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    The government of India's Harayana state has decided to promote biomass power projects based on gasification in a move to help rural communities replace costly diesel and furnace oil. The news was announced during a meeting of the Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA). Six pilot plants have demonstrated the efficiency and practicability of small-scale biomass gasification. Capital subsidies will now be made available to similar projects at the rate of Rs 2.5 lakh (€4400) per 100 KW for electrical applications and Rs 2 lakh (€3500) per 300 KW for thermal applications. New Kerala - November 1, 2007.

    A British development NGO, Oxfam, says the EU's biofuels policy could be "disastrous" for poor people if it means agro-industrial production models. However, it also recognizes that "biofuels may offer the potential to reduce poverty by increasing jobs and markets for small farmers, and by providing cheap renewable energy for local use". Oxfam - November 1, 2007.

    Massey University and Palmerston North City Council in New Zealand have found a way to increase the production of biogas to help drive the council's cogeneration engine to produce steam and electricity by co-digesting whey, an unwanted byproduct from milk processing, with sludge from a wastewater treatment plant. A full scale trial is under way at the Totara Road Treatment Plant to develop a cheap method of disposing of whey, increase gas production from the city's digesters and ultimately earn more carbon credits. Manawatu Standard - October 30, 2007.

    U.S. oil prices and Brent crude rocketed to all-time highs again on a record-low dollar, tensions in the Middle East and worries over energy supply shortages ahead of the northern hemisphere's winter. Now even wealthy countries like South Korea are warning that the record prices will damage economic growth. In the developing world, the situation is outright catastrophic. Korea Times - October 26, 2007.

    Ethablog's Henrique Oliveira, a young Brazilian biofuels business expert, is back online. From April to September 2007, he traveled around Brazil comparing the Brazilian and American biofuels markets. In August he was joined by Tom MacDonald, senior alcohol fuels specialist with the California Energy Commission. Henrique reports about his trip with a series of photo essays. EthaBlog - October 24, 2007.

    Italy's Enel is to invest around €400 mln in carbon capture and storage and is looking now for a suitable site to store CO2 underground. Enel's vision of coal's future is one in which coal is used to produce power, to produce ash and gypsum as a by-product for cement, hydrogen as a by-product of coal gasification and CO2 which is stored underground. Carbon capture and storage techniques can be applied to biomass and biofuels, resulting in carbon-negative energy. Reuters - October 22, 2007.

    Gate Petroleum Co. is planning to build a 55 million-gallon liquid biofuels terminal in Jacksonville, Florida. The terminal is expected to cost $90 million and will be the first in the state designed primarily for biofuels. It will receive and ship ethanol and biodiesel via rail, ship and truck and provide storage for Gate and for third parties. The biofuels terminal is set to open in 2010. Florida Times-Union - October 19, 2007.

    China Holdings Inc., through its controlled subsidiary China Power Inc., signed a development contract with the HeBei Province local government for the rights to develop and construct 50 MW of biomass renewable energy projects utilizing straw. The projects have a total expected annual power generating capacity of 400 million kWh and expected annual revenues of approximately US$33.3 million. Total investment in the projects is approximately US$77.2 million, 35 percent in cash and 65 percent from China-based bank loans with preferred interest rates with government policy protection for the biomass renewable energy projects. Full production is expected in about two years. China Holdings - October 18, 2007.

    Canadian Bionenergy Corporation, supplier of biodiesel in Canada, has announced an agreement with Renewable Energy Group, Inc. to partner in the construction of a biodiesel production facility near Edmonton, Alberta. The company broke ground yesterday on the construction of the facility with an expected capacity of 225 million litres (60 million gallons) per year of biodiesel. Together, the companies also intend to forge a strategic marketing alliance to better serve the North American marketplace by supplying biodiesel blends and industrial methyl esters. Canadian Bioenergy - October 17, 2007.

    Leading experts in organic solar cells say the field is being damaged by questionable reports about ever bigger efficiency claims, leading the community into an endless and dangerous tendency to outbid the last report. In reality these solar cells still show low efficiencies that will need to improve significantly before they become a success. To counter the hype, scientists call on the community to press for independent verification of claimed efficiencies. Biopact sees a similar trend in the field of biofuels from algae, in which press releases containing unrealistic yield projections and 'breakthroughs' are released almost monthly. Eurekalert - October 16, 2007.

    The Colorado Wood Utilization and Marketing Program at Colorado State University received a $65,000 grant from the U.S. Forest Service to expand the use of woody biomass throughout Colorado. The purpose of the U.S. Department of Agriculture grant program is to provide financial assistance to state foresters to accelerate the adoption of woody biomass as an alternative energy source. Colorado State University - October 12, 2007.

    Indian company Naturol Bioenergy Limited announced that it will soon start production from its biodiesel facility at Kakinada, in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The facility has an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of biodiesel and 10,000 tons of pharmaceutical grade glycerin. The primary feedstock is crude palm oil, but the facility was designed to accomodate a variety of vegetable oil feedstocks. Biofuel Review - October 11, 2007.

    Brazil's state energy company Petrobras says it will ship 9 million liters of ethanol to European clients next month in its first shipment via the northeastern port of Suape. Petrobras buys the biofuel from a pool of sugar cane processing plants in the state of Pernambuco, where the port is also located. Reuters - October 11, 2007.

    Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation, a leader in biomass-to-biofuel technology, announces that it has completed a $10.5 million equity financing with Quercus Trust, an environmentally oriented fund, and several other private investors. Ardour Capital Inc. of New York served as financial advisor in the transaction. Business Wire - October 10, 2007.

    Cuban livestock farmers are buying distillers dried grains (DDG), the main byproduct of corn based ethanol, from biofuel producers in the U.S. During a trade mission of Iowan officials to Cuba, trade officials there said the communist state will double its purchases of the dried grains this year. DesMoines Register - October 9, 2007.

    Brasil Ecodiesel, the leading Brazilian biodiesel producer company, recorded an increase of 57.7% in sales in the third quarter of the current year, in comparison with the previous three months. Sales volume stood at 53,000 cubic metres from August until September, against 34,000 cubic metres of the biofuel between April and June. The company is also concluding negotiations to export between 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes of glycerine per month to the Asian market. ANBA - October 4, 2007.

    PolyOne Corporation, the US supplier of specialised polymer materials, has opened a new colour concentrates manufacturing plant in Kutno, Poland. Located in central Poland, the new plant will produce colour products in the first instance, although the company says the facility can be expanded to handle other products. In March, the Ohio-based firm launched a range of of liquid colourants for use in bioplastics in biodegradable applications. The concentrates are European food contact compliant and can be used in polylactic acid (PLA) or starch-based blends. Plastics & Rubber Weekly - October 2, 2007.

    A turbo-charged, spray-guided direct-injection engine running on pure ethanol (E100) can achieve very high specific output, and shows “significant potential for aggressive engine downsizing for a dedicated or dual-fuel solution”, according to engineers at Orbital Corporation. GreenCarCongress - October 2, 2007.

    UK-based NiTech Solutions receives £800,000 in private funding to commercialize a cost-saving industrial mixing system, dubbed the Continuous Oscillatory Baffled Reactor (COBR), which can lower costs by 50 per cent and reduce process time by as much as 90 per cent during the manufacture of a range of commodities including chemicals, drugs and biofuels. Scotsman - October 2, 2007.

    A group of Spanish investors is building a new bioethanol plant in the western region of Extremadura that should be producing fuel from maize in 2009. Alcoholes Biocarburantes de Extremadura (Albiex) has already started work on the site near Badajoz and expects to spend €42/$59 million on the plant in the next two years. It will produce 110 million litres a year of bioethanol and 87 million kg of grain byproduct that can be used for animal feed. Europapress - September 28, 2007.

    Portuguese fuel company Prio SA and UK based FCL Biofuels have joined forces to launch the Portuguese consumer biodiesel brand, PrioBio, in the UK. PrioBio is scheduled to be available in the UK from 1st November. By the end of this year (2007), says FCL Biofuel, the partnership’s two biodiesel refineries will have a total capacity of 200,000 tonnes which will is set to grow to 400,000 tonnes by the end of 2010. Biofuel Review - September 27, 2007.

    According to Tarja Halonen, the Finnish president, one third of the value of all of Finland's exports consists of environmentally friendly technologies. Finland has invested in climate and energy technologies, particularly in combined heat and power production from biomass, bioenergy and wind power, the president said at the UN secretary-general's high-level event on climate change. Newroom Finland - September 25, 2007.

    Spanish engineering and energy company Abengoa says it had suspended bioethanol production at the biggest of its three Spanish plants because it was unprofitable. It cited high grain prices and uncertainty about the national market for ethanol. Earlier this year, the plant, located in Salamanca, ceased production for similar reasons. To Biopact this is yet another indication that biofuel production in the EU/US does not make sense and must be relocated to the Global South, where the biofuel can be produced competitively and sustainably, without relying on food crops. Reuters - September 24, 2007.

    The Midlands Consortium, comprised of the universities of Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham, is chosen to host Britain's new Energy Technologies Institute, a £1 billion national organisation which will aim to develop cleaner energies. University of Nottingham - September 21, 2007.

    The EGGER group, one of the leading European manufacturers of chipboard, MDF and OSB boards has begun work on installing a 50MW biomass boiler for its production site in Rion. The new furnace will recycle 60,000 tonnes of offcuts to be used in the new combined heat and power (CHP) station as an ecological fuel. The facility will reduce consumption of natural gas by 75%. IHB Network - September 21, 2007.


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Friday, November 02, 2007

UN's FAO rejects Ziegler's rhetoric against biofuels - stresses chances for poverty alleviation

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the largest body of experts on global food security and agriculture, has rejected the stance against biofuels taken by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler.

The FAO, which works towards achieving sustainable agriculture and food security in poor countries, instead stresses that bioenergy and biofuels offer one of the best chances for rural development and poverty alleviation in the developing world. It is joined by many think tanks, like the WorldWatch Institute, the International Energy Agency, the UNCTAD, UNIDO and others who have analysed the issue in depth.

Ziegler earlier called for a moratorium on the use of food crops for biofuels (earlier post), a call that can be legitimized on some grounds. But the FAO, which spoke out in favor of biofuels in a nuanced way before, now says:
We regret the report of the Special Rapporteur has taken a very complex issue, with many positive dimensions as well as negative ones, and characterised it as a 'crime against humanity'.

FAO strongly feels that food security and environmental considerations must be fully addressed before making investments or policy decisions, and we are actively working to ensure this happens.

However, a moratorium that ignores the potential of biofuels to support rural development and assist the economies of developing countries would not, in our view, be a constructive approach to this topic.
The problem with Mr Ziegler's relatively shallow analysis is that he does not look at the key issues which drive food insecurity in the first place. These are (amongst others): lack of rural development (70% of the 854 million hungry people are farmers), lack of infrastructures, lack of cheap and abundant energy, lack of a fair trade regime for agricultural products and bad governance. Biofuels offer a way to tackle some of these problems and could contribute in a major way to rural development, provided the right policies are implemented.

In an earlier analysis, the FAO's director, added:
Much of the current debate on bioenergy, focusing on negative aspects such as sharply increased food prices and erosion of biodiversity, obscures the sector's huge potential to reduce hunger and poverty.

If we get it right, bioenergy provides us with a historic chance to fast-forward growth in many of the world's poorest countries, to bring about an agricultural renaissance and to supply modern energy to a third of the world's population.
The WorldWatch Institute, which wrote one of the most comprehensive analyses of biofuels and their effects on the economies of poor countries, even went so far as to say that, with good policies, biofuels can 'end global hunger' (more here).

The non-governmental organisations who continuously speak out in an unnuanced way against biofuels must begin to wonder whether they are making themselves irrelevant in the debate. These organisations offer important perspectives and make valid criticisms on particular aspects of biofuel development, but very often their analyses are extremely simplistic, do not look at the fundamental drivers of underdevelopment and do not look forward into the future.

This lack of perspective has led to an infantilisation of the biofuels debate, which is highly regrettable:
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Biopact urges development organisations to keep up their critical view on energy and on modes of production, but they should understand that they could be ruining one of the very few chances with which poor countries can achieve what these organisations want: a greener, more just form of sustainable development, in which rural populations participate.

Without cheap and abundant liquid fuels, there can be no development, let alone 'sustainable' forms of development. High oil prices are already catastrophic for developing countries, and have particularly damaging effects on the poor. Biofuels offer these countries' only chance to mitigate these effects. (We will not be seeing the advanced hybrids, let alone fuel cell vehicles or electric cars in the South anywhere soon).

On the other hand, nobody can deny that the rush towards biofuels, especially in Europe and the United States, has led to a mild pressure on food prices (many other factors, including high oil prices, have had a far more important impact). And when it comes to food, we are threading on very sensitive ground: it is a basic form of energy needed by humans. Forms of external energy (like biofuels and electricity) are however equally important. Without external forms of energy, humans can not crawl out of absolute autarky (growing food for onesself) and are condemned to eternal poverty.

The 'good' thing in all of this is that all the problems related to agriculture, food and bioenergy, are man-made. As Mr Ziegler said himself, citing FAO figures, the world already produces enough food to feed 12 billion people - double the current world population. So the threat is not a lack of food, but a lack of fair distribution of food. The poor and the hungry - the bulk of who are rural citizens - lack the incomes with which to buy food. And biofuels could precisely offer the new market needed to bring them these extra incomes.

We urge all stakeholders in the biofuels and bioenergy debate to take a much broader perspective on the matter. Single-issue analyses can never capture the complexities of the topic, which must be understood first before we can make strong statements in favor or against biofuels.

References:
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: UN Food Agency Regrets 'Crime Against Humanity' Label On Biofuels - November 1, 2007.

Biopact: Worldwatch Institute chief: biofuels could end global malnourishment - August 23, 2007

Biopact: UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food to call for a 5-year moratorium on first generation liquid biofuels - October 25, 2007

Biopact: FAO chief calls for a 'Biopact' between the North and the South - August 15, 2007


1 Comments:

Biofuelsimon said...

Distributing food fairly is of vital importance, as is using non-food crops where possible for biofuels and, fundamentally, greater fuel efficiency . Zeigler's comments are certainly eye catching and it is surprising that they did not generate bigger headlines than they did. It is disappointing that he seems not to have discussed the ability of biofuel producers to sell those crops for cash enabling them to buy food, rather than growing it themselves.
There is considerable scope for producing biofuels from non-food crops in the developing world, but there are hurdles. Aside from tariff barriers and entrenched political positions in the developed world, there is also the danger of corruption in the developed and developing world which could see funds for improving infrastructure such as food distribution or biofuel production ending up in the pockets of people who should know better. Should we tie biofuel development aid to audit?

5:14 PM  

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