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    Fujitsu develops a biodegradable laptop chassis from corn-starch bioplastic. The material reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 15% compared to a chassis made from petroleum-based plastics. CNET Asia - August 20, 2007.

    India's Rana Sugars Ltd has decided to set up a new plant for producing ethanol in Uttar Pradesh with an estimated investment of €9 to 10.9 (US$12.2 to 14.7). The facility will have a capacity of 180,000 liters per year and will generate, besides ethanol, 26MW of carbon-neutral power from bagasse. Economic Times India - August 20, 2007.

    Prominent pro-democracy activists staged a rare protest in Myanmar's biggest city Sunday, marching against a massive recent fuel price hike. "We are staging this performance to reflect the hardship our people are facing due to the government's fuel price hike," said Min Ko Naing, a leader of the 88 Generation Students' Group. Myanmar's ruling military junta imposed a surprise 100 percent hike on fuel at state-owned gas stations on Wednesday. The move was followed by increases in bus fares and commodity prices. The Star - August 19, 2007.

    Canada's Cavendish Farms, one of the country's largest food processing companies is to build a biogas plant to recycle spent cooking oils, starch and sludge from its waste-water plant to fuel its potato processing operation. Use of the carbon-neutral biofuel will limit the amount of bunker C fuel oil currently in use by the company. The plant, expected to be ready for operation by next fall, has received a $14-million loan from the Province of Prince Edward Island. CBC - August 18, 2007.

    Basin Electric Power Cooperative told a U.S. Senate Energy Appropriations subcommittee that it is looking into capturing carbon dioxide from its Antelope Valley Station and sell it for enhanced oil recovery in the Williston Basin. Carbon capture technologies have not yet been applied to a power plant that uses lignite, or even subbitumious coal. The trial would be the first one to do so in the Midwest. Bismarck Tribune - August 17, 2007.

    The BBC World Service's current 'One Planet' programme focuses on revolutionary technologies and research that uses a next-generation of GM crops as factories for the production of new pharmaceuticals, green products and alternatives to petroleum-based chemicals. One Planet - August 16, 2007.

    Germany's Biogas Nord has been commissioned to construct a large multi-feed biogas plant with a capacity of 2.8 MW of electrical power in Romania. The value of the order is approximately €3.5 million. The plant will be built in the Transylvanian region close to the county town of Oradea. Interestingly, a synergy will be created by coupling the facility to the construction of a biodiesel plant. In so doing, the waste products resulting from the production of biodiesel, such as rapeseed pellets and glycerin, will be brought to the biogas plant as substrates. Ad-Hoc News - August 16, 2007.

    The University of Western Ontario's Research Park at Sarnia has received $10-million in funding for the development of biofuel technologies. The funds will be used for the creation of the 'Ontario Bioindustrial Innovation Centre' at the University, including the addition of a commercialization centre with incubator suites, laboratory equipment, pilot plant space and space for startup companies. The Observer - August 16, 2007.

    Philippine Bio-Sciences Co., Inc. (PhilBio) and its Clean Development Mechanism subsidiary in Cebu, has told the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) that it will soon open a 10 megawatt biogas plant in Cebu. According to the company, under current conditions electricity generated from biogas is around 20% less costly than that generated from fossil fuels. Philippine Bio-Sciences - August 15, 2007.

    Scientists, economists and policy experts representing government and public institutions from more than 40 countries will exchange the latest information on economic and technology opportunities at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "Global Conference on Agricultural Biofuels: Research and Economics", to be held Aug. 20-21 in Minneapolis. USDA ARS - August 14, 2007.

    A company owned by the Chinese government has expressed interest in investing up to 500 million US dollars in a biofuel project in Indonesia. The company is planning to use jatropha as its raw material and is targeting an annual output of around 1 million tons. Forbes - August 13, 2007.

    Virgin Atlantic, Boeing and General Electric are within weeks of selecting the biofuel for a flight demonstration in the UK early next year. The conversion of biomass via the Fischer-Tropsch process is no longer amongst the biofuel candidates, because the process has already been demonstrated to work. Ground testing of the chosen fuel in a development engine at GE is expected to begin in October-November. The limited flight-test programme will involve burning biofuel in one GE CF6-80C2 engine on a Virgin Boeing 747-400. Flight Global - August 13, 2007.

    Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry said Saturday it plans to introduce a new preferential tax system in fiscal 2008 aimed at promoting a wider use of biofuel, which could help curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Under the envisaged plan, biofuel that has been mixed with gasoline will be exempt from the gasoline tax--currently 53.8 yen per liter--in proportion to the amount of biofuel included. If blended with diesel oil, biofuel will be free from the diesel oil delivery tax, currently 32.1 yen per liter. Daily Yomiuri - August 13, 2007.

    Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry said Saturday it plans to introduce a new preferential tax system in fiscal 2008 aimed at promoting a wider use of biofuel, which could help curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Under the envisaged plan, biofuel that has been mixed with gasoline will be exempt from the gasoline tax--currently 53.8 yen per liter--in proportion to the amount of biofuel included. If blended with diesel oil, biofuel will be free from the diesel oil delivery tax, currently 32.1 yen per liter. Daily Yomiuri - August 13, 2007.

    Buenos Aires based ABATEC SA announces the release of a line of small biodiesel plants with modular design, high temperature reaction for the best yield, to produce from 50 to 1000 gal/day (190 to 3785 liter/day) of high quality methylester and valuable glycerol. PRWeb - August 10, 2007.

    Vegetable growers in North Queensland are trying to solve the problem of disposing of polyethylene plastic mulch by using a biodegradable, bioplastic based alternative. Trials are a collaboration of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries with the Bowen District Growers Association. Queensland Country Life - August 8, 2007.

    Hawaii's predominant utility has won approval to build the state's first commercial biofuel plant. It is the first substantial new power generator that Hawaiian Electric Co. has added in 17 years. HECO will build the $142.3 million facility at Campbell Industrial Park on Oahu beginning early next year, and expects to begin commercial operation in mid-2009. It will run exclusively on fuels made from ethanol or biodiesel. Star Bulletin (Honolulu) - August 8, 2007.

    PetroSun Inc. announced today that it conducted its initial algae-to-biofuel program held at Auburn and Opelika, Alabama. The company intends to hold a series of these programs during August and September with biodiesel refiners and firms that are researching the use of algal oil as a potential feedstock for jet fuel production. MarketWire - August 8, 2007.

    To encourage Malaysia's private sector to generate energy from biomass resources, national electricity company Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has increased the purchase price of electricity produced from palm oil biomass waste to 21 sen per kilowatt hour from 19 sen now. According to Minister of Enegry, Water and Communications, Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik the new price structure, under the Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreement (REPPA), will be implemented immediately. Such projects are eligible for the Clean Development Mechanism. Under the 9th Malaysian Plan, the country's government aims to achieve the installation of 300MW and 50MW of grid-connected electric power from renewable energy sources in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah, respectively. Bernama - August 7, 2007.

    Aspectrics, which develops encoded photometric infrared and near infrared spectroscopy, will be launching a new range of biofuels analyzers designed to meet the demands of scientists and analysts to carry out biodiesel quality control and analyze biodiesel blend percentages in real time. Bioresearch Online - August 7, 2007.

    Irish start-up Eirzyme has secured a €10m investment from Canadian company Micromill System. The new company will produce low-cost enzymes to convert biological materials such as brewers' grains into bioethanol and biogas. RTE - August 6, 2007.

    Imperium Renewables says it has a deal to provide Royal Caribbean Cruises with biodiesel. The Seattle-based biodiesel maker, which is scheduled to inaugurate its Grays Harbor plant this month, will sell the cruise line 15 million gallons of biodiesel in 2007 and 18 million gallons annually for four years after that. The Miami-based cruise line has four vessels that call in Seattle. It is believed to be the single-largest long-term biodiesel sales contract to an end user in the U.S. Seattle Times - August 5, 2007.


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Friday, August 17, 2007

Scientist improves biomass productivity of winter wheat, relevance for next-generation biofuels

Liuling Yan, a Chinese scientist working at Oklahoma State University’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, is making major breakthroughs in wheat improvement. For his latest discoveries, which boost the yields of winter wheat, he used a DNA marker for a genomic region developed to select lines for biomass production that can be utilized as forage or as a supplemental biofuel feedstock. The findings make the economics of dual-purpose winter wheat more attractive and may result in higher biomass productivity - a fact with obvious consequences for second-generation biofuels which are made from residues such as straw.

Yan, who is recognized as world-class scientist with impressive accomplishments in the development and application of molecular genetics tools and techniques, is working in collaboration with Brett Carver, OSU Regents professor of wheat genetics and breeding. The team recently discovered a genome region that has a significant effect on the development process of winter wheat. The DNA marker for this genomic region was developed to select lines for biomass production.
This exciting find was achieved based on the genetic segregation of flowering time in a population generated from a cross between two winter cultivars, Jagger – a typical early flowering wheat variety – and 2174, a late-flowering wheat variety. David R. Porter, head of OSU’s department of plant and soil sciences
The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology recently awarded $90,000 for two years to support Yan’s work in the cloning of this gene that is so beneficial to the dual purpose wheat in Oklahoma.

Complex genome
Yan is recognized worldwide in the scientific plant community as a leader in the cloning of genes from the large and ultra-complex genome of wheat. The wheat genome contains 16 billion base pairs, the DNA building block: that is five times the size of the human genome and approximately 120 times the genome size of Arabidopsis, the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced and a baseline model used for studying plant biology:
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Throw in the fact that wheat is a hexaploid species having three similar genomes and most people get lost in the science fairly quickly, says Mark Hodges, Oklahoma Wheat Commission executive director. The bottom line is that what Dr. Yan does is not easy, and Oklahoma is very fortunate to have him working on improvement of the state’s wheat crop, adds Hodges.

Economic boost
And by 'Oklahoma' he means all of Oklahoma is benefiting from Yan’s work, not just the state’s agricultural industry. "At August 15 prices, the cash price of an average crop in Oklahoma would be more than $900 million if we would have harvested a normal crop, which, of course, we weren’t able to manage this year because of the weather and other factors," Hodges said.

Hodges added that figure does not take into account the livestock or pounds-of-beef-produced aspects of wheat production and use. "In a normal year, wheat can easily account for more than $1.5 billion to the rural parts of the state, and eventually affects the entire state’s economic well-being," Hodges said.

USDA data – backed up by OSU research conducted by Division scientists – indicate the average increase of yield attributed to variety research is a half bushel per acre per year. "If you figure 30 bushels per acre in average yield and we increase that by a half bushel every year, at current prices that would be an increase of $3 per acre a year in return to the producer just in terms of the genetics," Hodges said. "Talk about providing a benefit."

A proud university
It is little wonder that the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) featured Yan on its cover when he cloned the third vernalization gene from wheat in 2006. The cover and open-access companion article reporting Yan’s findings made him the subject of considerable scientific attention. "PNAS is the premier science journal in the nation, actually the world", Porter said.

Vernalization requirement, long-term exposure to low temperatures to flower, is a common phenomenon in Oklahoma winter wheat varieties. "Revealing the vernalization genes in varieties would provide valuable information vital to our efforts to improve Oklahoma wheat, which in turn would provide direct and indirect benefits to Oklahoma’s agricultural industry and the state economy," Porter said.

Since Yan’s arrival in Oklahoma, he has taken his PNAS-published research one step further, by discovering key minute differences in the DNA of winter wheat varieties and their initiation of reproductive development.

"What this means to our wheat breeding program, and to the Oklahoma wheat producer, is that we’ll be able to tell with much greater confidence if a new variety can be grazed one to two weeks longer without sacrificing grain yield," Carver said. Just one more week of grazing could put an additional $3 per acre to $4 per acre in the producer's pocket.

"Yan’s our man," Carver said. "Yan’s type of research fits Oklahoma’s way of producing beef and wheat from one crop like a golf club fits Tiger Woods’ hands."

A native of China, Yan spent six years at the University of California-Davis prior to joining the OSU faculty. He was educated mainly in his native country but earned his doctoral degree in plant genetics in Australia.


Picture: Wheat field covered in snow, illustrating the adaptation of this crop to cold temperatures. Yan discovered that one of the main vernalization (cold-temperature induction of flowering) genes in wheat, VRN3, is similar to Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). Gene expression levels of the barley and wheat FT genes are significantly higher in plants homozygous for the dominant Vrn3 allele (which promotes early flowering) than in plants homozygous for the recessive vrn3 allele (late flowering). The wheat and barley FT genes account for some of the natural variations in vernalization, providing new insights into the adaptive diversity of these important crops. Credit: Agripicture.

References:
L. Yan, et. al., "The wheat and barley vernalization gene VRN3 is an orthologue of FT", PNAS | December 19, 2006, vol. 103, no. 51, pp. 19581-19586, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0607142103

Oklahoma State University, Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources: OSU wheat breeder’s genetic code-breaking means dollars to Oklahoma and region - August 16, 2007.


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Vietnam to build two cassava and sugarcane ethanol plants


Vietnam's Bien Hoa Sugar Company and Singapore's Fair Energy Asia Ltd have signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of an ethanol factory capable of producing 50,000 tonnes a year.

This is Vietnam's second largest ethanol project. The biofuel plant will be built in an industrial zone in Ninh Dien village, Chau Thanh district, in the southwestern province of Tay Ninh. The two companies will contribute equal capital to the project but they did not disclose the facility’s proposed total cost. The factory will be fed by waste-streams (molasses) obtained from processing sugarcane and cassava, of which Tay Ninh is the biggest national producer.

Vietnam has a large potential for the production of cassava, a high-yield energy crop that thrives in poor soils and requires relatively few inputs. Scientists found that ethanol made from the tuber crop shows a very strong energy balance, making cassava an efficient biofuel plant (previous post). Residues from cassava can be used as a biomass source for energy, or as animal feed.

A second ethanol plant will be built by Japan's Itochu Corp. and state-run PetroVietnam subsidiary Petrosetco. The companies have signed an agreement to build the US$100 million biofuels facility in Ho Chi Minh City’s Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park.

This facility too would use cassava chips to make the ethanol. It is expected to produce 100 million liters (26.4 million gallons) of ethanol annually. The product will be sold in Vietnam to supply the manufacturing and transportation industries. The new factory will meet around 10 per cent of projected demand for E10 in the country:
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

The mixing of ethanol in petrol will help the country reduce its petrol imports as well as cut environmental pollution, said Tran Cong Tao, Petrosetco's chief of executive.

Itochu group, with its 30 years of experience handling ethanol projects, is willing share its knowledge with the Vietnamese partner and will contribute to the first successful bio-ethanol project in Vietnam, according to Itochu's deputy executive director Toshio Shigemi.

Deputy Minister of Industry Do Huu Hao and Vice Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Nguyen Trung Tin spoke highly of the cooperation between Petrosetco and Itochu to create a new kind of energy for Vietnam.

Construction of the plant is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2009.

Image: Vietnamese farmer standing in a 'forest' of mature cassava plants. Credit: Nippon Foundation.

References:
Vietnam News Agency: Largest ethanol making project takes shape - August 15, 2007.

Vietnam News Agency: Japan helps build Viet Nam's first bio-ethanol plant - March 9, 2007.

Biopact: First comprehensive energy balance study reveals cassava is a highly efficient biofuel feedstock - April 18, 2007


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Technip to engineer biomass power plant that will run on dedicated energy grass

French engineering group Technip has been awarded a front end engineering design contract by the Biomass Investment Group (BIG) for their closed loop biomass power plant project located in Florida which will use 'E-Grass' (Arundo Donax, also known as 'Giant Reed') as a farm grown herbaceous energy crop. This contract also includes the design and supply of a process demonstration unit, approximately 1/10th scale.

This project will be the world's first large-scale operation for producing electricity from a crop grown specially for conversion into green electricity. This biomass energy source is renewable and presents environmental advantages such as a substantial reduction in carbon emissions, no-till agriculture and low power plant emissions.

Technip's operations and engineering center in Claremont (California) will execute the contract. The plant will utilize BIG's proprietary bioconversion process to transform the biomass into a liquid fuel for use in a combined cycle combustion-turbine generator system.

It will also be the world's first grass fired power plant to sell green electricity to utilities and other clients under long-term power purchase contracts. BIG recently signed a 130MW Power Purchase Agreement with Progress Energy (previous post).

Dedicated energy crop

E-Grass or Arundo Donax is a high-yield perennial grass species that resembles bamboo or sugar cane. Its fast growth, low moisture and mineral needs and its strong energy yield make E-Grass a good energy crop (earlier post).

Once established, the crop grows like bamboo – spreading its roots and producing a number of new shoots. It requires about 25 inches of water per year to survive, tolerates brackish water, and uses a minimal amount of nutrients from the soil.

Mature stalks grow to an average height of twenty feet and an average diameter of one inch. At the end of the growing season, plants are harvested in a manner similar to sugar cane. Even after cutting, Arundo Donax will continue to grow new plants each year from it rhizomes and does not have to be replanted. The crop can be harvested up to twice annually. Over 100,000 stalks can be grown on an acre of land once the crop has reached maturity:
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

For BIG's projects located in the Gulf of Mexico region (including the U.S. Gulf Coast), the herbaceous perennial crop will be grown for the company's energy production systems and external product markets. Further advantages of Arundo donax are:
  • the fact that it is a fast-growing plant that produces large yields in warm climates.
  • the fact that its stalks have a naturally occurring coat of wax that repels moisture and protects the chips from deteriorating during storage.
  • the fact that it is widely used as an ornamental plant for landscaping throughout the southern United States.
  • the fact that it requires less water due to its deep roots.
Such a fast-growing high-yield crop enables BIG to maximize its energy production per unit of cropland area, thereby realizing optimal resource use.

Furthermore, the crop is extremely hardy, has no natural enemies, and grows in poor soils without fertilizer and with very little rainfall. The plant flourishes in warm climates and is a very efficient converter of the sun's radiation into biomass.

The Biomass Investment Group earlier announced in was investing in energy plantations in the Philippines, where it will be planting Miscanthus, another energy grass, that will be converted into bio-oil and then shipped to end users (previous post).


With a workforce of 22,000 people, Technip ranks among the top five corporations in the field of oil, gas and petrochemical engineering, construction and services. Headquartered in Paris, the Group is listed in New York and Paris.

The group's main operations and engineering centers and business units are located in France, Italy, Germany, the UK, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, the USA, Brazil, Abu-Dhabi, China, India, Malaysia and Australia.

In support of its activities, the group manufactures flexible pipes and umbilicals, and builds offshore platforms in its manufacturing plants and fabrication yards in France, Brazil, the UK, the USA, Finland and Angola, and has a fleet of specialized vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction.

References:
Biopact: U.S. company planting Miscanthus in the Philippines for biofuels production - February 20, 2006

Biopact: Progress Energy Florida to buy electricity from largest biomass gasification plant - July 27, 2007


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Study states the obvious: cutting down rainforests for biofuels is not a good idea

In an article published in the Policy Forum of Science, researchers at the University of Leeds and a conservationist from the World Land Trust have succeeded in stating the obvious: cutting down rainforests to grow biofuel crops leads to more greenhouse gas emissions.

Greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels based on deforestation, are larger than those of petroleum fuels.
The only biofuel currently made from crops grown on rainforest land is biodiesel from palm oil. This fuel may add up to nine times as much carbon dioxide compared to conventional petrol and diesel, they found. The report concludes that - if reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the primary concern - then protecting and restoring natural forests is a better way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions than cutting them down for palm oil.

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.
The relevance of this study to the biofuels debate is marginal. Especially because it could be misinterpreted as saying that we are faced with a simplistic choice: rainforests versus biofuels. Nothing is further from the truth. Studies by scientists working for the International Energy Agency's Bioenergy Task 40 have shown that billions of hectares of non-forest land are available where energy crops for biofuels with a strong GHG balance can be grown sustainably. The projections explicitly start from a scenario that does not allow deforestation (earlier post). The conservationists writing in Science do not cite these studies.

The fact is that most biofuel crops are grown on non-forest land. Sugarcane in Brazil offers the best example: the crop is grown 1000 miles South of the Amazon, and has no impact whatsoever on deforestation rates (previous post and here). Brazil even succeeds in vastly expanding its biofuels acreage while at the same time slowing down deforestation (earlier post). Likewise, most other biofuel crops, from rapeseed and corn, over jatropha and pongamia to sorghum and cassava do not grow in rainforest soils.

In several cases, biofuels even succeed in greening the desert and pushing back desertification. A good recent example comes from Inner Mongolia, where fast-rotation sand willow is pushing back the desert (earlier post). Other examples are based on jatropha, with trials in the middle of the Southern Egyptian desert (earlier post). Apparently, the authors of the article are not aware of these initiatives.

The study does not take into account the opportunity for the production of carbon-negative biofuels either. Such biofuels reduce carbon emissions more than most temperate forests, which are net contributors (here and here). Carbon-negative biofuels can be obtained either by relying on the sequestration of biochar into soils (previous post and here), or by storing the carbon into large geological sites (more here).

Ultimately, the reduction of greenhouse gases is only one of a much larger set of more important reasons behind the interest in biofuels. The green fuels offer the only realistic way to overcome high oil prices. This is especially important for developing countries, some of which are already forced to spend twice as much on importing expensive oil than on health care services. Biofuels would reduce this disastrous effect of oil. High oil prices kill people. Biofuels may save them.

Importantly, as the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and many other think tanks and analysts have said: biofuels can help reduce poverty alleviation on a massive scale (earlier post). This could have major beneficial effects on the environment in developing countries, because poverty is the single biggest factor driving environmental destruction there. But more importanly, the biofuels opportunity can help lift millions of poor people out of misery, improve their livelihoods, and strengthen their access to food and energy. For these reasons, African scientists recently concluded that bioenergy and biofuels are key to help achieve the UN's ambitious Millennium Development Goals (previous post):
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Likewise, the UNIDO, the IEA, the EU, the Worldwatch Institute and several food research organisations stressed the same basic facts.

In short, the recuction of greenhouse gas emissions is only one reason why biofuels are receiving so much interest. Many far more important factors are at play.

The report in Science is co-authored by Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust - a charity that protects and restores threatened habitats around the world.

The study compared the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that would be saved from entering the atmosphere by growing biofuels with the amount saved from slowing deforestation and restoring forests over a 30-year period.

The study also found that converting large areas of land back to forest provides other environmental benefits such as preventing desertification and regional climate regulation. The conversion of large areas of land to make biofuels will place further strains on the environment, the study concluded.

European Union member states have pledged to replace 10% of transport fuel with biofuel from crops by 2020 in an effort to reduce reliance on imported oil and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Meeting the EU target would require an area larger than one third of all the agricultural land in Europe to be used for growing biofuel crops.

He says: "There is a big push in the EU and US to promote biofuels as a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. What we do here has an impact on the rest of the world. Although biofuels may look a good idea in places like Europe, they have a perverse effect when you take into the rest of the world."

Biopact does not agree with the latter statement, because the world is far bigger than the few countries that are cutting down rainforests for biofuels. There are groups of countries much larger than Europe, where biofuels can be grown without any major environmental side-effects. Countries like the Central-African Republic, South Sudan, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, to name but a few. Apparently, some scientists utilize maps that do not show these countries. Or they are simply eurocentric. The amount of non-forest land available for biofuel crops, is estimated to be around 2 billion hectares.

References:
Renton Righelato and Dominick V. Spracklen, "Carbon Mitigation by Biofuels or by Saving and Restoring Forests?", Science 17 August 2007, Vol. 317. no. 5840, p. 902, DOI: 10.1126/science.1141361

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

Biopact: Worldwatch Institute: biofuels may bring major benefits to world's rural poor - August 06, 2007

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

Biopact: Report: biofuels key to achieving Millennium Development Goals in Africa - August 02, 2007

Biopact: African Union, Brazil and UNIDO organise first High-Level Conference on Biofuels in Africa - July 23, 2007

Biopact: IEA chief economist: EU, US should scrap tariffs and subsidies, import biofuels from the South - March 06, 2007

Biopact: A look at Africa's biofuels potential - July 30, 2006


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