India and Brazil sign key bioenergy pact on eve of IBSA Summit
On the eve of the first India Brazil South-Africa (IBSA) Summit that is kicking off in Brasilia today, India and Brazil have taken their bilateral relationship to a new high with the signing of nine key pacts, including two agreements and seven Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). The multi-million dollar trade and investment deals are aimed at improving co-operation between the two major emerging economies. The meeting is signalling a shift in global power relations with the South gaining more prominence. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - who can be situated on the left of the political spectrum - said strengthening ties formed part of a vision to create a more just economic world order.
The two agreements signed included one on promoting air services and another on cooperation in the field of science and technology. But us interests the energy pact the two sides inked. This pact is aimed at facilitating cooperation in energy research, development and diversification, with the aim of providing more efficient, affordable and cost effective energy technologies. Under the accords, both countries formed a Joint Biofuel Committee to look at more efficient, cheaper and green energy sources.
Several Indian companies have already evinced interest in exploring production opportunities in Brazil to meet the anticipated growth in ethanol, a substitute of oil taken out from sugarcane, which is used in India both for industrial and automobile use. And the Indian government suggested it would be interested in investing in Brazilian sugar cane land and production, in order to diversify its portfolio of energy sources:
ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: Brazil :: India ::
"Our bilateral trade has grown in the last five years. From a mere 500 million dollars in 2002, trade between our two countries has increased five-fold to reach 2.5 billion. We are hopeful of further rapid expansion in our bilateral trade in the coming years. Implementation of the India-MERCOSUR PTA and the proposed deepening and expansion of our trade relations in the framework of IBSA will be important steps in that direction," Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh stated in his joint interaction with the media with President Lula Da Silva.
Further it was also agreed that both countries would station defence attaches in each other's capitals (New Delhi and Brasilia) and establish a joint defence committee as per the defence agreement of 2003. India and Brazil also resolved to stand together to fight against international terrorism. UN reforms and the framework of the G-4 also figured high on the agenda.
"India and Brazil have a long tradition of cooperation in the international for a, including on global trade and economic issues," Dr. Singh said, adding, "We have worked together in the WTO and are both united in our desire for a successful conclusion of the Doha Round of negotiations."
The Doha Round recently collapsed over EU/US agricultural subsidies. Bioenergy and biofuels played a major role in the collapse.
"We have been partners in the G-4 efforts to work towards expansion of the permanent membership of the UN Security Council," Dr. Singh further said.
Under the MoU signed on conducting "Weeks of Indian Culture in Brazil and Weeks of Brazilian culture in India", the two sides announced that they would shortly be opening cultural centres in Sao Paulo and New Delhi. Promotion of people-to-People contact and the forging of institutional and academic linkages in a systematic manner were also discussed.
Attaching great importance to his visit to Brazil, Dr. Singh said: "It is indeed a pleasure and privilege to visit this beautiful country. I would like to thank President Lula for the extremely gracious reception and hospitality. My visit to Brazil is after a 38 year-old hiatus since the last visit by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The significance of this bilateral visit is further enhanced by the holding of the first IBSA Summit, which would be taking place tomorrow (Wednesday)".
Other pacts signed were in the fields of human settlements and plant health protection, pacts between the Bureau of Indian Standards and the Associacao Brasileira De Normas Tecnicas (ABNT), Petrobus and ONGC-OVL, Bharat Earth Movers Limited and Compania de Comercio e Construcoes (CCC).
More information:
BBCNews: Brazil and India strengthen ties - sept. 13 2006
The Financial Express: IBSA forum to witness major eco cooperation - sept. 13, 2006
SABCNews: IBSA summit hailed as emerging trinity - sept. 13, 2006
Article continues
The two agreements signed included one on promoting air services and another on cooperation in the field of science and technology. But us interests the energy pact the two sides inked. This pact is aimed at facilitating cooperation in energy research, development and diversification, with the aim of providing more efficient, affordable and cost effective energy technologies. Under the accords, both countries formed a Joint Biofuel Committee to look at more efficient, cheaper and green energy sources.
Several Indian companies have already evinced interest in exploring production opportunities in Brazil to meet the anticipated growth in ethanol, a substitute of oil taken out from sugarcane, which is used in India both for industrial and automobile use. And the Indian government suggested it would be interested in investing in Brazilian sugar cane land and production, in order to diversify its portfolio of energy sources:
ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: Brazil :: India ::
"Our bilateral trade has grown in the last five years. From a mere 500 million dollars in 2002, trade between our two countries has increased five-fold to reach 2.5 billion. We are hopeful of further rapid expansion in our bilateral trade in the coming years. Implementation of the India-MERCOSUR PTA and the proposed deepening and expansion of our trade relations in the framework of IBSA will be important steps in that direction," Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh stated in his joint interaction with the media with President Lula Da Silva.
Further it was also agreed that both countries would station defence attaches in each other's capitals (New Delhi and Brasilia) and establish a joint defence committee as per the defence agreement of 2003. India and Brazil also resolved to stand together to fight against international terrorism. UN reforms and the framework of the G-4 also figured high on the agenda.
"India and Brazil have a long tradition of cooperation in the international for a, including on global trade and economic issues," Dr. Singh said, adding, "We have worked together in the WTO and are both united in our desire for a successful conclusion of the Doha Round of negotiations."
The Doha Round recently collapsed over EU/US agricultural subsidies. Bioenergy and biofuels played a major role in the collapse.
"We have been partners in the G-4 efforts to work towards expansion of the permanent membership of the UN Security Council," Dr. Singh further said.
Under the MoU signed on conducting "Weeks of Indian Culture in Brazil and Weeks of Brazilian culture in India", the two sides announced that they would shortly be opening cultural centres in Sao Paulo and New Delhi. Promotion of people-to-People contact and the forging of institutional and academic linkages in a systematic manner were also discussed.
Attaching great importance to his visit to Brazil, Dr. Singh said: "It is indeed a pleasure and privilege to visit this beautiful country. I would like to thank President Lula for the extremely gracious reception and hospitality. My visit to Brazil is after a 38 year-old hiatus since the last visit by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The significance of this bilateral visit is further enhanced by the holding of the first IBSA Summit, which would be taking place tomorrow (Wednesday)".
Other pacts signed were in the fields of human settlements and plant health protection, pacts between the Bureau of Indian Standards and the Associacao Brasileira De Normas Tecnicas (ABNT), Petrobus and ONGC-OVL, Bharat Earth Movers Limited and Compania de Comercio e Construcoes (CCC).
More information:
BBCNews: Brazil and India strengthen ties - sept. 13 2006
The Financial Express: IBSA forum to witness major eco cooperation - sept. 13, 2006
SABCNews: IBSA summit hailed as emerging trinity - sept. 13, 2006
Article continues
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Biodiesel byproduct glycerol can be used to make biofuels
Via GCC. The rapid increase in global biodiesel production is resulting in a worldwide surplus of glycerol (glycerine), which is generated as a by-product of the transesterification of vegetable oils. Once considered a valuable co-product, crude glycerol is rapidly becoming a waste product with an attached disposal cost. Therefor, the search is on to use the product in alternative markets or to develop new markets for it. Earlier we reported about research which suggests glycerine makes for an excellent poultry feed additive, but a growing body of research is focusing on developing new glycerol platform chemistry closer to the actual biofuel production sector, to take advantage of the substance that is increasingly abundant and cheap.
At the 232nd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco, researchers described various approaches to utilizing glycerol (C3H8O3) as a feedstock for different liquid fuel outcomes: a low-temperature catalytic approach to using glycerol as a source for fuel and chemicals (and here); the steam reformation of glycerol to produce hydrogen; and glycerol as a feedstock for microbial hydrogen production.
Low-temperature catalytic processing: Dante Simonetti from the University of Wisconsin described work that puts glycerol through a two-step process involving low-temperature catalytic conversion to a syngas (H2 and CO) and subsequent Fischer-Tropsch or methanol synthesis (see illustration).
The group found that gas mixtures of H2 and CO can be produced at high rates and selectivities from glycerol over platinum-based bi-metallic catalysts at temperatures (e.g., 500 K to 620 K) that are significantly lower compared to conventional gasification of biomass.
The two-step process can also serve as an energy-efficient alternative to processes used to convert starch-based materials to fuel-grade ethanol, because glycerol can be produced in high concentration (e.g., 30 wt%) by fermentation of glucose. Accordingly, this process opens new pathways to more effectively utilize renewable biomass resources to provide liquid fuels and chemical intermediates.
The University of Wisconsin Group, led by Prof. James Dumesic, have also developed a low-temperature aqueous phase reforming process that can use glycerol as a feedstock. Dumesic is one of the co-founders of Virent.
Steam reforming of gylcerol to produce hydrogen: several papers tackled the issue of hydrogen generation via the steam reforming of glycerol, with the focus being the discovery of the optimum catalyst and process.
A team from Spain presented experimental results indicating the catalysts they tested are all able to convert the glycerol completely with values very close to the theoretical results predicted by thermodynamic equilibrium.
The experiments were carried out in a fixed-bed catalytic reactor at 773 K and 873 K with nickel catalysts supported on g-alumina and modified by different contents of MgO, ZrO2, CeO2 or La2O3. The feed composition was increased from 1 to 10% of glycerol in water which is a similar content to that obtained in the first phase glycerol separation from biodiesel:
ethanol :: biodiesel :: methanol :: sustainability :: fischer-tropsch :: steam reforming :: synfuel :: glycerol ::
The team found that the addition of promoters significantly improves hydrogen selectivity and avoids the formation of undesirable by-products if compared with non-promoted catalysts. The best performer was a promoted catalyst with 5 wt.%.
Although the focus of a paper from Mississippi State was the steam reforming of sugar, the researchers found that the process was problematic, due to caramelization resulting from the process temperature. The team is in parallel investigating glycerol in its experimental process, which apparently works fine, although no results were presented.
A separate paper from the Mississippi State team described a thermodynamic analysis of the steam reforming of glycerol to produce hydrogen.
The group analyzed the steam reforming process of glycerol over the following variable ranges: pressure 1 atm, temperature 600-1000 K and water-to-glycerol feed ratio 1:1-9:1. The study revealed that the best conditions for producing hydrogen is at a temperature >900 K and a molar ratio of water to glycerol of 9:1. These conditions minimize methane production and inhibit carbon formation.
Microbial hydrogen production: A team from Brookhaven National Laboratory is investigating the processes under which Thermatoga neapolitana, an anaerobic, thermophilic bacterium, efficiently processes glucose feedstock—in this case, glycerol—to produce hydrogen.
One surprising finding was that T. neapolitana produced hydrogen most efficiently in a moderately low-oxygen—but not oxygen-free—environment. Previously, hydrogen production by bacteria has only been reported under anaerobic conditions.
The ability to operate with some oxygen in the production lines would make this process more economically feasible. The team is further studying the mechanistic aspects of the hydrogen production system, and is beginning to work on scaling up the process to a larger 14-liter reactor.
Article continues
posted by Biopact team at 11:13 PM 0 comments links to this post