U.S., Brazil launch biofuels forum

[NF Reporter]

AP - UNITED NATIONS — The world's two top ethanol producers — the U.S. and Brazil — announced the creation of an international forum to help expand the global market for biofuels, just days before the two countries are expected to sign a separate agreement promoting ethanol across the Western Hemisphere.

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[waltky]

Should we take a second look at biofuels?...

Biofuels CO2 Impact Is 9X That Of Petrol, Says World Land Trust
August 18, 2007 - Researchers at the University of Leeds and the World Land Trust have warned that growing biofuel crops to make eco-friendly car fuel could actually be harmful to the environment.

Large areas of land in the developing world are being converted to grow crops such as sugar cane and palm oil as part of the global rush to make biofuels which are widely thought to produce less carbon dioxide than conventional transport fuels.

But scientists at the University of Leeds and the World Land Trust have found that up to nine times as much carbon dioxide will be emitted using biofuels compared to conventional petrol and diesel because biofuel crops are typically grown on land which is burnt and reclaimed from tropical forests. The report concludes that protecting and restoring natural forests and grasslands is a much better way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Study co-author Dominick Spracklen of the School of Earth and the Environment at the University of Leeds says: "This study shows that if your primary concern is reducing carbon dioxide emissions, growing biofuels is not the best way to do it. “In fact it can have a perverse impact elsewhere in the world. The amount of carbon that is released when you clear forests to make way for the biofuel crop is much more than the amount you get back from growing biofuels over a 30-year period.

"You can't convert your car to run on biofuel and keep on driving and think that everything will be OK. You are turning a blind eye to what's happening around the world and that in fact, you could be making things much worse."

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[waltky]

Cornell U. working hard in the lab...

New technology for faster biodiesel production
Sept 5, 2007 : Cornell University researchers claim to have developed a way of making bio-diesel continuously, without the need to fill and empty batch reactors.

Making biodiesel involves a reaction called transesterification in which the triglycerides and free fatty acids in oils from plants such as corn or linseed react with methanol to form methyl esters of 16-18 carbon atoms in length. Purified methyl esters can then be used in place of diesel fuel.

However, transesterification is a slow process and currently the only way to speed it up is to cook chemicals in batch reactors at high temperatures and pressures. But having to produce fuel in batches also limits the rate at which biodiesel can be made.

Now, Christian Fleisher and his colleagues have developed a process to produce the transesterification reaction as the necessary chemicals mix and flow through a pipe. According to New Scientist, the result is a system - known as a "plug flow" reactor - in which plant oil and methanol is added continuously at one end, while biodiesel flows out of the other.

Fleisher says it is possible to achieve this speed increase by using a catalyst, such as sodium hydroxide. So, instead of taking hours, the transesterification reaction takes place in under three minutes. Fleisher has now set up a company called Biodiesel Technologies to commercialise the idea.

New technology for faster biodiesel production

[waltky]

How come Brazil tearin' up the Amazon?

Brazil plans oil search in remote Amazon
Monday, October 22, 2007 - Plans to search for oil and natural gas in Brazil's remote western Amazon have raised concerns that one of the last untouched areas of the world's largest wilderness will be spoiled.

The National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, plans to invest US$36 million (euro25 million) to look for oil and gas in Acre, an Amazon state bordering Bolivia, the government news agency Agencia Brasil said Saturday. ANP director Getulio Silveira Leite told a congressional committee that the work in Acre is part a broader push to find oil in the Amazon, according to Agencia Brasil. "We must increase research in the region to discover the petroleum potential of the nine Amazon states," Silveira Leite said.

But environmental officials said no study had been done to assess how the search will affect the Amazon. The region covers some 4.1 million square kilometers (1.6 million square miles) but its natural resources are under constant pressure loggers, miners and farmers. "It's necessary to examine how this will be done, on what scale and in what areas," said Joao Paulo Capobianco, the Environment Ministry's executive secretary. "In theory, there are methodologies and technologies that allow this activity without environmental damage."

The Acre state Federation of Industries has endorsed the project, but some in the region question whether the government will take care to preserve the environment. "Development brings damage," Acre congressman Marcelo Serafim said. "It destroyed the Atlantic forest, it ruined much of the Pantanal (wetlands), and that's not what we want or defend."

But Serafim added: "If the Brazilian government and the world want the Amazon preserved, the world has to give us conditions to preserve the Amazon. And it hasn't." The government-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA now produces oil and gas in the Amazon city of Coari. The federal government is also building a pipeline through the rainforest to carry the gas to the Amazonas state capital of Manaus, a city of 1.5 million.

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[waltky]

Food or fuel?...

'Biofuels Can Hurt the Poor'
Nov 6, 2007 - A body tasked with shaping European Union policy on biofuels is dominated by companies with a vested interest in promoting this source of energy, environmentalists have claimed.

In early 2008, the European Biofuels Technology Platform will publish a report outlining a programme for greater research and development into how crops grown on farmland can be used to quench Europe's ever-growing thirst for transport fuels. The Platform is the successor of the Biofuels Research Advisory Council (BIOFRAC), a group also set up at the European Commission's request. Last year BIOFRAC recommended that 25 percent of the Union's transport demands should be met by biofuels (also called agrofuels) by 2030.

Like BIOFRAC, the Platform is mainly comprised of industry lobbyists. Of the 125 people on its various working groups, just two belong to non-governmental organisations. The Platform's steering committee includes representatives of the Spanish oil and gas firm Repsol, the European Biodiesel Board and carmakers Volvo and Volkswagen. Environmental campaigners are perturbed that the group is biased towards firms who either have a vested interest in biofuels or car companies who realise that the greater use of biofuels can provide them with an incentive not to develop more energy-efficient models.

"The Commission has ensured that the same companies that shaped the EU's vision on agrofuels through BIOFRAC are now implementing its recommendations and designing the agrofuels research and development agenda," Belen Balanya from Corporate Europe Observatory, which monitors the influence of business on EU law-makers, told IPS. "There is a clear conflict of interest as these are corporations with a direct commercial interest in the development of agrofuels in the EU."

More EUROPE: 'Biofuels Can Hurt the Poor'

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Could biofuels add more CO2 to the atmosphere?...

Biofuel: Bad for the Environment?
Feb. 7, 2008 - Researchers Say Biofuels Could Do More Harm to the Planet Than Good

As the debate over what do about human-caused global warming increases and "green fever" sweeps the nation, many environmentalists and politicians have viewed biofuel as a logical replacement for fossil fuels. But two new studies released Thursday call into question the global movement toward biofuel. According to these researchers, production of biofuel actually contributes to global warming, doing more harm than good.

The studies, one conducted by Minnesota-based Nature Conservancy and one by Princeton University, examined the same issue: What environmental impact does growing vegetation used for biofuel have on global warming? U.S. demand for ethanol crops like corn, soy and switchgrass has resulted in the conversion across the globe of natural habitats – like grasslands and rainforests – into fuel-ready farmland, according to the studies. That development has released mass amounts of carbon into the air, researchers said.

"You ask the world's farmers to produce energy and that's going to take additional land and that land has to come from somewhere. Unfortunately, much of it is coming from our natural ecosystem. What's the consequence of that?" Joe Fargione, the regional science director for the Nature Conservancy and the lead author of one study, told ABCNews.com. "If you imagine a grassland and a cornfield, there's much more carbon in the grassland soil. When you convert a grassland into a cornfield, that carbon has to go somewhere. It goes into the air as carbon dioxide and contributes to global warming."

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Studies Say Clearing Land for Biofuels Will Aid Warming
Friday, February 8, 2008; Clearing land to produce biofuels such as ethanol will do more to exacerbate global warming than using gasoline or other fossil fuels, two scientific studies show.

The independent analyses, which will be published today in the journal Science, could force policymakers in the United States and Europe to reevaluate incentives they have adopted to spur production of ethanol-based fuels. President Bush and many members of Congress have touted expanding biofuel use as an integral element of the nation's battle against climate change, but these studies suggest that this strategy will damage the planet rather than help protect it.

One study -- written by a group of researchers from Princeton University, Woods Hole Research Center and Iowa State University along with an agriculture consultant -- concluded that over 30 years, use of traditional corn-based ethanol would produce twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as regular gasoline. Another analysis, written by a Nature Conservancy scientist along with University of Minnesota researchers, found that converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas or grasslands in Southeast Asia and Latin America to produce biofuels will increase global warming pollution for decades, if not centuries.

Tim Searchinger, who conducts research at Princeton and the D.C-based German Marshall Fund of the United States, said the research he and his colleagues did is the first to reveal the hidden environmental cost of producing biofuels. "The land we're likely to plow up is the land that we've had taking up carbon for decades," said Searchinger, the lead author. Estimating that it would take 167 years before biofuel would stop contributing to climate change, he added, "We can't get to a result, no matter how heroically we make assumptions on behalf of corn ethanol, where it will actually generate greenhouse-gas benefits."

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[waltky]

Granny says is good on flap-jacks too...

Indian research body promotes sweet sorghum as bio-fuel
Monday 18th February, 2008 - India has a naturally smart crop in sorghum (called jowar in the country) that is capable of producing both food and fuel, a top scientist of the country's premier crop research organisation has said.

Only a smart crop that provides 'food as well as fuel' can resolve the global debate on whether the bio-fuel revolution is causing imbalances in food security systems, William Dar, director general of the Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), told IANS. Through its 'BioPower' strategy, ICRISAT is developing and promoting sweet sorghum as a major feedstock for bio-ethanol. 'The time has come to ensure that only smart bio-fuel crops are developed and utilised so that they can link poor dry land farmers to the bio-fuel market without compromising on their food security or causing environmental damage,' said Dar.

'Smart crops are 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.' Sorghum is a kind of grass, mostly used in India as fodder plant and eaten in hilly and semi-arid areas. Sorghum is the 'fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world' and used as food in Africa and South Asia.

Sweet sorghum is a cane-like plant with high sugar content. Sweet sorghum thrives under drier and warmer conditions than many other crops. Most sorghum species are drought and heat tolerant and are especially important in arid regions. 'Sweet sorghum is a carbon dioxide neutral crop (low carbon emission), which is a big contributory factor of being called a smart crop,' ICRISAT says. One hectare of sweet sorghum absorbs and emits 45 tonnes of carbon. Sweet sorghum generates 8 units of energy for every unit of fossil-fuel energy invested, which compares favourably with sugarcane and corn.

More Indian research body promotes sweet sorghum as bio-fuel

[waltky]

Ethanol not all its cracked up to be...

Ethanol, once darling, is losing some luster
4 Sept.`08 - GOP drops subsides from platform as it’s widely blamed for food prices

Ethanol's wild ride has brought it quickly from political golden child to scapegoat for everything from soaring food prices and world hunger to pork-barrel spending. This week, the Republican Party in its national platform called for an end to ethanol mandates in just the latest shot at a fuel alternative that, in some circles, has grown more targeted than treasured.

High ranking politicians, including presidential candidate John McCain, have publicly opposed ethanol subsidies before, but the platform approved during the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., marks the first time a major U.S. party has taken an official stance against publicly funded ethanol incentives. It was just four years earlier that the Republican platform called for "efforts to expand the use of biodiesel and ethanol, which can reduce America's dependence on foreign oil while increasing revenues to farmers."

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said his party "got it wrong" on this issue, and he doesn't see how cutting the mandate fits with reducing the country's dependence on foreign fossil fuels. "That's a big mistake," Thune said. "If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting, and right now we're 70 percent dependent on foreign oil."

David King, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said party platforms in many cases reflect the presidential nominee's interests, but the documents are not followed or paid attention to by party regulars. "You would be hard pressed to find any Republican in Iowa, for example, who would in any way embrace this as something in their party's platform," King said. "It wouldn't change their behavior." But whatever maneuvering landed that paragraph on the Republican platform may spill out in other venues, King said.

More Ethanol, once darling, is losing some luster - Oil & energy - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

Brazil declines OPEC invitation...

Brazil Passes On Saudi Invite To Join OPEC
Sept. 16, 2008 - Energy Minister Says Brazil Will Refine Crude Into Usable Products Instead Of Exporting It By The Barrel

Brazil has declined a recent invitation from Saudi Arabia to join OPEC, citing plans to refine, not export, crude oil from its recently discovered deep water reserves, top energy officials said Monday. Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said Brazil determined it doesn't need the cartel, because it plans to boost oil income by refining crude into products like gasoline for export abroad, the state's Agencia Brasil news agency reported. Paulo Roberto Costa, a high-ranking executive with Brazil's state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA oil company, confirmed the government had decided not to join OPEC.

"Brazil won't be a big exporter of oil, that's already defined," Costa told Agencia Brasil at the Rio Oil & Gas Expo 2008 industry conference in Rio de Janeiro. "Brazil was invited to participate in OPEC and did not accept because our priority is refining here and exporting derivatives." Analysts say the reserves — found in the last year thousands of feet under the ocean floor and several hundred miles off the Rio de Janeiro coast — may contain 55 billion barrels of oil, enough to catapult Brazil to superpower oil status. By refining its own oil, instead of shipping it abroad to be refined, Lobao said Brazil will generate more money and jobs at home. The country is undergoing an economic boom but still has one of the world's deepest divides between rich and poor.

Under orders from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a commission of government ministers is examining possible changes in the nation's oil law. Silva insists profits from the new oil discoveries be used to fight poverty and improve education. Agencia Brasil said the Saudi OPEC invite came at a "recent" meeting of oil producing nations, but gave no other details. OPEC met last week in Vienna. Brazil last month declined an invitation extended by Iran to join the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Lobao did not specify why at the time, saying only that Brazil had "other priorities."

More Brazil Passes On Saudi Invite To Join OPEC, Energy Minister Says Brazil Will Refine Crude Into Usable Products Instead Of Exporting It By The Barrel - CBS News