bagasse (crushed stalk after juice extraction, used as livestock feed/power generation). Ethanol from sweet sorghum is also said to have good energy and carbon balances.. http://www.europabio.org/Biofuels/PressBrief/land_use_March08.pdf In its Fact Sheet on Biofuels and Land Use, the European Association for Bioindustries (EuropaBio) offers some insights on land use issues related to biofuels development. (1) the use of second generation biofuel feedstocks (non-food based feedstocks, like cellulosic biomass) has the potential to reduce pressure on food crops and reduce land use, (2) it is possible to increase biofuels production without using more land by increasing land productivity (biomass per hectare) through improved agricultural practices, and improving crop quality (i.e. develop crops with high stress tolerance or those with high fermentable carbohydrates for ethanol production) through modern biotechnology. The Fact Sheet also stresses the need for “more data and common methodology to measure land-use-change input and agricultural-practice impact on the GHG (greenhouse gas) balance”.. |
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