<body> --------------
Contact Us       Consulting       Projects       Our Goals       About Us
home » Archive »
Nature Blog Network


    Record warm summers cause extreme ice melt in Greenland: an international team of scientists, led by Dr Edward Hanna at the University of Sheffield, has found that recent warm summers have caused the most extreme Greenland ice melting in 50 years. The new research provides further evidence of a key impact of global warming and helps scientists place recent satellite observations of Greenland´s shrinking ice mass in a longer-term climatic context. Findings are published in the 15 January 2008 issue of Journal of Climate. University of Sheffield - January 15, 2007.

    Japan's Tsukishima Kikai Co. and Marubeni Corp. have together clinched an order from Oenon Holdings Inc. for a plant that will make bioethanol from rice. The Oenon group will invest around 4.4 billion yen (US$40.17 million) in the project, half of which will be covered by a subsidy from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The plant will initially produce bioethanol from imported rice, with plans to use Hokkaido-grown rice in the future. It will produce 5 million liters per year starting in 2009, increasing output to 15m liters in 2011. The facility will be able to produce as much as 50,000 liters of bioethanol from 125 tons of rice each day. Trading Markets - January 11, 2007.

    PetroSun, Inc. announced today that its subsidiary, PetroSun BioFuels Refining, has entered into a JV to construct and operate a biodiesel refinery near Coolidge, Arizona. The feedstock for the refinery will be algal oil produced by PetroSun BioFuels at algae farms to be located in Arizona. The refinery will have a capacity of thirty million gallons and will produce 100% renewable biodiesel. PetroSun BioFuels will process the residual algae biomass into ethanol. MarketWire - January 10, 2007.

    BlueFire Ethanol Fuels Inc, which develops and operates carbohydrate-based transportation fuel production facilities, has secured capital liquidity for corporate overhead and continued project development in the value of US$15 million with Quercus, an environmentally focused trust. BlueFire Ethanol Fuels - January 09, 2007.

    Some $170 billion in new technology development projects, infrastructure equipment and construction, and biofuel refineries will result from the ethanol production standards contained the new U.S. Energy Bill, says BIO, the global Biotechnology Industry Organization. According to Brent Erickson, BIO's executive vice president "Such a new energy infrastructure has not occurred in more than 100 years. We are at the point where we were in the 1850s when kerosene was first distilled and began to replace whale oil. This technology will be coming so fast that what we say today won't be true in two years." Chemical & Engineering News - January 07, 2007.

    Scottish and Southern Energy plc, the UK's second largest power company, has completed the acquisition of Slough Heat and Power Ltd from SEGRO plc for a total cash consideration of £49.25m. The 101MW CHP plant is the UK’s largest dedicated biomass energy facility fueled by wood chips, biomass and waste paper. Part of the plant is contracted under the Non Fossil Fuel Obligation and part of it produces over 200GWH of output qualifying for Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs), which is equivalent to around 90MW of wind generation. Scottish & Southern Energy - January 2, 2007.

    PetroChina Co Ltd, the country's largest oil and gas producer, plans to invest 800 million yuan to build an ethanol plant in Nanchong, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, its parent China National Petroleum Corp said. The ethanol plant has a designed annual capacity of 100,000 tons. ABCMoneyNews - December 21, 2007.

    Mexico passed legislation to promote biofuels last week, offering unspecified support to farmers that grow crops for the production of any renewable fuel. Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas said Mexico could expand biodiesel faster than ethanol. More soon. Reuters - December 20, 2007.

    Oxford Catalysts has placed an order worth approximately €700,000 (US$1 million) with the German company Amtec for the purchase of two Spider16 high throughput screening reactors. The first will be used to speed up the development of catalysts for hydrodesulphurisation (HDS). The second will be used to further the development of catalysts for use in gas to liquid (GTL) and Fischer-Tropsch processes which can be applied to next generation biofuels. AlphaGalileo - December 18, 2007.

    According to the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), Brazil's production of sugarcane will increase from 514,1 million tonnes this season, to a record 561,8 million tonnes in the 2008/09 cyclus - an increase of 9.3%. New numbers are also out for the 2007 harvest in Brazil's main sugarcane growing region, the Central-South: a record 425 million tonnes compared to 372,7 million tonnes in 2006, or a 14% increase. The estimate was provided by Unica – the União da Indústria de Cana-de-Açúcar. Jornal Cana - December 16, 2007.

    The University of East Anglia and the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre have today released preliminary global temperature figures for 2007, which show the top 11 warmest years all occurring in the last 13 years. The provisional global figure for 2007 using data from January to November, currently places the year as the seventh warmest on records dating back to 1850. The announcement comes as the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Michel Jarraud, speaks at the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Bali. Eurekalert - December 13, 2007.

    The Royal Society of Chemistry has announced it will launch a new journal in summer 2008, Energy & Environmental Science, which will distinctly address both energy and environmental issues. In recognition of the importance of research in this subject, and the need for knowledge transfer between scientists throughout the world, from launch the RSC will make issues of Energy & Environmental Science available free of charge to readers via its website, for the first 18 months of publication. This journal will highlight the important role that the chemical sciences have in solving the energy problems we are facing today. It will link all aspects of energy and the environment by publishing research relating to energy conversion and storage, alternative fuel technologies, and environmental science. AlphaGalileo - December 10, 2007.

    Dutch researcher Bas Bougie has developed a laser system to investigate soot development in diesel engines. Small soot particles are not retained by a soot filter but are, however, more harmful than larger soot particles. Therefore, soot development needs to be tackled at the source. Laser Induced Incandescence is a technique that reveals exactly where soot is generated and can be used by project partners to develop cleaner diesel engines. Terry Meyer, an Iowa State University assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is using similar laser technology to develop advanced sensors capable of screening the combustion behavior and soot characteristics specifically of biofuels. Eurekalert - December 7, 2007.

    Lithuania's first dedicated biofuel terminal has started operating in Klaipeda port. At the end of November 2007, the stevedoring company Vakaru krova (VK) started activities to manage transshipments. The infrastructure of the biodiesel complex allows for storage of up to 4000 cubic meters of products. During the first year, the terminal plans to transship about 70.000 tonnes of methyl ether, after that the capacities of the terminal would be increased. Investments to the project totaled €2.3 million. Agrimarket - December 5, 2007.

    New Holland supports the use of B100 biodiesel in all equipment with New Holland-manufactured diesel engines, including electronic injection engines with common rail technology. Overall, nearly 80 percent of the tractor and equipment manufacturer's New Holland-branded products with diesel engines are now available to operate on B100 biodiesel. Tractor and equipment maker John Deere meanwhile clarified its position for customers that want to use biodiesel blends up to B20. Grainnet - December 5, 2007.

    According to Wetlands International, an NGO, the Kyoto Protocol as it currently stands does not take into account possible emissions from palm oil grown on a particular type of land found in Indonesia and Malaysia, namely peatlands. Mongabay - December 5, 2007.

    Malaysia's oil & gas giant Petronas considers entering the biofuels sector. Zamri Jusoh, senior manager of Petronas' petroleum development management unit told reporters "of course our focus is on oil and gas, but I think as we move into the future we cannot ignore the importance of biofuels." AFP - December 5, 2007.

    In just four months, the use of biodiesel in the transport sector has substantially improved air quality in Metro Manila, data from the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) showed. A blend of one percent coco-biodiesel is mandated by the Biofuels Act of 2007 which took effect last May. By 2009, it would be increased to two percent. Philippine Star - December 4, 2007.

    Kazakhstan will next year adopt laws to regulate its fledgling biofuel industry and plans to construct at least two more plants in the next 18 months to produce environmentally friendly fuel from crops, industry officials said. According to Akylbek Kurishbayev, vice-minister for agriculture, he Central Asian country has the potential to produce 300,000 tons a year of biodiesel and export half. Kazakhstan could also produce up to 1 billion liters of bioethanol, he said. "The potential is huge. If we use this potential wisely, we can become one of the world's top five producers of biofuels," Beisen Donenov, executive director of the Kazakhstan Biofuels Association, said on the sidelines of a grains forum. Reuters - November 30, 2007.

    SRI Consulting released a report on chemicals from biomass. The analysis highlights six major contributing sources of green and renewable chemicals: increasing production of biofuels will yield increasing amounts of biofuels by-products; partial decomposition of certain biomass fractions can yield organic chemicals or feedstocks for the manufacture of various chemicals; forestry has been and will continue to be a source of pine chemicals; evolving fermentation technology and new substrates will also produce an increasing number of chemicals. Chemical Online - November 27, 2007.

    German industrial conglomerate MAN AG plans to expand into renewable energies such as biofuels and solar power. Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said services unit Ferrostaal would lead the expansion. Reuters - November 24, 2007.

    Analysts think Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems, which pumped hundreds of millions and decades of research into developing hydrogen fuel cells for cars, is going to sell its automotive division. Experts describe the development as "the death of the hydrogen highway". The problems with H2 fuel cell cars are manifold: hydrogen is a mere energy carrier and its production requires a primary energy input; production is expensive, as would be storage and distribution; finally, scaling fuel cells and storage tanks down to fit in cars remains a huge challenge. Meanwhile, critics have said that the primary energy for hydrogen can better be used for electricity and electric vehicles. On a well-to-wheel basis, the cleanest and most efficient way to produce hydrogen is via biomass, so the news is a set-back for the biohydrogen community. But then again, biomass can be used more efficiently as electricity for battery cars. Canada.com - November 21, 2007.

    South Korea plans to invest 20 billion won (€14.8/$21.8 million) by 2010 on securing technologies to develop synthetic fuels from biomass, coal and natural gas, as well as biobutanol. 29 private companies, research institutes and universities will join this first stage of the "next-generation clean energy development project" led by South Korea's Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. Korea Times - November 19, 2007.

    OPEC leaders began a summit today with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez issuing a chilling warning that crude prices could double to US$200 from their already-record level if the United States attacked Iran or Venezuela. He urged assembled leaders from the OPEC, meeting for only the third time in the cartel's 47-year history, to club together for geopolitical reasons. But the cartel is split between an 'anti-US' block including Venezuela, Iran, and soon to return ex-member Ecuador, and a 'neutral' group comprising most Gulf States. France24 - November 17, 2007.

    The article "Biofuels: What a Biopact between North and South could achieve" published in the scientific journal Energy Policy (Volume 35, Issue 7, 1 July 2007, Pages 3550-3570) ranks number 1 in the 'Top 25 hottest articles'. The article was written by professor John A. Mathews, Macquarie University (Sydney, Autralia), and presents a case for a win-win bioenergy relationship between the industrialised and the developing world. Mathews holds the Chair of Strategic Management at the university, and is a leading expert in the analysis of the evolution and emergence of disruptive technologies and their global strategic management. ScienceDirect - November 16, 2007.

Creative Commons License


Thursday, January 17, 2008

China boosts forest based bioenergy projects: 870,000ha of oil trees in Hebei's uninhabited mountain areas

Persistent high oil prices and rapidly growing dependence on imported oil prompt China to further invest in biofuels that yield environmental benefits besides fuel. Forestry administrators told state media they will be planting nearly 7,000 hectares of oilseed bearing trees in the northern province of Hebei this year, part of a much larger national campaign to fuel the fast growing economy in a greener way. The 7000ha demonstration project will grow Chinese pistachio trees. They kickstart Hebei's program aimed at planting a total of 870,000ha of multi-purpose bioenergy trees in uninhabited mountainous areas over the coming decades.

In no more than five years, the Pistacia chinensis Bunge (see entry at the Plants for the Future database, and illustration, click to enlarge), whose seeds have an oil content of up to 40 percent, will yield five tons of fruit and contribute about two tons of high-quality biodiesel, according to the provincial forestry administration. The tree tolerates poor, dry soils and has relatively low water needs.

Hebei is among seven regions designated by the State Forestry Administration (SFA) in 2006 to develop biofuel demonstration forests.

Hebei, Anhui, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan and Shanxi provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will grow a total of 400,000 hectares of demonstration forest. All plants will be oil-bearing shrubs and trees, many of who will contribute to fighting erosion and desertification. The trees include Pistacia chinensis, Jatropha curcas, Cornus wilsoniana and Xanthoceras sorbifolia. All of these are perennial shrubs and trees that can be established relatively easily. The seeds will be used for oil, and the wood they yield might serve as a biomass feedstock for bio-electricity or second-generation fuel production after the useful life of the plant.

Cornus wilsoniana's fruit is a source of oil (up to 30% oil content), the leaves are used for livestock feed, and the dense wood has a high energy value.

Xanthoceras sorbifolia (yellow horn) is a hardy, self fertile, nut producing shrub native to Northern China. Belonging to the Sapindaceae, its oil-rich nuts and pods resemble those of chesnuts.

But the provincial government of Hebei that borders Beijing, has made a much bolder decision still. It will plant an impressive 870,000 hectares of saplings of various kinds of biodiesel trees in its vast mountain areas, where few other commercial crops grow well. Raising biofuel forests in mountain areas will save farmland, make full use of the uninhabited mountains, and increase local people's family income if they are employed to take care of the trees, the SFA says. By 2050 harvests should yield as much as 5.5 million tons of seeds for extraction and refining into biofuels.

China, which has realized consecutive years of GDP growth of about 10 percent, is promoting the development of biofuels with financial support as it sees them as environmentally-friendly sources to ease the growing thirst for energy.

The country has been raising oil-bearing trees on some 4 million ha of land in different regions so far with an expected fruit output of 4 million tons. More could be planted on 57 million hectares of what is now called 'underdeveloped wilderness', SFA chief, Jia Zhibang, said:
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

On part of these lands, the central government plans to cultivate a total of 13 million ha of high-grade bioenergy forests by 2020. This will yield 6 million tons of diesel that would be enough to fuel power plants with a combined capacity of 11 GW each year, according to a forestation plan compiled by the SFA.

Chinese officials said the country would increase biodiesel output for transport to 200,000 tons by 2010 and 2 million tons by 2020.

The People's Republic has been investing heavily in afforestation campaigns in an effort to fight desertification. This program has met with considerable success and is now being rethought within the context of bioenergy. So far, several projects in Northern-Western China and in Inner Mongolia have shown that trees for energy can help in the fight against erosion and desertification, besides producing renewable, low carbon fuels, and jobs to local people.

Scientists just recently wrote that carefully planned bioenergy projects can indeed yield many environmental benefits ranging from phytoremediation to reforestation, from the eradication of invasive species to restoring biodiversity, from conserving ecosystems under threat from industrial pollution to restoring soil health (previous post). China's energy tree projects could become large scale examples of such beneficial energy systems.

Big plans with renewables

Almost 70 percent of China's energy use came from coal in 2006, with other forms of energy each accounting for a tiny proportion, official statistics show. Ma Kai, the minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), announced last month that China would lift the proportion of renewable energy consumption to about 10 percent by 2010, and to 20 percent by 2020.

The country would focus on development of hydropower, biomass energy, wind power and solar power in future, according to a medium- and long-term plan for renewable energy published by the commission in September (illustration). This ambitious program would attract investments of up to $265 billion (previous post).

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has worked out a complete set of financial policies to promote the production of non-food sources for biofuels, which are clean and have a limited negative impact on the environment.

Flexible subsidies will be offered to biofuel producers who lose money on crops when crude oil prices are low. The government would encourage enterprises to reserve funds to offset such risks, according to Zeng Xiao'an, deputy director of the MOF's Department of Economic Development.

The ministry would also subsidize demonstration projects producing ethanol from cellulose, sweet sorghum and cassava or making biodiesel from forest products. Projects that are up to industrial standards would receive rewards of up to 40 percent of the total investment.

References:

Xinhua: China resorts to biodiesel projects to solve energy shortage - January 16, 2008.

Biopact: China to boost forest-based bioenergy, helps win battle against desertification - July 17, 2007

Biopact: Greening the desert with biofuels: Inner Mongolia peasants show it's possible - August 14, 2007

Biopact: Scientists: careful planning unlocks many environmental benefits of biomass besides green energy - January 16, 2008

Biopact: China unveils $265 billion renewable energy plan, aims for 15% renewables by 2020 - September 06, 2007



0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home