News and Trends

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0005261
http://www.thebioenergysite.com/news/3571/biofuel-crops-pose-invasive-pest-risk

Scientists from the University of Hawaii report the use of a Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) system to predict if introduced bioenergy crop species will become invasive in their region. The study is published in the open access journal, PLoS ONE (URL above). The WRA protocol "examines a plant's biology, geographic origin, pest status elsewhere, and published information on its behavior in Hawaii to identify plants with a high risk of becoming invasive pests in Hawaii or other Pacific islands". The results show that about 70 percent of the list of regionally suitable fuel crops "have a high risk of becoming invasive versus one-quarter of non-biofuel plant species and are two to four times more likely to establish wild populations locally or be invasive in Hawaii or in other locations with a similar climate". However, high risk biofuel crops can be grown if risk-reducing measures are implemented. According to co-author, Christopher Buddenhagen, "By identifying the species with the highest risk, and pushing for planting guidelines and precautionary measures prior to widespread planting, we hope to spare the Hawaiian Islands and similar tropical ecosystems from future economic and environmental costs of the worst invaders while encouraging and promoting the use of lower risk alternative crops."


http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es8031067
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090413102225.htm

In their paper published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal, scientists from the University of Minnesota (United States) report that the adverse impact of bioethanol production on water supply is bigger than previously thought. Their study indicates that water consumption for every gallon of corn-based ethanol (in the United States) could be about 3 times higher than earlier estimates. Ethanol production from saccharine, starchy or cellulosic feedstocks consumes large quantities of water. Previous estimates put the water requirement (per gallon of corn-ethanol produced) at 263 gallons to 784 gallons from the farm to the fuel pump. But according to the new study, the earlier estimates "failed to account for widely varied regional irrigation practices." New estimates put the water requirement at 5 liters to 2,138 liters per gallon of corn-ethanol produced, depending on regional irrigation practices. According to the journal article, the study "highlights the need to strategically promote ethanol development in the States with lower irrigation rates and with less fossil groundwater use.".


http://download.cell.com/biophysj/pdf/PIIS0006349509004676.pdf?intermediate=true
http://www.thebioenergysite.com/news/3585/researchers-crack-code-for-binding-biomass-fibres

In the production of ethanol from cellulosic plant biomass, pretreatment is usually done to make the cellulose molecules more accessible for degradation into glucose (by "cellulase" enzyme treatment). The glucose is then fermented to ethanol. The development of a cost effective strategy for the pretreatment of cellulosic biomass remains one of the challenges for reducing the cost of cellulose-ethanol production. It is an active area of research. Recently, scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (United States) provided new insights into the understanding of the stability of the crystalline structure of cellulose, and this could help in developing new pretreatment strategies. They constructed "a statistical mechanical model of cellulose assembly at the resolution of explicit hydrogen-bond networks." The model is reported to predict the manner by which hydrogen bonds in cellulose can shift to remain stable under a wide temperature range. The scientists identified "hydrogen bonds that can be manipulated via temperature differences" and this information can be harnessed to develop ways to make the cellulose in plant biomass more susceptible to attack by enzymes. The full results are published in the April 2009 issue of the Biophysical Journal (URL above)..

Energy Crops and Feedstocks for Biofuels Production

http://www.thebioenergysite.com/news/3561/reed-canary-grass-as-biofuel

Reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) has traditionally been grown as a forage crop in some areas in Europe, and is currently reported as a non-food crop in Northern Europe. In Finland, it is considered a potential bioenergy crop. The bioenergysite website reports that researchers in Finland believe that reed canary grass can also reduce greenhouse gas emissions, since "more carbon is tied into the soil through the cultivation of reed canary grass than is released into the atmosphere during combustion (and also from the manufacture of fertilizer)". Energy produced from reed canary grass in Finland this year is expected to be comparable to the energy produced by wind power. Incentives are given to farmers who cultivate reed canary grass, in the amount of 500 euros to 600 euros per hectare.

Related information on reed canary grass:
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/chf/outreach/VMG/rcanarygr.html
http://www.encrop.net/GetItem.asp?item=digistorefile;129965;730śms=open;gallery


http://www.cleantech.com/news/4367/china-get-first-biomass-plant-using
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/chinese-biomass-power-plant-will-use-native-plants-replace-80000-tons-coal.php

 The Cleantech website reports that a Chinese company (Baotou Kaidi Sunshine Energy Investment Company) announced plans for the construction of an electricity-generating power plant which utilizes two native shrubs as raw material: (1) sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) and (2) Siberian pea shrub (Caragana arborescens). The power plant (to be located in Inner Mongolia) costs about US$ 147 million, is expected to produce 150 million kilowatts (kW) of electricity per year from 130,000 tons of the biomass. The shrubs are reportedly robust and can tolerate stress conditions (such as drought and cold temperatures). Once the power plant is operational, the use of this native-shrub biomass is expected to replace about 80,000 tons per year of (fossil-fuel based) coal.

Related information on sea buckthorn and caragana
http://www.ienica.net/crops/seabuckthorn.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippophae_rhamnoides
http://www.mnpower.com/treebook/fact19.html

Biofuels Processing

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090410.htm
http://www.thebioenergysite.com/news/3523/biofuel-byproducts-both-economic-and-environmental

Glycerine is a by-product in the production of biodiesel, and the management of large quantities of this by-product (the "glycerine glut") with the expected increase in biodiesel production is a potential challenge. While glycerine has a variety of industrial uses (for example in the pharmaceutical and food industries), these uses will not be able to absorb all of the glycerine generated from biodiesel operations. Strategies for the innovative utilization of glycerine from biodiesel production, is an active area of study. Scientists from the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) found encouraging results in the use of glycerine as a feed supplement in poultry feed. In 7-day to 10-day old chicks, glycerine supplementation resulted in a higher AME (Apparent Metabolizable Energy) intake compared to the control, although there were no significant differences in the amount of feed consumed, body weight, or the amount of energy lost in feces and urine (energy excretion). In 42-day to 45-day old chicks, however, increases in feed consumption, gross energy, and AME were observed with glycerine supplementation. According to animal scientist, William Dozier, the technology "can serve as an alternative dietary energy source that could result in lower feed costs.".

Biofuels Policy and Economics

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/106432.aspx
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/
Biomass__carbon_sink_or_carbon_sinner_summary_report.pdf
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/biomass-can-only-offer-major-emission-reductions-if-best-practices-followed.php

A recent report by the Environment Agency of the United Kingdom (UK) highlights the importance of sustainability and "best practices" for attaining GHG (greenhouse gas) emission targets in the generation of electricity and heat from biomass. According to the report ("Biomass: Carbon Sink or Carbon Sinner?"), "best practices can deliver up to 98% less emissions than coal", but worst practices can actually increase GHG emissions. An estimated 3 million tons of carbon dioxide per year can be saved by 2020 with best practices. Some strategies for "best practices" (as summarized by the Treehugger website) can be made on the following key factors: (1) type of crop: select one which has low emissions, for example the use of coppice chips attains 35% to 85% less emissions than natural gas, but the use of straw actually increases emissions by 35% or more, (2) land use change: the use of "formerly fallow land" can attain 10% savings in reduction emissions, but the use of permanent grasslands for biomass cultivation can entirely negate emissions savings, (3) Co-firing biomass, coupled with CCS (carbon capture and storage) technology. The full report can be accessed and downloaded at the UK Environment Agency (URL above)..


http://www.transportenvironment.org/News/2009/4/75-scientists-call-for-end-to-biofuels-targets/
http://cip.cornell.edu/biofuels/files/SCOPE00.pdf
http://cip.cornell.edu/biofuels/

 The Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) of the International Council for Science (ICSU), recently published a report which calls for the re-evaluation of "current mandates and targets for liquid biofuels." The report, "Rapid Assessment on Biofuels and the Environment: Overview and Key Findings", says that current bioenergy crops grown for biofuels are "problematic". The supposed benefits of biofuels are negated by the fact that biofuel crop cultivations compete with land, water and other resources, which would most likely lead to food security challenges and deforestation. Some of the highlights of the report are: (1) biofuels produced for organic wastes are generally "more benign" than those produced from energy crops, (2) cultivation of low-input cellulosic biomass from perennial plants may provide environmental benefits, and (3) currently being developed "biofuels-to-liquids" (BTL) technology using cellulosic biomass may offer advantages compared to ethanol production from cellulosic biomass. A full copy of the report may be accessed at the Cornell University website (URL above)..


http://www.thebioenergysite.com/articles/322/land-allocation-effects-of-the-global-ethanol-surge
http://www.card.iastate.edu/publications/DBS/PDFFiles/09wp488.pdf

The bioenergysite website recently summarized a report by Iowa State University scientists (United States), "Land Allocation Effects of the Global Ethanol Surge: Predictions from the International FAPRI Model."  In the report, the impacts of emerging biofuel markets on American and global agriculture in the coming decade were analyzed using the "multi-market, multi-commodity international FAPRI (Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute) model" (related information below). The following are the highlights of the summary report: (1) The United States (US) and Brazil are major ethanol producers/ exporters, but China, India and the EU (European Union) have growing bioethanol industries, (2) Increases in production and/or consumption of ethanol in the US, Brazil, China, India and the EU result in local land allocation effects which can "propagate globally through world trade and price effects", (3) price effects "induce land reallocation away from crops for which relative prices fall and towards crops for which relative prices rise", (4) changes caused by expanded US ethanol production will impact prices of corn, soybean, and sorghum and this has a knock-on effect on world prices; short term reduction in meat production is also seen, (5) the impact of global ethanol expansion is "limited to the sugar cane and sugar markets and because sugar cane competes for less land with other crops than corn, the land use change is not as significant as in the US scenario." The full report can be accessed from the Iowa State University website (URL above).

Related information on FAPRI models: http://www.fapri.iastate.edu/models/