2007-11-21
2007-11-19
Interesants buklets par multifunkcionālu energokultūru izmantošanu
Citāts no bukleta ievada:
"The present report deals with such so-called multifunctional bioenergy systems. These are bioenergy systems which – through well-chosen localisation, design, management and system integration – offer extra environmental services that, in turn, create added value for the systems. Focusing on the case of multifunctional Salix production in Sweden, research projects funded by the Swedish Energy Agency have been accomplished with the purposes to:
"The present report deals with such so-called multifunctional bioenergy systems. These are bioenergy systems which – through well-chosen localisation, design, management and system integration – offer extra environmental services that, in turn, create added value for the systems. Focusing on the case of multifunctional Salix production in Sweden, research projects funded by the Swedish Energy Agency have been accomplished with the purposes to:
- Investigate which environmental services could be obtained from multifunctional bioenergy systems.
- Estimate how much biomass could be produced in multifunctional bioenergy systems in Sweden, based on an inventory of demand for the environmental services that can be provided with such systems.
- Estimate the economic value of the environmental services that can be offered with multifunctional bioenergy systems, as well as the production costs for biomass from such systems.
- Identify market- and structure-determining barriers to different multifunctional bioenergy systems, and propose solutions that overcome barriers and strengthen present driving forces for increasing the production of bioenergy."
Anglijā sākusi darboties jauna koksnes atlieku TEC ar jaudu 30 MWel.
"The UK's first large power plant to provide a market for lower grade waste wood officially opened yesterday in Middlesbrough, writes Caelia Quinault.
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks unveiled the £60 million Wilton 10 biomass plant on the Wilton International manufacturing site, hailing the facility as a "forerunner" of how the UK should produce energy in the future.
Developed by Sembcorp Utilities UK, the plant will process 300,000 tonnes of wood a year, including 80,000 tonnes of recycled wood and 80,000 tonnes of offcuts from sawmills. It will also process 80,000 tonnes of forestry products per annum such as tree tops and 55,000 tonnes of short rotation coppice willow.
The fuels are mixed together to create hot gases, which are then passed over water to produce steam which turns a turbine to create 30MW of electricity a year for power giant EON.
Opening the facility, Mr Wicks paid tribute to the carbon-neutral energy the plant would create - as the carbon emissions released by the plant would be balanced out by the carbon taken out of the atmosphere by the trees growing.
He said: "Biomass is a critical form of renewable energy and in the UK we want 20% of our electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020."
"This is a win-win situation in all sorts of ways and this is very much a forerunner.... we hope to see many more in the future."
Paul Gavens, executive vice president and managing director of Sembcorp Utilities UK said: "Sembcorp is proud to be at the forefront of this type of biomass power generation and we are committed to creating a greener future for our business."
To feed the Wilton 10 plant with recycled fuel, Sembcorp has a partnership with local firm UK Wood Recycling. The firm accepts all grades of non-hazardous wood such as kitchen units, pallets and doors from which it uses lower grade material to produce fuel.
This is cleaned and blended at UK Wood Recycling's bespoke facility on the Wilton International site which opened earlier this year (see letsrecycle.com story), before being sent to Wilton 10.
The company has already stockpiled 30,000 tonnes of material in anticipation of Wilton 10 opening and has received a lot of enquiries from firms eager to dispose of lower quality wood which currently had no other outlet than landfill.
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks (left) inspects wood fuel ready for the Wilton 10 power plant, with Sembcorp project director Tony Lewis
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks (left) inspects wood fuel ready for the Wilton 10 power plant, with Sembcorp project director Tony Lewis
UK Wood Recycling managing director Geoff Hadfield explained: "We have had a lot of enquiries for lower grade material and it opens up another outlet for it which is more viable than sending it to landfill."
Mr Hadfield added that sending waste wood to biomass would become increasingly important once the landfill tax escalator shot up by £8 a tonne in April 2008. "It is forward thinking," he said.
Barriers
Despite excitement over the new Wilton 10 plant, however, some concern was voiced about current barriers to building biomass plants elsewhere to help tackle the millions 7-8 million tonnes of waste wood sent to landfill in the UK each year.
Toby Beadle, of consultancy Urban Harvest UK, said that the perception of recovered wood as a waste created problems and needed agreement, following the failure of efforts by the Environment Agency to re-define the point at which it wood ceased to be a waste (see letsrecycle.com story).
He said: "We need a government funded project to develop standards and categories for wood to be adopted universally including by the EA and SEPA."
Nick Booth, vice president of Sembcorp Utilities UK, agreed that work was needed to stop recycled wood being classed as a waste as at present all plants which burned it had to be compliant with the Waste Incineration Directive (WID) which sets strict emissions controls.
He explained that the regulations provided a perverse incentive for generating electricity from waste material - no matter how clean the material was.
"Legislation sets targets even higher than coal fired power stations which actually make it tougher to use recycled wood instead of sending it to landfill," he explained.
CHP
Mr Booth added that Sembcorp had not been able to make the Wilton 10 facility a combined heat and power (CHP) plant -which is more energy efficient - because there was currently no financial incentive under the Renewables Obligation for producing renewable heat alongside electricity.
He said: "This plant is power only which is a bit of a travesty because the steam could be used on site."
Oriģināls
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks unveiled the £60 million Wilton 10 biomass plant on the Wilton International manufacturing site, hailing the facility as a "forerunner" of how the UK should produce energy in the future.
Developed by Sembcorp Utilities UK, the plant will process 300,000 tonnes of wood a year, including 80,000 tonnes of recycled wood and 80,000 tonnes of offcuts from sawmills. It will also process 80,000 tonnes of forestry products per annum such as tree tops and 55,000 tonnes of short rotation coppice willow.
The fuels are mixed together to create hot gases, which are then passed over water to produce steam which turns a turbine to create 30MW of electricity a year for power giant EON.
Opening the facility, Mr Wicks paid tribute to the carbon-neutral energy the plant would create - as the carbon emissions released by the plant would be balanced out by the carbon taken out of the atmosphere by the trees growing.
He said: "Biomass is a critical form of renewable energy and in the UK we want 20% of our electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020."
"This is a win-win situation in all sorts of ways and this is very much a forerunner.... we hope to see many more in the future."
Paul Gavens, executive vice president and managing director of Sembcorp Utilities UK said: "Sembcorp is proud to be at the forefront of this type of biomass power generation and we are committed to creating a greener future for our business."
To feed the Wilton 10 plant with recycled fuel, Sembcorp has a partnership with local firm UK Wood Recycling. The firm accepts all grades of non-hazardous wood such as kitchen units, pallets and doors from which it uses lower grade material to produce fuel.
This is cleaned and blended at UK Wood Recycling's bespoke facility on the Wilton International site which opened earlier this year (see letsrecycle.com story), before being sent to Wilton 10.
The company has already stockpiled 30,000 tonnes of material in anticipation of Wilton 10 opening and has received a lot of enquiries from firms eager to dispose of lower quality wood which currently had no other outlet than landfill.
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks (left) inspects wood fuel ready for the Wilton 10 power plant, with Sembcorp project director Tony Lewis
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks (left) inspects wood fuel ready for the Wilton 10 power plant, with Sembcorp project director Tony Lewis
UK Wood Recycling managing director Geoff Hadfield explained: "We have had a lot of enquiries for lower grade material and it opens up another outlet for it which is more viable than sending it to landfill."
Mr Hadfield added that sending waste wood to biomass would become increasingly important once the landfill tax escalator shot up by £8 a tonne in April 2008. "It is forward thinking," he said.
Barriers
Despite excitement over the new Wilton 10 plant, however, some concern was voiced about current barriers to building biomass plants elsewhere to help tackle the millions 7-8 million tonnes of waste wood sent to landfill in the UK each year.
Toby Beadle, of consultancy Urban Harvest UK, said that the perception of recovered wood as a waste created problems and needed agreement, following the failure of efforts by the Environment Agency to re-define the point at which it wood ceased to be a waste (see letsrecycle.com story).
He said: "We need a government funded project to develop standards and categories for wood to be adopted universally including by the EA and SEPA."
Nick Booth, vice president of Sembcorp Utilities UK, agreed that work was needed to stop recycled wood being classed as a waste as at present all plants which burned it had to be compliant with the Waste Incineration Directive (WID) which sets strict emissions controls.
He explained that the regulations provided a perverse incentive for generating electricity from waste material - no matter how clean the material was.
"Legislation sets targets even higher than coal fired power stations which actually make it tougher to use recycled wood instead of sending it to landfill," he explained.
CHP
Mr Booth added that Sembcorp had not been able to make the Wilton 10 facility a combined heat and power (CHP) plant -which is more energy efficient - because there was currently no financial incentive under the Renewables Obligation for producing renewable heat alongside electricity.
He said: "This plant is power only which is a bit of a travesty because the steam could be used on site."
Oriģināls
2007-11-08
Jauna celulozes tranporta kurināmā ražotne ASV
"Colorado-based Range Fuels plans to finish construction of the plant's first phase by the end of next year, and start producing 20 million gallons of ethanol per year in 2009. Every drop will come from trees, a big deal considering nearly all ethanol produced in the U.S. is now made from corn _ a valuable food source.
"When people think of biofuel and ethanol, they think of corn and Iowa. But we will be changing that," said Gov. Sonny Perdue, declaring he could "feel history in the making."
The Department of Energy chose the Range Fuels plant in Georgia as one of six projects to receive $385 million in federal funding aimed at jump-starting ethanol production from nontraditional, cellulose-based sources like wood chips, switchgrass and citrus peels. The Georgia plant expects to receive $76 million.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told a crowd of local residents gathered beneath a sprawling white tent that the plant, located 150 miles southeast of Atlanta, will launch "a new phase in our effort to make America more energy secure."
Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, the venture capitalist who is backing the Range Fuels plant, went a step further by saying America needs to "declare a war on oil." Cellulose-based ethanol, he said, "is the weapon we need."
"This is nothing less ... than to replace 100 percent of our oil," Khosla said. "It's not about playing around with five or ten percent."
Range Fuels will have plenty of raw material for its new plant nearby. Soperton is a hub of Georgia's timber industry that bills itself as the "Million Pine City" in a state with 24 million acres of forest.
The Soperton plant will use a chemical process that heats timber waste and mill residue and transforms it into a heavy synthesis gas. The gas, known as "syngas," is then refined into a liquid and turned into ethanol and methanol.
Eventually, Range Fuels plans to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol annually at the Soperton plant.
Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels, said the ethanol produced here will be more environmentally friendly that corn ethanol because it will rely largely on scrap wood leftover from timber harvests that would otherwise be left to burn or rot.
He also said it's more efficient to produce. The Broomfield, Colo., company's process for turning trees into biofuel uses 75 percent less water than it takes to produce corn ethanol, he said, and requires less energy overall.
Generous analysts say making four gallons of ethanol takes the energy equivalent of three gallons of it. Mandich says the Soperton plant will be able to produce 10 gallons of ethanol from wood using the energy equivalent of a single gallon.
"There's always a bit of butterflies when you start a new process, you're on the world stage," Mandich said. "But it gives you a conviction to even work harder, work smarter and succeed at it, because you know you're going to have a positive impact on the world."
The Range Fuels' plant won't be the last biofuel startup in Georgia. State marketers will begin using a new slogan _ "The Bioenergy Corridor" _ to draw alternative energy companies to Georgia, said Nathan McClure, chief forester with the Georgia Forestry Commission.
With timber prices sagging, the state hopes tree farmers can earn additional revenue by selling their otherwise unusable wood waste as fuel to alternative energy plants, McClure said.
"We're trying to establish an additional product out there to add to what landowners can receive," said McClure. "Sixty percent of Georgia's forests are owned by families and individuals, and they have to rely on something else for income."
Alternative fuel boosters have already lured a biodiesel plant to northwest Georgia with tax incentives. More plants in Camilla, Plains and Ellenwood are under construction.
An ethanol plant in Cordele using waste liquids _ from soft drinks to milk _ is expected to be running next month. The plant will also churn out water as a byproduct after extracting sugars and starch."
Oriģināls
"When people think of biofuel and ethanol, they think of corn and Iowa. But we will be changing that," said Gov. Sonny Perdue, declaring he could "feel history in the making."
The Department of Energy chose the Range Fuels plant in Georgia as one of six projects to receive $385 million in federal funding aimed at jump-starting ethanol production from nontraditional, cellulose-based sources like wood chips, switchgrass and citrus peels. The Georgia plant expects to receive $76 million.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told a crowd of local residents gathered beneath a sprawling white tent that the plant, located 150 miles southeast of Atlanta, will launch "a new phase in our effort to make America more energy secure."
Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, the venture capitalist who is backing the Range Fuels plant, went a step further by saying America needs to "declare a war on oil." Cellulose-based ethanol, he said, "is the weapon we need."
"This is nothing less ... than to replace 100 percent of our oil," Khosla said. "It's not about playing around with five or ten percent."
Range Fuels will have plenty of raw material for its new plant nearby. Soperton is a hub of Georgia's timber industry that bills itself as the "Million Pine City" in a state with 24 million acres of forest.
The Soperton plant will use a chemical process that heats timber waste and mill residue and transforms it into a heavy synthesis gas. The gas, known as "syngas," is then refined into a liquid and turned into ethanol and methanol.
Eventually, Range Fuels plans to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol annually at the Soperton plant.
Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels, said the ethanol produced here will be more environmentally friendly that corn ethanol because it will rely largely on scrap wood leftover from timber harvests that would otherwise be left to burn or rot.
He also said it's more efficient to produce. The Broomfield, Colo., company's process for turning trees into biofuel uses 75 percent less water than it takes to produce corn ethanol, he said, and requires less energy overall.
Generous analysts say making four gallons of ethanol takes the energy equivalent of three gallons of it. Mandich says the Soperton plant will be able to produce 10 gallons of ethanol from wood using the energy equivalent of a single gallon.
"There's always a bit of butterflies when you start a new process, you're on the world stage," Mandich said. "But it gives you a conviction to even work harder, work smarter and succeed at it, because you know you're going to have a positive impact on the world."
The Range Fuels' plant won't be the last biofuel startup in Georgia. State marketers will begin using a new slogan _ "The Bioenergy Corridor" _ to draw alternative energy companies to Georgia, said Nathan McClure, chief forester with the Georgia Forestry Commission.
With timber prices sagging, the state hopes tree farmers can earn additional revenue by selling their otherwise unusable wood waste as fuel to alternative energy plants, McClure said.
"We're trying to establish an additional product out there to add to what landowners can receive," said McClure. "Sixty percent of Georgia's forests are owned by families and individuals, and they have to rely on something else for income."
Alternative fuel boosters have already lured a biodiesel plant to northwest Georgia with tax incentives. More plants in Camilla, Plains and Ellenwood are under construction.
An ethanol plant in Cordele using waste liquids _ from soft drinks to milk _ is expected to be running next month. The plant will also churn out water as a byproduct after extracting sugars and starch."
Oriģināls
2007-11-04
Raksts par to. ka ilgtspējīga transporta biodegvielas politika nevar balstīties uz pārtikas ražošanā izmantojamiem kultūraugiem
"For the U.S. to have a long-term future in ethanol, it can't come from corn, sugar cane or any other food-based crop. Researchers, politicians and farmers are all starting to agree that we either won't grow enough of it or can't afford not to eat it.
While Brazil made its ethanol niche in sugar cane, the next evolutionary step is cellulosic technology — breaking down everything from pulpy cane fiber called bagasse, corn scraps, or almost any nonfood crop into its most basic sugars, and then into fuel.
This will be what makes or breaks ethanol in Louisiana. Drawing on scraps from the state's two largest agricultural sectors, sugar cane and forestry, it could add a new avenue of profit for farmers and mills eager to diversify.
"Whether it's from bagasse or forest residue, I think Louisiana is going to be capable of being more of an aggressive player in biofuels in the future," said Brian Jennings, executive director of the American Coalition for Ethanol. "You could help supply a clean-burning alternative to supplement your oil capabilities."
A race for the recipe
The key to cellulosic taking off in the U.S. is making the process efficient enough to be cheaper than gasoline.
The Department of Energy wants to bring down the overall cost of making cellulosic ethanol to $1.07 a gallon by 2012. That's not even half what it costs now to make, but is less than the current $1.50 cost to make a gallon of corn-based ethanol.
Unlike cane where sugar is ready to go, plant matter is made up of cellulose and hemicellulose, which breaks down into sugars with the help of enzymes.
A handful of companies in the U.S. are racing to engineer an enzyme that eats cellulose and poops alcohol (and carbon dioxide) faster and cheaper than anyone else's.
Forty minutes west of Lafayette in Jennings, a company named Verenium is leading the pack.
Based in Massachusetts, Verenium built a small-scale plant in Jennings in 2006, and began quietly cooking about two tons of local crop waste per day into ethanol. It's one of a few pilot plants in the U.S. acting like chemistry labs for cellulosic ethanol.
In February, Verenium broke ground on a 1.4 million gallon per-year demonstration plant right next to the pilot site. It would be the first cellulosic plant of its size in the U.S., and Verenium officials boast they're at least one year ahead of anyone else in the game.
This new plant should be built in March and start running later next year, but is still just the second of three phases, meant to help Verenium perfect the process on their way to building a commercial-scale plant.
That could make 25 million to 30 million gallons of ethanol per year from biomass as far away as New Iberia, if it were built in Jennings. Sites in Florida and Texas are also being considered for the large, third-phase plant.
"If we built here, this would be the only site with pilot, demonstration and commercial plants all together," said Mark Eichenseer, Verenium's vice president of operations. "It would be a unique place with full teaching potential."
Brazil wants cellulosic
A cellulosic breakthrough is just as important for Brazil's ethanol future as in the U.S., helping limit farming's encroachment on the country's pristine savanna and rainforest lands.
Environmentalists are concerned for both if cane acreage doubles as expected in the next decade. Sugar cane won't move into these areas because the climate's not right, but it could push cattle farmers north into the Amazon.
Researchers are learning how to break Brazil's 128 million tons of cane bagasse per year down into fuel. Sugar mills there, and most in the U.S., burn their bagasse to generate steam and power but do it in an outdated, inefficient way. A lot of the value in that biomass is lost in the process that could be made into more ethanol.
Ivo Fouto's new company, Biocel, is trying to make that process a seamless addition to existing sugar mills.
Biocel's goal is an addition to the mill where bagasse would be diverted, go through a cellulosic breakdown, and the sweet liquid result would circle back to the mill's ethanol refining-end. The same could be done in any Louisiana mill, he said.
"What we want to do is get more value on the same planted area, because more and more the cost of the land is getting higher," Fouto said. "The alternative is going to new frontiers to make new mills and cane, but to do that you need more infrastructure costs. So, the best alternative is to maximize the amount of product you get out of the same planted area."
In some ways bagasse is the fastest track to cellulosic success. It's a feedstock that comes out of the milling process power-washed and clean, requiring a simpler enzyme than corn-field scraps or other dirty crops fresh from the field, which Fouto said may need stronger enzymes and more time to break down.
Cellulosic support needed
Ethanol demand pushed U.S. corn growers to plant more than double the acreage in 2007 of five years ago. But even if the entire corn crop was turned into ethanol it would replace just 12 percent to 15 percent of gasoline consumption, while squeezing the food supply and threatening areas like the Gulf of Mexico, where fertilizer runoff down the Mississippi River is contributing to a dead zone.
The U.S. can sustainably produce 1.3 billion tons per year of cellulosic biomass, using corn and cane leftovers while planting new energy crops like switchgrass on poor soil, according to a 2005 report from the Department of Energy and USDA. It would be enough biomass to replace 30 percent or more of current petroleum needs, and last year the DOE published a "research roadmap" to get it done by 2030.
The new U.S. Energy Bill could give cellulosic technology the government-backing it needs to attract more investment. A Senate bill version would boost the U.S. renewable fuels mandate from 7.5 billion gallons annually by 2012 to 36 billion gallons by 2022 — 21 billion of which would have to be from cellulosic sources.
"In 2005, the Energy Bill sent a necessary signal to the marketplace that we're committed to producing fuel ethanol from corn. This bill would do much the same thing, but for cellulosic," said Matt Hartwig, spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association. "You're providing confidence in the marketplace that a market will be there, giving companies today investing hundreds of millions into this research the firm footing that they need to move forward."
The federal investment is risky but worth the payoff, Hartwig said. The cellulosic process would raise ethanol yields from sugar cane by about one-third an acre, and could do the same for corn, generating more profit for farmers and making ethanol cheaper for consumers.
State in prime position
If an ethanol company focused its cellulosic plant in Louisiana, they'd have access to a buffet of feedstock.
"We can grow a lot," said Mark Zappi, dean of UL's College of Engineering, who heads an alternative energy development program that partners with other universities. "Timber, corn, soy, cane, switchgrass, manure and wastes from it all. Even cracked rice, a secondary product for animal feed, could be used."
Verenium spoke to about 20 Vermilion Parish farmers in late September about growing new crops like "energy" cane in the next two years to provide biomass for the Jennings plant. LSU AgCenter has bred three types of new energy cane that is mostly plant fiber, with just 3 percent sugar inside compared to 20 percent to 30 percent in normal cane.
Verenium wants 1,500 acres of biomass crops planted in 2008 and 15,000 acres in 2009 to support its current demonstration plant, and see if farmers can plant enough to support a larger commercial plant in southwest Louisiana.
Farmers may profit $150 to $200 per acre on an energy crop. The company is considering contracts where they'd even harvest and transport the crop for the farmers.
Those profits are still low, said Howard Cormier, county agent for LSU AgCenter. Energy crops now must compete for farmers' attention with the skyrocketing price of soybeans, in demand for food and biodiesel.
Some farmers can pick up a new crop tomorrow and grow it if the price is right. It's not as easy for Louisiana's sugarcane farmers. Cane's a multiyear commitment, and their harvest equipment doesn't work on just any crop."
Oriģināls
While Brazil made its ethanol niche in sugar cane, the next evolutionary step is cellulosic technology — breaking down everything from pulpy cane fiber called bagasse, corn scraps, or almost any nonfood crop into its most basic sugars, and then into fuel.
This will be what makes or breaks ethanol in Louisiana. Drawing on scraps from the state's two largest agricultural sectors, sugar cane and forestry, it could add a new avenue of profit for farmers and mills eager to diversify.
"Whether it's from bagasse or forest residue, I think Louisiana is going to be capable of being more of an aggressive player in biofuels in the future," said Brian Jennings, executive director of the American Coalition for Ethanol. "You could help supply a clean-burning alternative to supplement your oil capabilities."
A race for the recipe
The key to cellulosic taking off in the U.S. is making the process efficient enough to be cheaper than gasoline.
The Department of Energy wants to bring down the overall cost of making cellulosic ethanol to $1.07 a gallon by 2012. That's not even half what it costs now to make, but is less than the current $1.50 cost to make a gallon of corn-based ethanol.
Unlike cane where sugar is ready to go, plant matter is made up of cellulose and hemicellulose, which breaks down into sugars with the help of enzymes.
A handful of companies in the U.S. are racing to engineer an enzyme that eats cellulose and poops alcohol (and carbon dioxide) faster and cheaper than anyone else's.
Forty minutes west of Lafayette in Jennings, a company named Verenium is leading the pack.
Based in Massachusetts, Verenium built a small-scale plant in Jennings in 2006, and began quietly cooking about two tons of local crop waste per day into ethanol. It's one of a few pilot plants in the U.S. acting like chemistry labs for cellulosic ethanol.
In February, Verenium broke ground on a 1.4 million gallon per-year demonstration plant right next to the pilot site. It would be the first cellulosic plant of its size in the U.S., and Verenium officials boast they're at least one year ahead of anyone else in the game.
This new plant should be built in March and start running later next year, but is still just the second of three phases, meant to help Verenium perfect the process on their way to building a commercial-scale plant.
That could make 25 million to 30 million gallons of ethanol per year from biomass as far away as New Iberia, if it were built in Jennings. Sites in Florida and Texas are also being considered for the large, third-phase plant.
"If we built here, this would be the only site with pilot, demonstration and commercial plants all together," said Mark Eichenseer, Verenium's vice president of operations. "It would be a unique place with full teaching potential."
Brazil wants cellulosic
A cellulosic breakthrough is just as important for Brazil's ethanol future as in the U.S., helping limit farming's encroachment on the country's pristine savanna and rainforest lands.
Environmentalists are concerned for both if cane acreage doubles as expected in the next decade. Sugar cane won't move into these areas because the climate's not right, but it could push cattle farmers north into the Amazon.
Researchers are learning how to break Brazil's 128 million tons of cane bagasse per year down into fuel. Sugar mills there, and most in the U.S., burn their bagasse to generate steam and power but do it in an outdated, inefficient way. A lot of the value in that biomass is lost in the process that could be made into more ethanol.
Ivo Fouto's new company, Biocel, is trying to make that process a seamless addition to existing sugar mills.
Biocel's goal is an addition to the mill where bagasse would be diverted, go through a cellulosic breakdown, and the sweet liquid result would circle back to the mill's ethanol refining-end. The same could be done in any Louisiana mill, he said.
"What we want to do is get more value on the same planted area, because more and more the cost of the land is getting higher," Fouto said. "The alternative is going to new frontiers to make new mills and cane, but to do that you need more infrastructure costs. So, the best alternative is to maximize the amount of product you get out of the same planted area."
In some ways bagasse is the fastest track to cellulosic success. It's a feedstock that comes out of the milling process power-washed and clean, requiring a simpler enzyme than corn-field scraps or other dirty crops fresh from the field, which Fouto said may need stronger enzymes and more time to break down.
Cellulosic support needed
Ethanol demand pushed U.S. corn growers to plant more than double the acreage in 2007 of five years ago. But even if the entire corn crop was turned into ethanol it would replace just 12 percent to 15 percent of gasoline consumption, while squeezing the food supply and threatening areas like the Gulf of Mexico, where fertilizer runoff down the Mississippi River is contributing to a dead zone.
The U.S. can sustainably produce 1.3 billion tons per year of cellulosic biomass, using corn and cane leftovers while planting new energy crops like switchgrass on poor soil, according to a 2005 report from the Department of Energy and USDA. It would be enough biomass to replace 30 percent or more of current petroleum needs, and last year the DOE published a "research roadmap" to get it done by 2030.
The new U.S. Energy Bill could give cellulosic technology the government-backing it needs to attract more investment. A Senate bill version would boost the U.S. renewable fuels mandate from 7.5 billion gallons annually by 2012 to 36 billion gallons by 2022 — 21 billion of which would have to be from cellulosic sources.
"In 2005, the Energy Bill sent a necessary signal to the marketplace that we're committed to producing fuel ethanol from corn. This bill would do much the same thing, but for cellulosic," said Matt Hartwig, spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association. "You're providing confidence in the marketplace that a market will be there, giving companies today investing hundreds of millions into this research the firm footing that they need to move forward."
The federal investment is risky but worth the payoff, Hartwig said. The cellulosic process would raise ethanol yields from sugar cane by about one-third an acre, and could do the same for corn, generating more profit for farmers and making ethanol cheaper for consumers.
State in prime position
If an ethanol company focused its cellulosic plant in Louisiana, they'd have access to a buffet of feedstock.
"We can grow a lot," said Mark Zappi, dean of UL's College of Engineering, who heads an alternative energy development program that partners with other universities. "Timber, corn, soy, cane, switchgrass, manure and wastes from it all. Even cracked rice, a secondary product for animal feed, could be used."
Verenium spoke to about 20 Vermilion Parish farmers in late September about growing new crops like "energy" cane in the next two years to provide biomass for the Jennings plant. LSU AgCenter has bred three types of new energy cane that is mostly plant fiber, with just 3 percent sugar inside compared to 20 percent to 30 percent in normal cane.
Verenium wants 1,500 acres of biomass crops planted in 2008 and 15,000 acres in 2009 to support its current demonstration plant, and see if farmers can plant enough to support a larger commercial plant in southwest Louisiana.
Farmers may profit $150 to $200 per acre on an energy crop. The company is considering contracts where they'd even harvest and transport the crop for the farmers.
Those profits are still low, said Howard Cormier, county agent for LSU AgCenter. Energy crops now must compete for farmers' attention with the skyrocketing price of soybeans, in demand for food and biodiesel.
Some farmers can pick up a new crop tomorrow and grow it if the price is right. It's not as easy for Louisiana's sugarcane farmers. Cane's a multiyear commitment, and their harvest equipment doesn't work on just any crop."
Oriģināls
Pārskats par biodegvielu ražošanas perspektīvām saistībā ar klimata izmaiņām
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