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    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.

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Monday, January 14, 2008

Researchers: invasive bush biomass in Namibia has high energy production potential


Anti-biofuels groups often try to narrow the debate about bioenergy by pointing to regions where its production presents a risk of deforestation and biodiversity loss. This way, they have succeeded in presenting a false and static image of a much larger sector, potentially denying many poor farmers and communities elsewhere the opportunity to make a living. In reality, the vast bulk of biofuels and biomass produced in the future will result in exactly the opposite effects than those now dominating the debate: improved ecosystem conservation and greater biodiversity, mass poverty alleviation, energy security and energy access for the underserved, and large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Yet another example of this future comes from Namibia.

There, the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Northern Europe's largest contract science organisation, has studied the profitability of using bush chips in electricity production, where biomass from invasive bushes has great energy production potential. We referred earlier to a tentative study exploring this option, but now science backs up the preliminary findings (previous post).

Namibia suffers from the overgrowth of rapidly growing, robust bush, which is disruptive to cattle raising, the country's poor farmers' primary source of livelihoods, and threatens the survival of other plant species. The phenomenon of bush encroachment in Namibian savannas is regarded as part of the desertification process since the increase in the extent and density of woody vegetation occurs at the expense of other desirable grasses and forbs, resulting in an alarming reduction in productivity. The following definition of bush encroachment was accepted by rangeland experts in Namibia during a brainstorming session of the National Programme to Combat Desertification (NAPCOD):
Bush encroachment is the invasion and/or thickening of aggressive undesired woody species, resulting in an imbalance of the grass:bush ratio, a decrease in biodiversity, a decrease in carrying capacity and concomitant economic losses.
VTT developed the production technology for the utilization of bush chips and looked at whether it can be applied in a cost-effective manner to tackle this environmental problem. Previous efforts to find ways of clearing the invader bush, such as massive herbicide spraying or burning campaigns, are hardly sustainable, cost-effective or environmentally friendly. Burning would result in large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, whereas herbicides kill the ecosystem alltogether. Moreover, estimates show that it would cost up to N$5.2 billion (€534/US$714 million) to combat the infestation with these techniques. For a country like Namibia, this is a tall order. Individual, small farmers whose land is invaded say it is cheaper to buy a new farm than to try to eradicate the hardy bushes. (See the Bush Encroachment Research, Monitoring and Management project of the Ministry of the Environment).


VTT's trials with a mobile bush chipper, transforming the bulky biomass into chips that have a higher volumetric energy density. The biofuel is transported from the bush to a central briquetting plant.
According to the VTT, bioenergy could come to the rescue. It has been estimated that the overgrowth of bush greatly affects an area of about 10 million hectares in northern parts of central and eastern Namibia. There are between 1,000-10,000 bushes per hectare in this area. The amount of biomass per hectare ranges between 5-25 tonnes. The overgrowth of bush can be managed by thinning and leaving 200-300 of the largest bushes to grow on the savannah. An average quantity of biomass obtained by thinning is about 10 tonnes per hectare. The thinned bushes re-grow from their roots, and thinning can be repeated in 10-15 years. In other words, the area affected by the overgrowth of bush produces in total 125 million tonnes of biomass, i.e. 500 TWh. The total consumption of energy in Namibia was 12.6 TWh in 1999.

The overgrowth of bush is harmful to, for example, cattle raising, as the bush reduces the growth of grass and it is almost impossible to move in thick bush. The production of bioelectricity would contribute to Namibia’s energy self-sufficiency, which is currently low. Namibia imports most of its electricity from South Africa. There is a coal-fired power plant in the country’s capital, Windhoek, but it is used sporadically to supplement imported South African electricity. At the moment, the bush is used for firewood (about 1 million tonnes a year) and for charcoal production (0.3 million tonnes a year). Namibia also has one briquette factory, which produces about 6,000 tonnes of briquettes from bush chips.

The VTT actually trialed bush chip production for its study to look at its commercial viability. The tests were carried out on a farm owned by the CCF (Cheetah Conservation Fund). The farm is 36,000 hectares in size and is located in the area where bush growth is a problem, i.e. about 200 km north of Windhoek. Chips for the briquette factory owned by the CCF are produced on the farm:
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

In the CCF chip production process, the bushes are cut by axe. After cutting, the bushes are carried to the side of the skid road. The skid roads are 50 metres apart. The bushes are placed in piles by the skid road, where they are dried to 15-20% moisture content. In Namibian weather conditions, it takes two to three weeks of drying for the bush to achieve this moisture content. When the bush is sufficiently dry, it is chipped in a drum chipper. The chipper blows the chips straight into a tractor trailer, which takes them to the briquette factory 40 km away. Two trailers equipped with tipping gear are attached to the tractor.

The cutting trials were carried out on one-hectare test plots. Thirteen plots were used for the study. After thinning, 200-250 bushes remained in the cutting area. The average yield in the test plots was 7 tonnes per hectare. In the cutting tests, the productivity of the various work stages was measured in tonnes per time unit. The productivity of cutting was 0.25 ha (1.7 tons) and of transport 0.30 ha (2.0 tons) per worker per day. The productivity of chipping was 20.1 tonnes per day and of road transport 10.5 tonnes per day, when the transportation distance was 50 km.

The bioplant of 5 MW under review uses 32,000 tonnes of chips per year at a moisture content of 20%. To produce this amount using the existing production chain requires 198 men, in addition to the machines. The production cost of the chips, calculated for a transport distance of 30 km, is €5.1/MWh. Chipping costs are the largest individual cost item.

Costs reduced by 15%
VTT also improved the efficiency of the chip production chain. Based on machinery tests, it was proposed that the chain be fully mechanised. In the mechanised chain, bushes are cut with a small tractor equipped with a rotating cutting head. The bushes are moved by a small tractor equipped with a grapple. The chipping is done by a drum chipper equipped with a feeder, and a tractor-trailer combination is used for road transport due to the short distance. According to VTT, the new mechanised chain could reduce the cutting costs by about 15%, in comparison with the chain used at the moment. If a 50 MW electricity plant uses 32,000 tonnes of chips (at a 20% moisture content) per year, 32 workers are needed for the production.

Electricity production in separate 10 MW and 20 MW plants is profitable if the investor investing in the plant receives 35% investment aid and €15 per tonne of carbon dioxide in emissions trading. According to the study, a 20 MW plant would repay itself in seven years and a 10 MW plant in 10 years. In the study, the price of electricity was €40/MWh. A 5 MW plant is too small, which is why the repayment period for it using the values provided above, is 16 years. The plants could be located in northern Namibia where the largest biomass resources are located.

There is a coal-fired power plant with four boilers in Windhoek. In the project, the conversion of one of these to biomass was considered. The boiler’s capacity using biomass would be 20 MW, which is somewhat less than when coal is used. The conversion of the boiler to biomass would be profitable even without aid. Electricity production costs would be €35.6/ MWh. Most of the costs would be incurred by fuel (€27/MWh). The capital cost would be €5.5/MWh. The investment would repay itself in seven years.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is the biggest contract research organisation in Northern Europe. VTT provides high-end technology solutions and innovation services. From its wide knowledge base, VTT can combine different technologies, create new innovations and a substantial range of world class technologies and applied research services thus improving its clients' competitiveness and competence. Through its international scientific and technology network, VTT can produce information, upgrade technology knowledge, create business intelligence and value added to its stakeholders. VTT is a non-profit-making research organisation.

Images: studying the bush biomass supply chain in the field. Credit: VTT.

References:
Leinonen, A. Wood chip production technology and costs for fuel in Namibia. Espoo 2007. VTT Tiedotteita – Research Notes 2417. 66 p. +app. 21 p.

VTT: VTT studied the profitability of electricity production with bush chips in Namibia - January 14, 2008.

AlphaGalileo: Bush biomass has high energy production potential - January 14, 2008.

Biopact: Namibia to use invasive shrubs for bioenergy, to meet all power needs - April 02, 2007

Ministry of Environment and Tourism: Bush Encroachment - Report on Phase 1 of the Bush Encroachment Research, Monitoring and Management Project.

The Namibian (via AllAfrica): Namibia: N$5.2 Billion Needed for Bush Clearing - March 12, 2007.

New Era (Windhoek) (via AllAfrica): There's Power in the Bush - April 2, 2007.


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