Sustainable Living with Sustainable Energy &Technology-Bioenergy

Malaysian biodiesel may be appearing in Europe, but as yet, it is still banned from the US

2011-11-23T20:00:00.001-08:00

In March this year Mission NewEnergy’s plant in Kuantan became the first biodiesel facility outside of Europe to gain full by International Sustainability Carbon Certification (ISCC) certification.
This certification demonstrates compliance with German and European greenhouse gas (GHG) saving targets and means the Asian producer can export its biodiesel to Europe.
The Renewable Energy Directive requires a minimum of 35% saving in GHG emissions from the use of biofuels and bioliquids to qualify for the subsidies and other privileges. Using Felda’s crude palm oil to produce biofuel results in GHG savings of 47% and 41%, respectively.
Since achieving this certification, Mission NewEnergy has begun selling to Rotterdam. The company has also secured a six month contract for supply commencing in January 2012 (set up for the 2012 European summer) with a global oil major.
The same company has also just become the first jatropha producer to be ISSC certified.
This means the producer can now make the most of the multi-billion dollar opportunity the European market represents, something many other producers are also keen to have.
Vasu R. Vasuthewan, sales and marketing director at Mission NewEnergy and ISCC board member, will be speaking about these experiences at the upcoming Bioenergy International Asia expo & conference in Kuala Lumpur on 7-8 December 2011.
He joins other certification bodies including SGS and Bureau Veritas to give delegates an indepth understanding of what is required to meet European and US sustainability requirements.
As yet Mission NewEnergy has not been able to supply any of its biodiesel to the US. The company submitted an application for its g-Palm to be approved by the EPA on 15 September, and the product is currently under evaluation.
Other key speakers include Khoo Hock Aun, CEO of Cosmo Biofuels, TC Long Tian Ching, Managing Director, Vance Bioenergy, Rosediana Suharto, Indonesian Palm Oil Commission, Azman Bin Ahmad, CEO, Felda-Johore Bulkers and many more.
These industry experts will look at the production capacities and challenges in different Asian markets. For example, the Malaysian government officially launched the much awaited B5 palm oil biodiesel blending mandate on 1 June 2011. This is expected to go nationwide by 2013. With the introduction, Malaysia becomes the second country to implement the use of B5 - Indonesia has been using it since 2006 in selected cities and provinces. This follows Thailand, which introduced a B2 mandate in April 2008 and the Philippines introduced B1 in 2007.
Biofuel producers in Asia are facing mixed fortunes this year due to the impact of raw material costs on the competitiveness of different biofuels around the region. For everyone producing, trading, supplying, servicing or working in this sector, this event cannot be missed.
We hope to see many of you there!
Best wishes,
Rebecca

Biofuels, biomaterials growing at 3X the global GDP rate

2011-11-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

Biofuels, biomaterials growing at 3X the global GDP rate
Jim Lane | October 19, 2011
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Survey says: Biofuels and biomaterials growing rapidly, seeking new friends, markets
In Florida, Biofuels Digest reports that 79 percent of bioenergy executives are more optimistic both about their organization’s prospects for growth and industry growth, than 12 months ago, and that 72 percent are more optimistic about the industry’s prospects than at this time in 2010.
The findings were among the highlights of the Q2 2011 Bioenergy Business Outlook Survey conducted by Biofuels Digest and co-presented by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).
Growing at 3X the global GDP growth rate, jobs up 5% in next 12 months
Overall, the survey painted a picture of an industry that is expecting to grow at nearly triple the growth rate of the world economy (8.9 percent for the industry, compared to 3.2 percent for the total economy), but expecting to find generally less external support in the form of tangible support from government, and less IPO activity.
In Q1 of this year, 39 percent said that favorable government mandates, tariffs or tax credits would be a strong growth driver, but only 31 percent said so in the Fall survey.
“The bottom line: the biomaterials industry is looking for new friends, new markets, new avenues to finance,” commented Jim Lane, editor and publisher of Biofuels Digest. “They understand now that, in order to fulfill their substantial promise, they not only have to pioneer novel technologies, but novel business models and pathways to commercialization.”
The nature of financing is changing. Merger activity is expected to increase. The industry sees the IPO window as substantially less open in the next 12 months than the past year, but report a generally higher success rate in obtaining new finance.
Geographies are changing in importance for them. They generally cite the US, EU and Brazil as the key markets for growth. Fast growing in importance: Australia/New Zealand and the Pacific, cited by 23 percent of respondents as a key growth geography (“outside of your home country”), up from 17 percent in the spring survey and 13 percent in Q1 of this year.
Respondents continue to chill out on the prospects for cellulosic ethanol. Though 50 percent of respondents expect that sector to reach 1 billion gallons in capacity, 67 percent indicated the same belief in Q1 of this year. Holding steady or increasing in importance, among the fuel types: aviation and algae-based fuels.
Revenue growth
Respondents said that they expect their firms to grow by a median 8.4 percent over the next 12 months, down from a median of 11.6 percent in the Q12 survey. Industry revenue is expected to grow 8.9 percent, up from 8.45 percent in the spring survey.
Respondents indicated that they have an average of $128 million in revenues per company.
Job growth
Those that are hiring, expect to hire big. The average job growth rate per company is expected to reach 50 percent in the next 12 months, but the median stands at 4.9 percent, meaning that 50 percent of companies expect to grow their employee base by less than 5 percent. 31 percent of respondents said that they did not expect to add new headcount in the next 12 months.
Respondents indicated that they have, on average, 102 employees per company.
IPO activity
58 percent of respondents said that they expect to see more completed IPOs in the next 12 months, compared to the past 12. That’s sharply down from the 74 percent who answered “yes” in the spring survey.
Mergers and consolidations
77 percent of respondents said that they expected to see more mergers and consolidations in the next 12 months, compared to the past year., That number has risen slowly but steadily throughout the year, up from 74 percent in the spring survey and 72 percent in the Q1 poll.
Financing
48 percent of respondents tried for new financing in the past 12 months, down from 56 percent, and 53 percent of those that tried were successful. 56 percent said that they were going for new financing in the next 12 months.
Growth drivers
Respondents pointed to the rising demand for fuels as the single biggest driver of growth, with 54 percent tipping this as a major factor. 15 percent cited the entry of new companies, a small number but sharply up from the 9 percent cited in the spring survey, while 21 percent said that increased production capacity was driving growth, up from 15 percent in the spring.
Policy
Despite clouds over government activity in the US, 64 percent described the government attitude as supportive, up from 62 percent in the Q2 survey.
Among preferred policies, executives pointed strongly towards a carbon price, with 36 percent of respondents indicating this would be a strong growth driver, and increased subsidies and incentives were cited by 43 percent, up from 37 in the previous survey. 30 percent pointed to fuel-neutral legislation, while only 16 percent indicated that new mandates would drive growth.
Fuels
Among fuels, 50 percent of executives said they expect cellulosic ethanol, to reach 1 billion gallons by 2020, down from 52 percent in the spring. Aviation was flat at 50 percent, biobutanol fell to 23 percent from 28 percent in Q2. Gaining momentum was renewable diesel at 52 percent, up from 50 percent in the Q2 survey, while military biofuels jumped sharply from 34 to 42 percent.
Geography
68 percent of survey respondents are headquartered in the North America, 12 percent in Europe, 8 percent in Asia, 5 percent in Latin America and 3 percent in Australia/New Zealand.
In terms of company operations, 74 percent said that they operated in the US, 30 percent in Canada, 33 percent in the EU, 20 percent in East Aisa, 19 percent in South Asia, and 18 percent in Australia/NewZealand and the Pacific Islands.
Looking at regions that are key to company growth, 44 percent cited the US, up from 37 percent in the spring survey; 35 percent cited Canada, up from 31 percent, and 22 percent cited Australia/New Zealand and the Pacific, up sharply from 17 percent in the spring
….vacancy
Description:
Key Leadership Opportunity - Queensland, Australia
New Phase plant investment - growth industry
Excellent salary package, full relocation and genuine career opportunity

United Petroleum is an independent and successful Australian owned oil company which has recently acquired Dalby Bio-Refinery Limited (DBRL). Leading a highly skilled team at an exciting time for the Ethanol business, DBRL is seeking an experienced General Manager for the management of Health, Safety, and Environment, the plant operations, plant management and capital expansion programmes.

The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:
Proven experience in managing chemical production plants or fuel refineries
A Degree qualification in chemical engineering or chemistry
Production, quality and cost budget achievements
Project management / direction in major capital expenditure
Experience in the development of plant maintenance programmes
Strong financial and commercial acumen
Experience working in a quick decisions based business culture
Previous experience in an Ethanol plant will be a distinct advantage

In return United will be able to offer an exciting opportunity within a growth sector, an excellent salary package and the ability to become instrumental in the business moving forward.

For a confidential discussion please call Peter Starling on +61 7 3405 3346 or +61 (0) 449 903 792. Please forward all applications to peter.starling@kellyexecutive.com.au

Jatropha-Australia recent.

2011-11-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

In Australia, Mission NewEnergy reports they have materially completed their 2011 Jatropha tree planting season, adding 40,264 new acres and 14,331 new Jatropha contract farmers. The Company has reported strong progress on the expansion of its acreage profile and now has a total of 234,587 acres under contract representing a total of over 164 million trees, and 4.7 million barrels of jatropha oil when the trees mature.

Algae is back!

2011-10-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

Source: biofueldigest

Iowa algae and corn ethanol project points the way towards optimizing delivery of feed, fuel, carbon reduction.
In our 10-part series, the Bioenergy Project of the Future, based on extensive interviews with industry leaders, we outlined what is expected to be the multi-product, multi-input structure of biofuels and biomaterials projects in the future.
In step 1, we identified the acquisition of an existing first-generation ethanol plant as an appropriate base, because it had so many assets already in place, including a feedstock aggregation system, relations with growers and customers, rail lines, roads, water, power and so on.
In steps two through nine, project developers would add in a variety of inputs and outputs that would increase the product value, stabilize the input costs, and improve the carbon footprint and impact of the project.
2. Cellulosic biomass feedstock
3. Renewable chemicals
4. Advanced drop-in biofuels
5. Algal fuels and materials
6. Bio-ammonia
7. Renewable diesel
8. Lowest-cost waste feedstocks
9. Solar, wind and other renewables
Bioenergy Projects of the Future, today
The most complete realizations of that vision at scale, to date, are the POET Liberty Project in Emmetsburg, Iowa; the Gevo biobutanol project in Luverne, Minnesota; the Amyris SMA Indústria Química project in Brazil; and the Green Plains Renewable Energy project in Shenandoah, Iowa – in which an algal fuels and biomaterials project in underway in partnership with BioProcessAlgae.
The Green Plains project is by far the least-known of the three – given POET’s position as the largest privately-owned, dedicated ethanol producer, and given the deserved hoopla over Amyris’ and Gevo’s successful IPOs in the past year.
In the POET project, they have taken on the most direct route to the Bioenergy Project of the Future, by adding in cellulosic biomass feedstock, and moving on to the production of fuels in 2013 when the 25 million gallons Project LIBERTY plant officially opens at scale.
In the Amyris project, they have established a joint venture with an existing 8.5 million tonne sugarcane ethanol project in Pradópolis, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, owned by Usina São Martinho. Starting in Q2 2012, Amyris and São Martinho plan for the joint venture plant to produce Biofene, a renewable hydrocarbon, which would be used as an ingredient in detergents, cosmetics, perfumes, industrial lubricants, and diesel. In their case, they are still testing out cellulosic feedstocks, but have added in renewable chemicals and renewable diesel to expand their high-value product portfolio.
In the Gevo project, they have acquired an existing corn ethanol plant as a base, and are busy converting that production over to isobutanol, which is scheduled to commence at-scale in March 2012. In the Gevo case, they have skipped over (for now) the addition of cellulosic feedstock, but likewise added in renewable chemicals and advanced drop-in fuels to diversify the product portfolio.
The Algae Option
Of all of them, the Green Plains Renewable Energy and BioProcess Algae project in Shenandoah is the first to reach step five of the multi-step transition we identified – which is to bolt-on an algal fuels and materials capability to an existing corn ethanol production system
It’s all still at relatively small-scale. The partners will have to prove they can sustainably produce, harvest and process the algae. But it’s significant in three ways, for sure.
First, it massively changes the carbon footprint and impact of a corn ethanol project. Almost one-third of the corn kernel, by weight, is transformed into carbon dioxide in the ethanol fermentation process, and the algae can remediate that usage by absorbing the CO2 in its own growth process. It’s not carbon sequestration – that’s different, because the algae itself will be utilized for fuels and biomaterials. But it is capture and re-use, or a second bite of the cherry, and dilutes the carbon impact by creating a second batch of fuels or materials for the same given bushel of corn.
(You may be wondering how they grow algae at all in the state of Iowa during the colder six months of the year, without using bioreactors that are simply too cost intensive. Ah, that’s where the process heat and steam that comes off an ethanol paint comes in handy.)
Second, it changes the economics of the corn ethanol project. Though it remains exposed to the commodity price swings in the corn market, except to the extent to which it can achieve fixed-price or partially-fixed contracts with growers – it is far less exposed to the commodity price of ethanol. Biodiesel, for example, comes into play, or other bio-based materials made from algae – omega-3 laden fatty acids, for example that make for rich protein.
More importantly, the economics of algae do not work unless a project is using the entire biomass – either for feed, to gasify for fuel, or to provide energy back to the system. So, making algae work as a feed system is important to the economics.
Third, making algae work as a secondary feed source can substantially add to the feed options available to the meat and dairy industries, that have been sore as heck in having to compete with ethanol plants for corn-based feed, and have been running a first class, textbook “fear, uncertainty and doubt” campaign against ethanol that has befooled and beguiled, apparently, most of the US Congress.
So – for many reasons, one of the big question marks is whether algae strains that can tolerate industrial gases will work as an animal feed.
The big question: will it work as animal feed?
So it is significant that, yesterday, Green Plains Renewable Energy and BioProcess Algae announced the successful completion of the first round of algae-based poultry feed trials. The algae strains produced for the feed trials demonstrated high energy and protein content that was readily available, similar to other high value feed products used in the feeding of poultry today.
The algae strains used in the feed trials were grown in BioProcess Algae’s Grower Harvester reactors co-located with Green Plains’ ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa. The test was conducted in conjunction with the University of Illinois led by Dr. Carl M. Parsons, a leading expert in the field of poultry sciences.
“This was the first time we tested algae as a poultry feed-product and many of the qualities found were similar to high protein soymeal, but with higher energy content,” said Dr. Parsons. In addition to the high energy and protein content, the testing found amino acid profiles similar to existing feed components. The University of Missouri analyzed the results and provided an independent third-party validation.
“Based on these first-round tests, we will continue the development of this and other high-quality animal feed products from our algae. We will proceed with further testing for poultry and begin evaluating a replacement product for fishmeal,” said Tim Burns, Chief Executive Officer of BioProcess Algae. “We can now look into the opportunity to use algae as a ‘carrier’ for higher value products going into poultry feed such as Omega-3s.”
Next steps
So, there’s reason for increased optimism on the algal fuels and materials front. Next steps for BioProcess Algae include further feed trials, and more importantly, continuing to knock down the production cost. Their current costs, at the scale they are producing, are sure to be too high, but how fast they knock them down in their science of growth and engineering of a low-cost production system will be key. We expect that, if they had a path to parity with $80 oil already figured out, the public might well have heard about it.
For now, we stay tuned.

INDONESIA TRASHED RSPO!!!

2011-10-07T14:54:00.000-07:00

Papua New Guinea is two-fold mighty in renewable resources: The first is the coffee in the highlands regions and the Palm oil in the coastal regions. The latter had a huge expansion lately, NBPO, Higaturu,Poliamba and Hargy are some big name oil palm industries in PNG moving rural development,services into the MOST RURAL lands, locations where government services can NEVER reach. More oil palm development is coming, lately PNG government invested 2 billion kina in the oil palm Sepik region, those wild savannah,unproductive idle sepik plans will be blooming with palm trees in the couple of months. Newswires had it that huge ares in the Famouse Markham valley had been surveyed, registered for mammoth palm oil fields.Finally, Patrict Putriach MP for Pomio is already setting out palm oil fields and milling. Putting all those together, a couple of years, all of these regions will be producing oil palm, some million tons yearly.

Our neighbour, Indonesia is the largest oil palm producer after Malaysia, possibly, PNG may fall between one of them, or after them. However, there was a very significant development that have surfaced in regard to RSPO-round sustainable palm oil, a volunatry organisation that monitors oil palm industry. The news below is latest, perhaps PNG can start thinking about...'whether or not' our home land industries-oil palm, can come under RSPO guide lines.

One has the freedom, capacity to decide and enforce,monitor and control. By the way, the news indicates there is conflicting ideas on RSPO.

SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/9876273

JAKARTA, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki) has withdrawn its membership from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), after the world's top producing country forged ahead with its own sustainability scheme, both groups said on Monday.
The RSPO is an industry body of consumers, green groups and plantation firms that aims to promote use of sustainable palm oil products and many major European palm oil buyers say the RSPO will continue to be the international sustainability benchmark.
Many palm oil producers have criticised the RSPO for being too much in favour of green groups, and both Malaysia and Indonesia are pushing on with their own schemes.
"We have been considering resigning from RSPO through a long process of discussion involving board of (our) directors and board of commissioner," Fadhil Hasan, executive director of Gapki told Reuters.
"Finally, we decided to resign from RSPO because we already have ISPO," he said. "We sent the letter of resignation on Thursday last week."
Unlike the RSPO, the Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) will punish by law those found to be breaking ISPO rules, a ministry official said last November.
ISPO auditors will examine the entire operations of palm oil firms as part of its certification.
"We choose ISPO because it is mandatory and every palm oil producer has to follow ISPO," said Hasan. "The RSPO is voluntary."
Palm output in Indonesia, which overtook Malaysia as No. 1 palm oil producer in 2007, is expected to be 23 million tonnes and exports will be about 17 million tonnes this year, the Indonesian palm industry forecasts.
"It is regretful that an association representing Indonesian palm oil producers has decided to relinquish their presence in RSPO," the industry group said on its website. "However, we accept their decision as the RSPO is a voluntary membership based organisation."
The RSPO said its secretariat is working closely with Indonesian producer members to have an interim representative for Indonesian growers on the RSPO Executive Board until a new representative is formally chosen at the RSPO General Assembly in November.

CLIMATE CHANGE
The industry has come under increasing pressure to improve practices and halt deforestation blamed for speeding up climate change, ruining watersheds and destroying wildlife.
Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART), which runs the Indonesia palm oil operations of its Singapore-listed parent Golden Agri-Resources, was given a mixed score card last year in an independent environmental audit after Greenpeace accused the firm of clearing peat land and forests that sheltered endangered species.
The palm oil producer said in February, however, it would work with the government and a non-profit body, and Golden Agri then developed a Forest Conservation Policy (FCP) in collaboration with The Forest Trust (TFT), a non-profit organisation that seeks to promote green business methods.
Last month, Nestle, the world's biggest food group, resumed palm oil purchases from SMART, showing that the palm oil firm's efforts to boost its green credentials by teaming up with a conservation group have paid off.
Before this, an Indonesian moratorium on new permits to clear forests, came into force in May for an initial two years.
The RSPO has set up green standards for production, with volume of its certified sustainable palm oil on the market rising from 1.3 million tonnes in 2009 to 2.2 million in 2010.
RSPO-certified crude palm oil production capacity is about 5 million tonnes a year, or 10 percent of global output, the body's head said last month.

PNG, Jatropha (Biofuel) or pay more-Cheap days are Gone-period!

2011-10-05T20:39:00.000-07:00

Below are latest possibly the begining from the people-PNG government has to wake up and realise that cheap fuel days are gone, reserves are scarce and expensive to be off shore.

Do biofuels or die!

Expert: Era of cheap oil over
Source:
The National - Thursday 06th October, 2011
THERE are enormous oil and gas resources available in the world today, but the challenge is to convert that into reserves that can last another century, International Society of Petroleum Engineers president Alain Labastie said yesterday at the University of PNG.
He said the era of cheap oil was now over and the cost of producing other new types of oil products would continue to increase, leading to oil prices increasing too.
Labastie was visiting the geology final year students for an inspirational talk on how the energy and petroleum industry looked globally.
He said at the moment, the production cost of making new oil products will require a lot of technology, capital and staff.
“With the rising cost of production, the oil prices will also continue to increase but will never fall below the US$70 a barrel mark, as this will mean an operational loss for oil companies.
“This is the long-term problem for all of us. Because when production stops, we will all stop as well and the economy will not grow.
“As for staff with the knowledge on how to do this, there was a good chance that in three to five years, companies would be bidding for qualified staff.
“It is already happening in Canada and parts of the world where skilled manpower is tendered,” he said.
Labastie encouraged the students to work hard in their field of study as the energy and petroleum industry was an important part in economic growth.
He said through the industry, new ways were being sought to address the carbon dioxide emissions caused by the industry and the end-users of energy products.
“This is an opportunity for more jobs to be created and for more people to be skilled in this work.
“Growth is fuelled by energy and when the economy is doing well, any financial crisis is disregarded by the world’s need for oil and that I am optimistic about,” he added.
ESP engineer backs jatropha plan
Source:

The National - Thursday 06th October, 2011
By ANCILLA WRAKUALE
A LOCAL chemical engineer is supporting the jatropha bio-fuel initiative because it has more value and other benefits.
Chemical engineer John Wafi from East Sepik said the jatropha bio-fuel project being advocated by another East Sepik engineer, Thompson Benguma, was a good project as it could reduce the cost of electricity in households and at the same time help alleviate poverty by generating income.
Wafi said the project could be adopted by the government as its rural electrification programme.
He said jatropha was miles ahead of palm oil, and appealed to policy makers to help introduce and develop the crop as a national industry.
He said jatropha, unlike palm oil, gave off nitrogen through its dried leaves, thus contributing to soil fertility.
Wafi said oil palm depleted soil nutrients.
He said a jatropha project was sustainable unlike fossil oil and gas.
Wafi said jatropha had many other by-products that included soap and washing detergent.
He said jatropha was also good for intercropping.
The government should support this project by providing the needed capital to develop it into a sustainable industry, Wafi said.

Australias backyard teaming on Algae Biotechnology-Algae Biofuels!

2011-09-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Companies, operating in Outback Australia, personify promise and hardiness in the microalgae corner of industrial biotech
The birth, life and death of a global micro-algae industry has been written so many times that it must seem to many readers like a microscopic version of Buddhist reincarnation, the lifecycle of the phoenix, or out-takes from the motion picture Groundhog Day.
It has all the elements of classic literature. Promising strains plucked from obscurity by sometimes mysterious benefactors, like the stories of Oliver Twist or Pip; tales of prodigal powers of growth, presumed fortune and mis-spent youth, out of the chronicles of young Prince Hal and Falstaff; and lost opportunity and regret straight out of Sentimental Education.
Gumption and Darwinian times
But out of all literature, it is the qualities that Margaret Mitchell essayed in Gone With the Wind that most closely apply to the entrepreneurs, renowned investors, gold-diggers, celebrated scientists, quacks, loyal supporters and camp followers who have tackled the development of micro-algae, plankton and cyanobacteria as an alternative to fossil oil and gas. We live not in Dickensian times, but in Darwinian days.
“What qualities are in those who fight their way through triumphantly that are lacking in those who go under?” Mitchell wrote. “I only know that the survivors used to call that quality ‘gumption.’ So I wrote about the people who had gumption and the people who didn’t.”
Of the approximately one zillion people, companies, science-based organizations, governments, or lunatics out for an airing that have taken up the development of micro-algae, the survivors share one thing in common with the microcellular strains they have found or enhanced – and that is a remarkable level of gumption indeed. They live in Darwinian conditions indeed.
Three ventures, with operations located in Australia, personify those qualities of gumption as well as any three in the world: MBD Energy, Muradel and Aurora Algae.
For sure, there are numerous other ventures utilizing micro-algae as a platform technology or as the end product – Martek, Aquatic Energy, Solazyme, Aquaflow Bionomic, Phycal, Cellana, Sapphire Energy, Solazyme, Solix, and AlgaeTec just to name an impressive few out of the many that have been profiled over the years in Biofuels Digest. Not to mention an array of research institutions and consortia working on DOE, DARPA or other governmental and private research projects.
Out in the Never-Never
But there’s something so highly appealing about these three companies, operating in the “Never-Never” of outback Australia. They have as hardy a tale of survival in the wilderness as the celebrated novel We of the Never-Never, that in 1908 first popularized the “survival against the odds” genre of outback Australia tale-telling.
Where are they? MBD, developing in South-Eastern Queensland in the shadow of the coal-fired Tarong Power Station about 200 kilometers northwest of Brisbane; and two, Muradel and Aurora, along the forbidding northwest Australian coastline at Karratha, in Western Australia.
Australia’s prized economic success stories, its massive coal and iron mining industries, are the source of the CO2 for all three ventures, though Aurora Algae and Muradel are working with open-pond systems, while MBD is working with carbon capture strategy to grab CO2 from power station flue gas. Flat, open land and plenty of sunshine – well, Australia is long-renowned for having plenty of both.
The water? In the case of the closed systems of MBD, the water source is less critical in nature, but in any case Queensland is the wettest state in the country, and as well known for its floods as other parts of the country are known for searing drought. In the case of Muradel and Aurora Algae, they are focused on saline algae, and have the (essentially unlimited) source of the Indian Ocean near to hand.
Muradel
Muradel is remarkable, in a world fitfully awash in cash-laden algal research operations, for having constructed their first micro-pilot on a budget of $2,000, cobbled together out of the resources of the University of Adelaide and Mudroch University (hence, “Muradel”). $3.3 million in funding subsequently arrived for a full-scale pilot, which was constructed up in Karratha, and Muradel Pty Ltd was incorporated in December 2010 as a joint venture between Murdoch University, Adelaide Research, Innovation Pty Ltd and SQC. The company is now going through the process of raising cash for a demonstration of its technology.
“We have achieved production rates of 50 tonnes per hectare per year,” Project Leader Professor Michael Borowitzka from Murdoch University told the Adelaidean last year, “over half of which is converted to oil. These high production rates are expected to increase at the new pilot plant due to the even better climatic conditions in Karratha.” Head engineer David Lewis, of the University of Adelaide, confirmed at the Alternative Fuels Summit that the project’s pilot is fully operational and meeting project goals. Last year, Muradel indicated that it had brought biofuels production costs to under $4 per kilo.
Aurora Algae
Aurora Algae recently completed the raising of another $22 million, bringing its total fund raise to $72 million so far. The company has moved away from being a biofuels pure play to focusing on nutraceuticals. The newest funding round will go towards the building of its first commercial scale plant in Australia.
Aurora Algae announced that it has awarded the initial engineering contract for design and construction for the Company’s commercial facility in Maitland, Western Australia.
Recently, the company announced an option agreement on over 1,500 acres of land located near its demonstration facility in Karratha. With the award of the initial engineering contract, Aurora Algae is one step closer to constructing a full-scale commercial facility equipped to manufacture thousands of tonnes of algae-based biomass annually.
The Aurora process is expected to produce 15 tonnes of biomass per month in the demonstration plant from 6 one-acre ponds, suggesting that volumes could increase to 37,500 tonnes of algal biomass per month at a maxed-out commercial facility. At 25 percent oil content, that could provide up to 33 million gallons of algal oil in addition protein and feed biomass. By contrast, 15,000 acres of soybeans would generally provide less than 1 million gallons of vegetable oil.
MBD Energy
Last year, the Queensland state government announced a $1 million investment for a trial which uses algae to soak up carbon emissions from a coal fire power station. Premier Anna Bligh said Tarong Power Station near Kingaroy will be the first coal-fired power station in Australia to try the technology as part of the $5 million MBD Energy Limited Tarong trial.
Ms Bligh said that as part of the trial MBD Energy would start construction on a one hectare algal biomass display plant beside Tarong Power Station, 180km north-west of Brisbane, in December.
Premier Bligh said MBD Energy had also agreed to build facilities next to power stations in Victoria (Loy Yang A) and New South Wales (Eraring Energy), with construction underway first at Tarong.
The Tarong Power Station test plant, once fully built, is expected to capture about 700 tonnes per annum of CO2, produce one tonne of algal biomass per day, 120 tonnes per annum of algal oil and 240 tonnes per annum of algal meal by 2012. Ultimately, MBD expects to expand the facility to 80 hectares by 2013, producing 3 Mgy of algal based fuel and up to 25,000 tons of algal meal.
The closely-watched algal technology developer OriginOil is a strategic partner and supplier to the MBD Project. OriginOil announced in January that it received its first commercial order to deploy its algae oil extraction system in an industrial setting. MBD Energy (MBD) recently committed to purchase an initial OriginOil extraction unit for piloting at one of Australia’s three largest coal-fired power plants. MBD Energy expects OriginOil technology to support a pilot Bio-CCS (Bio-based Carbon Capture and Storage) algal synthesizer system at Queensland’s Tarong Power Station.
Separation technologies, bioreactors and more: special microalgae features
Investing in Innovation, and betting against it
The progress of these three companies, out in the Never-Never, not to mention the persistent innovation n the space represented by the technical artucles we are publishing today, brings us to the “never, never”so often uttered by investors, declining participation in the latest algal project submissions from developers around the world.
Is “No” a safe answer? Isn’t “No” a bet on the future of technology, just as much as check invested in a venture is a bet. – only is is a bet against algae as a fuels, chemicals, feed, nutraceuticals or food platform.
It is a bet against gumption itself and, as we have seen in the case of Solazyme (where the Seties B investors – the $8 million round that is not unlike Muradel’s needs, in scope, bought in for $1.01 per share, for a stock selling for $14 today), there is a lot more non-buyers remorse going around than buyer’s remorse.

Do we need the RSPO?

2011-09-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

Do we need the RSPO?
A QUESTION OF BUSINESS
By P. GUNASEGARAN

Oil palm growers may have done the wrong thing when they let the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil decide what kind of palm oil is sustainable
IN April 2008, Unilever, one of the world's single largest consumers of vegetable oil, came under attack. Its UK offices came under siege from orang utans, or rather Greenpeace activists dressed as those adorable, cuddly creatures.
Eight of them managed to climb on to a balcony at one of the Unilever buildings and their antics in orange furry suits and monkey masks to make them resemble those “people of the forest” got coverage around the world. A great gimmick.
Greenpeace's beef, which is not entirely correct: Forests, the orang utan's habitat, are being cleared in Borneo to be replanted with oil palm and that Unilever is a large purchaser of the resultant palm oil.
Basically the non-governmental organisation or NGO was lobbying consumers to boycott a range of consumer products from Unilever and indirectly putting pressure on all palm oil growers worldwide by asking whether they produce “sustainable” palm oil or not.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil or RSPO was formed in 2004 out of similar pressure over years. Basically it is a grouping of oil palm growers, users and interested parties which has now agreed on certification as to what constitutes sustainable palm oil.
That's a long list but at the top of that is one condition that palm oil should not be produced from the clearing of forests. Others include social criteria such as treating employees well, not displacing indigenous people etc.
Malaysia has officially stopped clearing virgin forests and apparently that has resulted in Malaysian producers considering themselves as having an advantage relative to Indonesian producers. Hence, some of them believed they could get a competitive advantage over Indonesian producers if they go the RSPO way and get their palm oil certified as sustainable.
But they may have shot themselves in the foot. Increasingly, they may be finding that some of the conditions imposed are onerous and difficult in terms of implementation and that the RSPO is being controlled by other interests and they have little say in what it does.
For instance, how does one ensure that all production going into a mill or a refinery is from certified sources and can one get enough input even then? If supply is “contaminated” with a bit of uncertified oil palm or palm oil, does the entire batch become uncertified?
And who are these people who certify the oil?
That oil palm growers have allowed themselves to be pressured and seduced to believe that RSPO-certified palm oil is the key to their survival may turn out to be one of their bigger mistakes in life, something they may have cause to regret unless they do something about it.
The RSPO is comprised of a whole lot of members other than growers. The growers do not exert significant influence over the body and have instead relinquished this to a body of people who may not be that independent, especially in terms of their stance towards deforestation and issues affecting oil palm growers.
According to the RSPO website, Malaysia has 95 members and Indonesia 79 out of 495 members. That's 37% in total but European members total 280, accounting for 57%.
Indonesia and Malaysia produce some nine tenths of the world's palm oil but their members in the RSPO total less than half that.
Or take composition by category. Oil palm growers have just 87 members, a mere 18% but palm oil processors and traders have 191 members or 39% while consumer goods manufacturers and retailers have 186 members or 38%. Again, growers are swamped.
Perhaps there are executive board provisions for growers, but no. It looks bad, real bad. They have four allocations, the same as for NGOs, with two for environmental ones and two for social ones. Palm oil processors, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, and bankers and investors have two each, again swamping growers.
That means oil palm growers are overwhelmed three to one by others on the executive board. The current secretary general in fact was a representative of WWF International on the executive board from 2007 to 2009. Can growers expect their interests to be well-represented under such circumstances? No, not at all.
How growers have allowed themselves to be so weakly represented on the RSPO to the extent that they have much less say than others is impossible to understand. At the least, they should have had an equal representation it's their product which is being certified.
A look at two videos on the RSPO website indicate the bias towards deforestation and the obsession with orang utans, the primary marketing tool of NGOs in their fight against use of palm oil in developed countries.
One is by the WWF, an organisation which routinely raises funds by alleging that many animals, including the orang utan, are near extinction. Predictably, the orang utan is again showcased in this video and the message is forests cannot be cleared. Many Malaysians will challenge the view that orang utans are an endangered species in Malaysia.
How forest resources are used is a sovereign right and others are entitled to object if the clearing is done in an improper manner. The RSPO cannot be the final arbiter of how the forests should be used which needs to balance the development needs of the country and the need to maintain eco biodiversity. Even RSPO's own video rolls out the orang utan yet again although the message is not so strident in terms of forest clearing and makes some admission of oil palm's advantages over other crops.
Growers have one thing going for them and it may be more important than any other economics. The demand for vegetable oil is skyrocketing from year to year as demand from China and India and other developing countries increases rapidly. Certification won't matter in scarcity.
Palm oil growers have put themselves in a tough spot but it is quite easy to get out of it. Malaysia and Indonesia produce nine tenths of the world's palm oil. If both these countries don't participate in RSPO there is no RSPO. Period.
Managing editor P Gunasegaram wonders why there can't be roundtables on sustainable production for a whole lot of other goods and services such as laptops, notebooks and tablets, cars, trucks, trains and planes, Hollywood movies, TV serials and singing stars, subprime mortgages, Wall Street bonuses and derivatives the list can go on and on

Breaking news: Australia's $23/ton carbon pollution tax announced!

2011-09-13T00:24:00.000-07:00

The Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and woken up mightily to tax the polluters and pay the forest keepers allowances.

Ms Gillard said the Parliament had been debating climate change for decades and most Australians now agreed the world was warming.
That was caused by carbon pollution, she said, and the best way to make the polluters pay was to put a price on carbon.
"Today we move from words to deeds," the Prime Minister told Parliament today.
The package of bills will establish a fixed $23-a-tonne price on carbon pollution from mid-2012.
An emissions trading scheme with a floating price will begin three years later.
There will be compensation for most households and big business to help them adjust.
A separate piece of legislation will support steel workers through a $300 million transformation plan.
The Government today will also refer its carbon price legislation to a joint parliamentary inquiry which is scheduled to report back by early October.
Labor expects both houses to have passed the bills by mid-November.
The Government received more than 300 submissions on its draft legislation.
"I firmly believe that no stone remains unturned, no voice unheard, so this is the plan for Australia's carbon price," Ms Gillard said.
The Government had taken "a modern policy approach with efficient allocation and incentive to innovate".
It will start with a fixed price then move to "a well-designed market".
Other features include assistance for emissions-intensive trade exposed industries, abatement at lowest economic costs and links to international markets.
The Prime Minister said this was "all adding up to a new bottom line where polluters pay".
Ms Gillard said about 500 polluters would pay carbon tax.
Those included entities that emitted 25,000 tonnes or more of carbon pollution a year and large users of natural gas.
Ms Gillard said natural gas suppliers, such as retailers, would pay a carbon price on emissions that arose from the use of natural gas by smaller customers.
"Around 500 entities will have mandatory liability under the carbon pricing mechanism - around 500 polluters will pay," she said.
Ms Gillard said the fixed price, set out in legislation, provided business with certainty and allowed for a manageable transition to carbon pricing.
After three years the scheme automatically moves to a fully flexible cap and trade emissions trading scheme.
"From this time on, a cap will be placed on national emissions and the carbon price will be determined by the market," she said.
Ms Gillard said in the first three years of the floating price period there would be a price cap and a price floor to limit market volatility and reduce risk for business as they gain experience of the new regime.
The Prime Minister reiterated that Australia aimed to reduce emissions by five per cent on 2000 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.
"Achieving this target will take more than 17 billion tonnes of carbon pollution out of the atmosphere between now and 2050," Ms Gillard said.
That will mean in four decades' time nine out of 10 tonnes of pollution that would otherwise have been spewed into the atmosphere won't be produced.
Ms Gillard said Australia's carbon price regime would be linked to international schemes so businesses could more cheaply offset their liabilities overseas.
But they'll be limited to using offshore credits for half their obligation.
Ms Gillard said to determine liability under the carbon price mechanism, information would be drawn from the national greenhouse and energy reporting system.
The greenhouse gas pollution measurement system was developed under the Howard government, and started in September 2007.
The carbon pricing mechanism would not apply to agricultural emissions, legacy emissions from landfill facilities and emissions from landfill facilities that close before July 1, 2011.
The legislation recognised the different ways businesses structured their affairs, and deals specifically with joint ventures that were a common feature of resources and energy projects .
It also allowed businesses to transfer liability under the mechanism within their corporate group.
Ms Gillard said the Government would seek to close around 2000 megawatts of highly-polluting generating capacity by 2020.
"Closing down some of our high pollution coal-fired capacity makes room for investment in low-pollution plant and starts the transformation of our energy sector in a responsible way," she said.
The carbon pricing arrangements would be supported by robust and independent governance arrangements.
The Clean Energy Bill 2011 set out the core provisions, architecture and review arrangements.
Consequential amendments will be made to a range of other laws dealing with climate change, economic regulation and taxation.
Ms Gillard said 40 per cent of the revenue raised by the climate price would be used to support emissions-intensive, trade-exposed industries.
The Productivity Commission will regularly review a jobs and competitiveness program.
"(This) will ensure that our industries are in the best position possible to manage a smooth transition to a clean energy future," Ms Gillard said.
The Government will also support energy suppliers to maintain supply during their transition to clean energy.
Ms Gillard said the price impact of the carbon tax would be modest on families but she understood family budgets were tight.
As a result, most of the money raised from the carbon tax would be used to fund tax cuts, pension increases and higher family payments.
"Every older Australian who relies solely on the pension will be among the four million Australian households who get a buffer for the budget, with the extra payments being 20 per cent higher than their average extra costs," she said.
Tax reform was also on the agenda, with the tax-free threshold tripled.
Ms Gillard said 450,000 people - earning between $16,000 and $20,500 a year - would pay no tax at all.
"A tax reform which rewards work - which builds on our budget changes to lift workforce participation and spread the benefits and dignity of work to every Australian," she said.
Ms Gillard threw down the gauntlet to the Opposition, saying the coalition would be judged by history if it voted against the legislation.
"There is a reason these matters are decided in an open vote," she said.
"It is so every member in this place can be judged.
"Judged on the decisions they make here, judged on where they stand on the great issues of our national debate."
Ms Gillard said politicians would be judged by Australians now and in the future.
The final test was not whether you were on the right side of the short-term politics or polls.
"The final test is this: are you on the right side of history?
"And in my experience the judgment of history has a way of speaking sooner than we expect."
The prime minister finished by harking back to the "It's time" election campaign of former Labor great Gough Whitlam.
"It's time to deliver the action on climate change we need," she said.
"To do what is best for Australian families, what is best for future generations, what is best for this country.
"I know we can get there."

Giving the forest stewards rewards-KEEPING THE FOREST-REDD+ way forward!

2011-09-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

The Copenhagen climate change conference had shaped up on the potential REDD+ clarifications and its working mechanism. A binding final agreement was not achieved due to lack of international consensus. The two most important obstructions that stand in the way were reduction targets and financing. A successful REDD+ will depend on successful conclusions on these two issues. Such successful conclusions need good REDD+ programs and devoted international support. REDD can move but without these important support/promotion, a true conclusion is sluggish.
However, negotiators have reached some consensus on some vital key points, these issues are likely going to be part of the REDD agreements reached. The negotiators at the-fifteen conference of the parties ( COP15) meeting used the REDD+ scope instead of REDD so to cover forest operations that that do more good as well as those that do less good. However, conservation should be limited to and excludes food plantation such as oil palm,coffee,tea, reference to UN declaration of right to the indigenous people(UNDRIP) and finally must have full participation of the local people in the planning/implementation and projects benefits.
The following keys have yet to be discussed are such as REDD+ financing and benefit sharing mechanism, its methodologies for the monitoring ,reporting and verification, scale and strategy for implementation.
On the 10th December 2010, Cancun, Mexico was the UN climate Change Conference, it was here that 194 delegates from every country meet to make progress towards the change for the better to improve mitigation and adaptation to climate change, although the bindings are not much stronger, the hopes are higher that the delegates have at least come to meaningful negotiations on important decisions- and so have had achieved something the forest stewards can be enhanced to protect wild life for next couple of decades or even further sustaining the climate change at large.
Since that countries worldwide have in one way or the other gathered together policy makers, scientist, NGOs, private and even large media-wide campaign and awareness on climate change. Policy makers winding up control ,monitoring guidelines, experts draw up technical assistance and governments even making known new taxes-Carbon tax. These are development to fine tune for mass conservation programs worldwide- which will come one day and is mandatory!
In summary, the world has taken so much from the environment without giving anything in return ever since beginning of civilization or industrial revolution. The writer believes that protecting the wild life, conserving and preserving even if it costly is worthy. REDD+ is a way forward, villagers and forest owners direly wait to see quicker developments on REDD/REDD+.

Sustainable environment, sustainable living today and future-REDD+ & Hatema rainforest conservation Project

2011-08-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

The famouse Asaro river was a very fast flowing river with much in quantity, those stones were never seen ten years back, impact of Climate change is obvious with low water quantity in the once beautiful ferocious Asaro river, photo July 2010, By Gene Drekeke Iyovo.

The UN framework on the Reduction Emission from Forest deforestation , degradation has moved towards conserving the tropical rainforests which is additional to sustainable forestry practices from deforestation and degradation mechanism. That is including conservation in REDD making it into REDD+, This brings in large potential of carbon sequestration through this conservation projects. Protecting the wild and its wilderness on both the land and sea are of critical importance as large amount of carbon dioxide are locked up, act as stores keeping down the severe impact of carbon dioxide to wider spectrum environment, including our regional climates.
Not only making cleaner fuel-biofuels but conserving this natural rainforest in the tropics is mandatory for cleaner today and cleaner future. Researches indicate that about 20% of green house gas emission come from tropical rainforest deforestation (http://www.wbcsd.org/Plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?ObjectId=MzQxNDc) which is more than the entire transport sector worldwide.
This prompted world organizations that conserving the rainforest could take a big bite in the green house gas emissions. The conservation of rainforest could profit massive biodiversity as well as social welfare of the indigenous communities. The smart approach, rewarding the surrounding communities or in business terms the stakeholders so that they would become stewards of the rainforest into the next millennium.
Providing an incentive to protect tropical forests would save endangered species, support the often impoverished communities, and help solve the climate crisis, all at the same time. Devising a funding mechanism in the REDD+ that would efficiently bring the benefits of forest stewardship to countries especially the forest owners is the way forward in making our climate, environment life suiting for this and next millennia.
More helpful in the rainforest conservation efforts, more leaders are getting the pictures painted to get conserving acts quicker. Prince Charles of UK is such a leader, who took world leaders like Italy Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, France President Nicholas Sarkozy and UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon to provide and emergency financial package for tropical rainforest.
PNG’s neighbor country, Australia has been more vocal proposing for a forest carbon-market mechanism that is making the national government to issue forest credits for industrial activities cut their emissions below internationally agreed levels.
Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea Somare Government had set up a state entity for control and management office ’climate change ‘.
These developments are promising, the need and cries of the indigenous communities, communities whose survival is entirely forest dependent, while forest is everything to none in the wide communities have at least the light shedding on the horizon. One of such community doing volunteer rainforest conservation is Hatema Rainforest in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. This conservation effort by traditional landowner groups had sought international support after I had much public community awareness on the diminishing rainforest biodiversity, lower rainfall, low river currents and the climate change issues. The communities comprising of more than 15 000 individuals, more than ten tribal clans extending a perimeter more than 50 km had agreed totally for their rainforest to be seriously considered for conservation. Since then (2010), the association of traditional landowners have seek government and international help.
The association had landed their conservation project to a European Energy Technology Solution company that specializes in carbon credits and forest farming technologies (http://www.carbon-credits.net/).

The photo above shows Gene Drekeke Iyovo discussing and making climate change awareness, rainforest conservation for the Hatema Conservation association, bringing together the forest stewards, different clans and tribal groups, educating and coaching the importance of biodiversity, REDD+, conservation benefits and potential projects outcomes, Location, Miruma Village,Asaro, Eastern Highlands Province, Papaua New Guinea. July 2010.

The Hatema Conservation area below, more than 90 000 ha of thick virgin tropical rainforest under threat from minings, on the east, loggings and illigal activites on the west, between the borders of Eastern Highlands, Chimbu Province and Madang has been negotiated for conservation for 30 years or more.

At the end of the day, the rainforest conservation solves a chain of problems, poverty alleviation through monetary returns from the conservation projects, biodiversity preservation and most importantly the bigger part is limiting the climate change to manageable level for now and the future. The Hatema rainforest group, approximate total area of 100 000 ha or nearest, comprised of 3 % low literacy by population has awaken to the reality of climate change due to constant awareness, now with clear idea on climate change and its immediate and long term effects, the communities are united to closing conservation deals for a successful rainforest preservation and conservation for now and the immediate future.
The writer, who is the promoter of the conservation project, believes that conservation is one ‘chance to go for a chance’ to limit or bring under desirable condition the effects of climate change. Generating such united idea from a wider tribal communities in Papua New Guinea with diverse cultures and language cost much sweat and require the guts. The lower level and higher leve, the former is financing power to achieve the desire of the latter, the latter have the commodity for the desired result even the former desired. Communal, bilateral and mutual cooperation will bring about the successful REDD+ to conclusion. The Hatema conservation group is one such community desiring to bring conservation to successful conclusion, it is believed that other communities in the region can achieve conservation of their wilderness. At the end of the day, we care for the world in which we live. We live and learn so we can live.

EU Biofuel mandates

2011-08-23T15:47:00.001-07:00

Biofuel mandates means mandatory-a requirement that blending of the fuel component, that is a portion from biofuel and the fossil fuel or petroluem products.

It is by law that biofuel is a must, biofuel is produced from organis mass or biomass. Markets and demand has been raising for the past 5 years. The following countries in EU have mandated biofuel by percentages from 2010 to 2011. Besides it is expected to increase year by year until world governments are satisfied with climate change and its impacts.

Finland: from 4 % to 6 %,
Poland: from 5.75 % to 6.2 %
Italy: from 3.5 to 4 %
Spain: from 5.83 % to 7 %
Bulgaria: from 3.5 % to 5 % (by vol.)
Denmark adopts a first-ever obligatory quota of 3.5 %

Biofuel sales went up by 13.6 per cent to 13.9 million tonnes in 2010, but UFOP says that even the new increases will not utilize more than 65 percent of EU biodiesel capacity.

Hundreds and thojusand of jobs are created solving unemployment problems in the respective countries.

In PNG, we either buy/use the ready made biofuel blended fossil fuel or we produce and blend. The ball is in our hands.

The Great Jatropha Race

2011-08-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

I have been foretelling from the very begining that Jatropha could become something better than coffee. Now we have within sort time Jatropha how fast and spread it has grown for biofuel.
With new research on environmental and biomedical benefits of Jatropha is appearing regularly, it’s no wonder that the race for patents is heating up, and fast.

Last year Mission New Energy began a joint venture with JOil Pte Ltd, whose major shareholders are Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore; TATA Chemicals and Toyota Tsusho, heavy hitters all with biofuels production and feedstock breeding experience. Mission brought to the table its 194,000 acres of Jatropha Curcas under contract farming agreements in India, spread across five states and generating sustainable employment for some 140,000 previously impoverished farmers–the social mission that, along with its renewable energy mission, gives the company its name.

Then this February Bharat Renewable Energy Limited (BREL), a subsidiary of India’s second largest oil marketing company, Bharat Petroleum, announced a plan to develop new hybrids suited to specific growing conditions from SG Biofuels’ existing “JMAX” hybrid seeds. It plans to plant the resulting climate-specific hybrid seeds on 86,000 acres in five districts of Uttar Pradesh state: Kanpur, Jhansi, Laltpur, Chitrakoot and Sultanpur. In addition, it proposed to install 200 oil extraction units and 10 biorefineries in these areas. BREL’s partners are Indian biotech major Nandan Biomatrix and Shahpoorji Palonji, an India-based global construction company with connections to Tata Group and recent experience in biofuels investing.

What’s up? I hate to say I told you so, but I did: last year–and maybe the year before that too. Jatropha is climbing the value chain. First came Jatropha biodiesel for motor vehicles with no price premium over other feedstocks. Then Jatropha aviation fuel with a premium over most other feedstocks except Camellina and drop-in sythetics. And now comes biomedical Jatropha with no competition at all.

Only a few months ago the Indian Government’s Central Salt and Marine Minerals Research Institute discovered that Jatropha yields a substance ideal for making high strength,artificial blood vessels–the kind necessary in complicated cardiovascular surgery. Since then, CSMCRI has been busy filing patent applications for other high tech, high value Jatropha products. Both Mission and BREL now have their own biomedical subsidiaries as well, which is no surprise given that the meaning of the plant’s name, Jatropha, is “medicine.”

New Zealand, Philipines and Malaysia Biofuel fever gripping

2011-08-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

In New Zealand, LanzaTech has signed an agreement with Pennsylvania-based Harsco to develop plans to present the LanzaTech biotechnology to Harsco's major steel mill customers and explore potential business relationships for installing and operating commercial facilities at selected sites throughout the world.

In the Philippines, the government is considering extending its push for using locally-produced coconut oil as a feedstock for biodiesel when it bumps its blending mandate to 10% in 2015. Coconut biodiesel is currently blended at 2% but a recent study shows that selling the coconut oil into the industry could earn farmers $23.5 million per year.

In Malaysia, Chevron's biodiesel blending facility in Pulau Indah has come online and already 29 service stations in Melaka and Negeri Sembilan offering B5 biodiesel with Techron D. The company expects 73 to come by November when the government has mandated B5 across the country's Central region.

US Government to invest $510M in advanced

2011-08-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

A biofuel(biodiesel)pump in Germany.

US announces historic investment to jump-start “drop-in” biofuels at commercial scale.
Jet fuel, diesel in focus — USDA, DOE, USN to share tab, and leverage private investment
The US seeks to definitively break its addiction on imported oil.

In Washington, President Obama today announced that the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy will invest up to $510 million during the next three years in partnership with the private sector to produce advanced drop-in aviation and marine biofuels to power military and commercial transportation.

The initiative responds to a directive from President Obama issued in March as part of his Blueprint for A Secure Energy Future, the Administration’s framework for reducing dependence on foreign oil.

$510 million US investment – with a minimum of $510M more from private industry
The joint plan calls for the three Departments to invest a total of up to $510 million, which will require substantial cost share from private industry – of at least a one to one match. USDA will take the lead on addressing feedstocks, the DOE will take the lead on technology, and the Navy will provide a market. Each department will share the $510M tab, equally.

The US government funds will be re-directed from already authorized funding, and no additional US spending will be required. The government plans to issue an RFP shortly to bring in private industry into the effort.

“To create and stabilize an industry”
“Our goal is to create and stabilize advanced biofuels industry,” commented Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack, in making the announcement. This is not a fly by night effort – it’s a commitment to real energy future. The president has asked us to make the US more competitive, and to give us real diversification in our energy choices.”

“The Defense Production Act has been on the books since the 1950s,” Navy Secretary Mabus added. “If industries are not existent, government can help industries get off the ground. I can think of no more important strategic issue than energy security.”

“We simply buy too much fuel from out of the country,” Mabus said. “The supply shocks, the price shocks, its simply unacceptable to the military. For every dollar increase in the cost of a barrel of oil, it costs the Navy $30 million.”

Partnering with the private sector
The biofuels initiative is being steered by the White House Biofuels Interagency Work Group and Rural Council, both of which are enabling greater cross-agency collaboration to strengthen rural America. Shortly, the group will issue an RFP to seek out private partners to leverage the government investment.

“Biofuels are an important part of reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil and creating jobs here at home,” said President Obama. “But supporting biofuels cannot be the role of government alone. That’s why we’re partnering with the private sector to speed development of next-generation biofuels that will help us continue to take steps towards energy independence and strengthen communities across our country.”

“This is the first time we have addressed feedstock, technology and market risk at one time,” said USDA Secretary Vilsack. “Previous efforts aimed at one or the other slowed down the process. This is a unique and historic response to the energy challenge.”

Cutting down on $300 billion spent on imported oil
The partnership aims to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil and create jobs while positioning American companies and farmers to be global leaders in advanced biofuels production. The United States spends more than $300 billion on imported crude oil per year. Producing a domestic source of energy provides a more secure alternative to imported oil and improves our energy and national security.

“By building a national biofuels industry, we are creating construction jobs, refinery jobs and economic opportunity in rural communities throughout the country,” said Agriculture Secretary Vilsack. “As importantly, every gallon of biofuel consumed near where it is produced cuts transportation costs and, for the military, improves energy security.”

“These pioneer plants will demonstrate advanced technologies to produce infrastructure-compatible, drop-in renewable fuels from America’s abundant biomass resources,” said Energy Secretary Chu. “It will support development of a new, rural-focused industry that will replace imported crude oil with secure, renewable fuels made here in the U.S.”

In June, President Obama signed an Executive Order establishing the first White House Rural Council to build on the Administration’s robust economic strategy for rural America and make sure that continued federal investments create maximum benefit for rural Americans. Administration officials have been working to coordinate programs across the government and encourage public-private partnerships to improve economic conditions and create jobs in rural communities.

History of biodiesel: Surpressed now emerges

2011-08-03T00:40:00.000-07:00

Source: http://www.cyberlipid.org/glycer/biodiesel.htm

BIODIESEL

WHAT IS BIODIESEL ?

Biodiesel (or biofuel) is the name for a variety of ester-based fuels (fatty esters) generally defined as the monoalkyl esters made from vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, canola or hemp oil, or sometimes from animal fats through a simple transesterification process. This renewable source is as efficient as petroleum diesel in powering unmodified diesel engine.

HISTORY

Despite precise written sources, the concept of using vegetal oil as an engine fuel likely dates when Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913) developed the first engine to run on peanut oil, as he demonstrated at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. Unfortunately, R. Diesel died 1913 before his vision of a vegetable oil powered engine was fully realized.

Rudolf Diesel

Rudolf Diesel firmly believed the utilization of a biomass fuel to be the real future of his engine. He wanted to provide farmers the opportunity to produce their own fuel. In 1911, he said "The diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and would help considerably in the development of agriculture of the countries which use it".

"The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in the course of time as important as the petroleum and coal tar products of the present time"
Rudolf Diesel, 1912

After R. Diesel death the petroleum industry was rapidly developing and produced a cheap by-product "diesel fuel" powering a modified "diesel-engine". Thus, clean vegetable oil was forgotten as a renewable source of power.

Modern diesels are now designed to run on a less viscous fuel than vegetable oil but, in times of fuel shortages, cars and trucks were successfully run on preheated peanut oil and animal fat. It seems that the upper rate for inclusion of rapeseed oil with diesel fuel is about 25% but crude vegetal oil as a diesel fuel extender induces poorer cold-starting performance compared with diesel fuel or biodiesel made with fatty esters (McDonnel K et al. JAOCS 1999, 76, 539).
Today's diesel engines require a clean-burning, stable fuel operating under a variety of conditions. In the mid 1970s, fuel shortages spurred interest in diversifying fuel resources, and thus biodiesel as fatty esters was developed as an alternative to petroleum diesel. Later, in the 1990s, interest was rising due to the large pollution reduction benefits coming from the use of biodiesel. The use of biodiesel is affected by legislation and regulations in all countries (Knothe G, Inform 2002, 13, 900). On February 9, 2004, the Government of the Philippines directed all of its departments to incorporate one percent by volume coconut biodiesel in diesel fuel for use in government vehicles. The EU Council of Ministers adopted new pan-EU rules for the detaxation of biodiesel and biofuels on October 27, 2003. Large-volume production occurs mainly in Europe, with production there now exceeding 1.4 million tons per year. Western European biodiesel production capacity was estimated at about 2 million metric tons per year largely produced through the transesterification process, about one-half thereof in Germany (440,000 and 350,000 MT in France and Italy, respectively). In the United States, by 1995, 10 percent of all federal vehicles were to be using alternative fuels to set an example for the private automotive and fuel industries. Several studies are now funded to promote the use of blends of biodiesel and heating oil in USA. In USA soybean oil is the principal oil being utilized for biodiesel (about 80,000 tons in 2003). Details may be viewed on-line through the National Biodiesel Board web site.
Several reviews on sources, production, composition and properties of biodiesel may be consulted for further information:
- Ramadhas AS et al., Renewable Energy 2004, 29, 727-742
- Bajpai D et al., J Oleo Sci 2006, 55, 487
- Durrett TP et al., The Plant J 2008, 54, 593-607
- Jetter R et al., The Plant J 2008, 54, 670-683

As many algal species have been found to grow rapidly and produce substantial amounts of triacylglycerols (oleaginous algae), it has long been postulated that they could be employed to produce oils and other lipids for biofuels (see review in : Hu Q et al., The Plant J 2008, 54, 621-639). A very informative review of the prospects of using yeasts and microalgae as source of cheap oils that could be used for biodiesel may be consulted (Ratledge C et al., Lipid Technol 2008, 20, 155). Although publications of research on biodiesel production are numerous, a systematic review of this topic may be found in a paper devoted to the production of biodiesel from Jatropha curcas oil (Nazir N et al., Eur J Lipid Sci Technol 2009, 111, 1185). This paper provides comprehensive information on biodiesel production, including oil extraction technique and composition, the role of different catalysts in the transesterification process, the current state-of-the-art in biodiesel production, process control and future potential improvement of biodiesel production.
The promise of algae in the production of biodiesel has been evaluated in the end of 1998.
The comparison of the potentiality and sustainability of the use of height algal species belonging to different divisions (macro and microalgae and cyanobacterium) for biodiesel production has been made (Afify MR et al., Grasas y Aceites 2010, 61, 416). Two different extraction solvent systems were used and compared for each algal species in both systems.

As the major byproduct of biodiesel production is glycerol, uses for that byproduct have been investigated. Glycerol can be thermochemically converted into propylene glycol (Chiu CW et al., Ind Eng Chem Res 2006, 45, 791), 1,3-propanediol (Gonzalez-Pajuelo M et al., Metab Eng 2005, 7, 329), lipids (Narayan M et al., Int J Food Sci Nutr 2005, 56, 521) and several other chemicals. Among lipids, it was shown that glycerol can be used to produce docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) through fermentation of the alga Schizochytrium limacinum (Chi Z et al., Process Biochem 2007, 42, 1537; Pyle DJ et al., J Agric Food Chem 2008, 56, 3933).

A review of the use of vegetable oils as engine fuels may be consulted (Ramadhas AS et al. Renew Energy 2007, 29, 727).

The book of Nitske WR et al. may be consulted for the history of biodiesel (Nitske WR, Wilson CM, Rudolf Diesel: Pioneer of the age of power)

MAKING BIODIESEL

What is still widely unknown is that it is easy to make biodiesel for diesel engines using vegetable oil or animal fat. Biodiesel is sold commercially in Europe, America and Australia.
On a small scale, vegetable oil is relatively expensive, but used products from the cooking industry is abundant and can easily and cheaply be converted into a biodiesel fuel that will mix in any quantity with conventional diesel. During heating, the amount of polymers in the oil may increase up to 15 wt% and thus may have negative influence on fuel characteristics. Therefore, the amount of polymers in waste oil is a good indicator for biodiesel production (Mittelbach M et al. JAOCS 1999, 76, 545).
The transesterification process involves mixing at room temperature methanol (50% excess) with NaOH (100% excess), then mixing vigorously with vegetable oil and letting the glycerol settle (about 15% of the biodiesel mix). The supernatant is biodiesel and contains a mixture of methylated fatty acids and methanol, the catalyst remaining dissolved in the glycerol fraction. Industrially, the esters are sent to the clean-up or purification process which consists of water washing, vacuum drying, and filtration.
An in situ alkaline transesterification was shown to be efficient in preparing fatty acid esters, the simple and direct process eliminating the expense associated with solvent extraction and oil cleanup (Haas MJ et al., JAOCS 2004, 81, 83).
Transesterification may be processed using methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, or butanol, the catalyst being either sodium or potassium hydroxide. It was shown that the methanol/oil molar ratio influences largely the efficiency of the reaction and has important implications for the optimal size of methyl ester plants (Boocock DGB et al. JAOCS 1998, 75, 1167). Optimization of methanolysis of Brassica carinata oil has been examined considering the catalyst concentration as well as the reaction temperature (Vicente G et al., JAOCS 2005, 82, 899).
Various reaction parameters for the synthesis of biodiesel from safflower oil were studied to improve the fuel production which was within the recommended standards with 96.8% yield (Meka PK et al., J Oleo Sci 2007, 56, 9).
Free fatty acids and total glycerol (free and acylglycerols) can initiate engine corrosion and affect human or animal health by emission of hazardous acrolein into the environment. Accordingly, maximum allowable amounts of free fatty acids and acylglycerols are included in the biodiesel specification of most countries.
For glycerol, a maximum permissible concentration of 0.02 wt-% is set by the European norm as well as by the ASTM specification. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the amount of free glycerol in biodiesel. Among others, a simple and rapid method was described using HPLC with refractometric detection (Hajek M et al., Eur J Lipid Sci Technol 2006, 108, 666). A simple HPLC method using a light-diffusion detector was proposed to monitor acyglycerols and free fatty acids concentrations in biodiesel (Kittirattanapiboon K et al., Eur J Lipid Sci Technol 2008, 110, 422). Glycerol can also be estimated very accurately by UV–visible spectrophotometry after derivatization with 9,9-dimethoxyfluorene (Reddy SR et al., JAOCS 2010, 87, 747).
Information on the physical properties described by the standards and details on the standard reference methods may be found in the paper by Knothe G (JAOCS 2008, 83, 823).

It was experienced that 10 l of soybeans produced about 1.9 l of biodiesel. A liter of this fuel contains about 35,000 BTUs.
If fats or solidified oil are used, it will need to heat up to 50°C the mixture prior to mixing with methanol and catalyst.
If free fatty acids are present, as in used cooking oils (estimation with acid number), special pretreatment technologies may be required.

Among lipid-rich materials of low value is soapstock, a co-product of the refining of edible vegetal oils. This mixture is generated at a rate of about 6% of the treated unrefined oil (45 MT per year in USA). An efficient procedure involving acid-catalyzed esterification of soapstock has been described (Haas MJ et al., J Am Oil Chem Soc 2003, 80, 97).

The world biodiesel sources were in 2002 : rapeseed oil (84%), sunflower (13%), soybean oil (1%), palm oil (1%), and others (1%).

Information on making biodiesel may be found in specific websites :

http://www.biodiesel.org
http://www.greenfuels.org/biodiesel/index.htm
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Biodiesel/
European Biofuel Technology Platform
Biodiesel Resource Page
Biodiesel handling and use guide
Make-biodiesel.org

Jatropha, Indonesia pushing on Biofuel

2011-07-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

In Mozambique, Sun Biofuels exported its first shipment of biofuel produced from jatropha to be used by the German airline Lufthansa.

Thirty tons of jatropha oil produced in Mozambique’s central province of Manica were crushed by British company Sun Biofuels and sent to Germany. Luftansa is currently seeking 400 million liters of biofuels globally as part of the Company’s move toward mitigating high-cost petroleum and greenhouse gas emissions.

In Borneo, Mitsubishi and the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre will collaborate in exploring algal biodiversity as a possible source of renewable energy. SBC’s work has expanded over the last six years from long term pharmaceutical projects, to shorter term projects in areas such as biotechnology.

Furthermore,in Indonesia, Molindo Raya Industrial announced plans to construct a 55-million liter/year ethanol plant in 2012, following recent land acquisition for the project.

When completed in 2013, the $40-50 million plant will double the Company’s ethanol production capacity using molasses feedstock sourced from a nearby sugar mill.

The company currently owns another 55-million liter/year molasses-based ethanol plant in Lawang, East Java. Approximately 18% (10 million liters/year) of the plant’s ethanol production is anhydrous or fuel-grade ethanol, while the rest is hydrous ethanol used for industrial or pharmaceutical purposes.

How are we going to get from 6.6 million gallons in 2011 to 20 BILLION gallons in 2022?

2011-07-22T16:01:00.000-07:00

Here’s how:

By bringing the industry together: At the Advanced Biofuels Markets congress you will hear from CEOs and Presidents who are driving the development of Advanced Biofuels and who will get us to the RFS target, speakers will include Advanced Biofuels Company Executives, Venture Capitalists & Investment Bankers, Corporate Strategic Investment and Alliance Executives, EPC firms and industry suppliers. If you are responsible for making decisions in this sector, you need to be here.

By not going it alone: To reach this goal the industry has to work in concert –networking to build new relationships, catching up with buddies, partnering and collaborating are the key to success. As Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) always says ‘Go out there and network like crazy!’ For most of you networking is the most important reason to attend an event, so for 2011 we are actually having an entire day dedicated to structured networking: roundtables, one to one meetings and speed networking. No other biofuels event offers this comprehensive chance to have a conversation with literally every conference attendee (450 expected). That equates to 20 hours over 3 days

By knowing what technologies and services to use: To achieve the RFS targets, the industry needs to produce viable, commercial-scale advanced biofuels. What technologies are working? Which companies can help you achieve your goals? What support services are available out there? Our Exhibition Hall will be the hub for networking and business development, giving you a chance to network with exhibitors, hear about their products and understand your needs.

Meanwhile in India, Eco Green Fuels and World Health Energy has signed a LOI for a comprehensive joint venture to provide 1 million liters of algal oil to EFG by the last quarter of 2012.

World Health Energy Holdings, Inc. recently acquired GNE-India, an algae technology company with the distribution and licensing rights to a unique and innovative technology, the GNE GB 3000 system, to grow algae quickly and efficiently for the production of biodiesel and commercial fish food protein.

source:http://www2.greenpowerconferences.co.uk/EF/?sSubSystem=Prospectus&sEventCode=BN1111US&sSessionID=d449afda8908fbb317314c318b883027-3036717

PNG urgently needs replacement fuels

2011-07-15T21:26:00.001-07:00

The need for replacement fuels.

The need for energy has grown drastically proportional to population growth, and 21st century energy demands have been very high based on global demands analysis. That growth will elevate even higher as world population doubles as near as 2050. Every day, hundreds of millions of tons of energy sources are burned to produce to sustain human activities. Should that activity be industries, transport or power generation such as coal for electricity, one way or the other, non renewable energy sources has been exploited at a faster rate. This trend is unhealthy for the future generation, environment and energy sustainability. Putting perspective into reality, non renewable energy such as fossil petroleum cannot sustain the world in the next hundred year period. The desperate need to sustain energy supply to meet demands resulted in energy companies putting over billion dollars in renewable energy production, some of the major energy players such as Exxonbil, Origin energy, BP has in the recent times invested heavily in biofuels. What is the big fear? Those lucky oil rich regions will play fuel war putting majority into social chaos. To be more clear, those lucky rich will have the upper hand to dictate our economics, politics and our development. Is that far-fetched or for real?
The powerless ICCC of PNG,is good at reporting fuel price from time to time in the daily papers, besides they can do nothing. The reality is as worse can one see from outside PNG. Fuel price constant warning is pushing goods and services prices higher each day coupled with government taxes, a certain good doubles in prices as it moves away from the town/cities. The manifestation in magnitude does not need a research scientist from National Research Institute (NRI) to reveal the trend, its already and and at its worse.
Petrol, diesel, kerosene, methane, propane and even aviation fuel prices has increased prices in the past six months. Public and private institutions have over these periods gone to tip-tuck trying to adjust and sustain operations and in many cases let loose this tsunamic economic stress to the masses causing huge economic struggles among PNG nationals at all levels. Many learning institutions, at least the secondary schools have been reported to be using firewood to fuel cooking three times a day. Kerosene and gas stoves are very expensive to utilize. Asaroka Lutheran Secondary in the Eastern Highlands province, I last attended in 1997 has been reported to resort to firewood according to Ezekiel Gene who is my brother who last attended in 2010. Unfortunately, school administration will pass increase tuition fee to parents to meet high energy price. Other learning institutions have no options, unless the government is smarter.
As a graduate Bioenergy, during my study years in China I have encountered Chinese biofuels energy self reliance, that is they have no foreign monopoly on their fuel supply. Most restaurants and household would use solid briquette or carbonized fuel and methane gas. These fuels are produced by local industries and supplied locally, kerosene, propane and fuel shortages have been drastically minimized to no market for them in most of China. What fuels do the 1.3 billion population cook for their feed? biofuels! These fuels are not new concept, researches revealed that in the past 60 years, more than 73% of the Chinese population have been using methane produced locally, and since then 80% or more are using methane in their homes. Home methane production is a norm and local government assist the populace to fully develop local energy concepts and that’s Biofuels.
The other is the solid fuel or the carbonized cellulosic fuel or pressed and glued called briquette. Most restaurants in China uses this fuel and is a huge industry, Kerosene, I have not encountered one and seems intelligent Chinese eradicated it or so I assume.
With hands-on, reality experience and encounters with chinese in China, the bioenergy processing and with studies and researches, I have no doubt that the solid energy industry would satisfy PNG. Papua New Guinea can drastically reduce kerosene and cooking gas dependency.
In this article, I would like to lower the veil to reveal what dynamic solid fuel opportunity is at our disposal, furthermore, will expound some brief processing details for potential developers in PNG.
Cellulose materials such as wood, leaves, barks, roots, shrubs, timber wastages such as from industries, agro wastes are the potential raw materials for solid fuel production. These cellulosic materials need to be converted to carbon. Just how can that be done? That is a good question for beginners, the carbonizations of these materials need burning, however, this burning is controlled to accommodate carbon formation. First you need a combustion chamber, this chamber is designed to permit limited oxygen , this limited oxygen burning will directly facilitate cellulosic materials to dark carbonous material formation. From this stage, the carbonized material or the solid fuel can be used directly or further processed to briquette.
Briquette processing is not a new technology; it has been developed and used, marketed worldwide and widely accepted as fuel equivalent to kerosene or gas. The carbonized material lacks gluing agent and is itself unable to give a compact solid feature for cooking. This material is first grounded so can be pressed and glued using specialized flammable glue. Briquette can be pressed into different sizes depending on the stove design, demand and operational ability/capacity.
The most important part to solid fuel development, marketing and utilization is its stove design and external hybrid system. The carbonized cellulose and briquette are compact energized solid fuel unlike liquid fuel. This means they need specialized design to easily burn off, the design and its burning system must make sure enough air is supplied. The stove can be designed to hold pots and pans either single or two with ranging sizes from 3 kg to 50kg cooking capacity, a metallic structure resembling a bowl so that the carbonized fuel or the briquette can be placed at the bottom. Further down the bottom of the bowl you have to accommodate the air ventilation. There are two mechanisms for air supply, first is the natural air current where as hot air moves out, cold air comes in blowing the furnace to facilitate burning. The most efficient would be the electrical-mechanical blowing by means of blower. The blower can vary depends on the size of the stove, use and kind of pan to facilitate cooking. The blower is placed at the bottom of the stocked solid fuels and motors the blowing into glowing flamed coal like matter. The heat content of the solid fuel is nearer than the methane and propane. The compacted solid fuel releases much heat per gram since being compacted, the gnawing oxygen rich air promotes efficient burning which furiously cooks food in less time.
My solid biofuels hybrid system is when the system is attached to a solar powered blower. The stove with solid fuel, solar powered blower is truly a design that is compactable to suit our current fuel need. Cities and towns need that system, a little power and a little solid fuel is just enough to serve three 3 or more pots of food.
My former high school, Asaroka Secondary, an institution vital for the development of this likewise other schools nationwide will go to firewood or other undeveloped alternative fuel source or simply pass higher tuition fees directly putting load on many poor parents. Unfortunately, PNG will have to put up with high fuel cost because government is not thinking. However, I am open to provide technical support and advice to any potential developers and investors for the good of the people and the nation as a whole.
The author was a freelance consultancies in solid, liquid and gas bioenergies for clients in Yemen, India and the USA. He specializes also in algae biofuels (biodiesel, ethanol, and methane), syn gas, methanol, and starch conversions, waste to energy, solid fuel development, digester designs, and stove and biofuels instrumentations.

Gene Drekeke Iyovo , Msc, Bsc
Occupation: Engineer, Bioenergy.

Latest Biofuel news around the world

2010-06-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

Last week, BP committed $500 million in a ten-year year research program to study "the impact of the Deepwater Horizon incident, and its associated response, on the marine and shoreline environment of the Gulf of Mexico." It recalls the $500 million BP invested in 2007 in the Energy Bioscienes Institute. Deepwater indeed for the oil industry this year - but if there are deep troubles, there are deep pockets.

Pockets are a little smaller around the biofuels industry, where this past week in Washington, four of the companies which have received investment support from oil majors or have formed investment partnerships with them - Coskata (Total), HR Biopetroleum (Shell), Solazyme (Chevron), Algenol (Valero), visited with reporters to discuss "the industry's #1 ask" this political season: the need for sustained and diverse tax credits.

Their goal, to develop "parity with solar and wind" in a tax credit design that unleashed billions in investment for other renewables from private equity.

But - private equity, schmequity. The $500 million committed by BP this week to studying the impact of Deepwater Horizon would have funded virtually any first-in-kind advanced biofuels project currently stalled for lack of finance, many of them already receiving investment from the oil industry and seeking, through "#1 asks" like HR 5412, to deploy their technologies at scale.

In the wake of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, it’s clear the U.S. needs to end its crude-oil addiction as much to protect its economy as the environment.

To move the future forward, America needs one company in particular to come through on behalf of all Americans. In a cruel twist of fate, that company is ExxonMobil (XOM), which is working on arguably the most important energy-research project in the world today. Namely, a project to replace crude with genetically-modified algae that can be cost-effectively refined using existing refinery equipment.

A year ago when Exxon announced its algae project with biotech pioneer J. Craig Venter, the company said that it would take at least 5-10 years to produce commercial quantities of algae-based fuels. “My suspicion, and it’s just a suspicion, is that they still see it as five to 10 years away,” says Addison Wiggin, editorial director of The Daily Reckoning, who has been looking into the Exxon-Venter project for a forthcoming documentary on entrepreneurs in the post-crisis financial world.

Too long. As video of the black death pouring out of that ruptured pipeline gushes onto every American TV and computer screen, it's time for President Obama to declare a new Manhattan Project, a new man-to-moon space race. The goal must be to take America off its crude addiction in less than five years with a literally home-grown industry that will create tens of thousands of agricultural and other jobs without jeopardizing the existing oil industry’s trillion-dollar infrastructure.

Exxon shares would surge the moment this plan became publicly known; however, the President can’t allow the investor payoff to be too bountiful. There will have to be safeguards against Exxon controlling the applicable patents in order to prevent the company from controlling America’s energy future.

Algae oil is no panacea, the President will further need to say. Accelerated development of plug-in electric and all-electric vehicles is needed in order for the U.S. to have, by 2020 or sooner, a nationally-secure, environmentally-sound transportation infrastructure.

In a second twist of fate, not only would Exxon shares likely surge in price, so too might the shares of utilities that generate a lot of electricity from coal. Companies such as Duke Energy (DUK), Southern (SO) and FirstEnergy (FE) might lose their pariah image if part of the President’s strategy were to capture coal plants’ carbon dioxide and use it to accelerate algae growth.

For risk-inclined investors who believe that all this may be on the way, a company that might be worth a closer look right now is tiny OriginOil. (OOIL.OB). The company has started signing up customers as it begins commercializing a technology for producing biofuel from algae using CO2 emissions captured from smokestacks.

International news:

In Canada, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association released a report on the Total Economic Impact Assessment of Biofuels Plants in Canada, which found that the construction of 28 renewable fuels plants in Canada generated $2.949 billion in economic activity. The construction activity created 14,177 direct and indirect jobs during the respective construction periods.

In Australia, Mission NewEnergy Limited (ASX: MBT) announced that the commissioning of its second 75 Mgy Axens 2nd Generation biodiesel trans-esterification refinery has been completed. Mission expects to begin producing under its Valero contract once the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has accepted palm oil as an approved pathway, and makes palm oil biodiesel eligible for Renewable Identification Number (RINS).

In Barbados, Amelot Holdings and Barbados National Oil Company have signed an MOU for the ownership and operation of a biodiesel production facility, using waste cooking oil as a feedstock. BNOCL also plans to develop B20 pumps for biodiesle distribution. The facility will use containerized modular equipment and proprietary feedstock technology.

Offshore Oil Disaster Could Boost New-Age Biofuels

2010-05-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

Gulf of Mexico oil spill has dimmed the prospects for new offshore oil drilling, next-generation biofuels may be able to compensate for that lost production, marking the start of a bigger move away from oil.

Crisis in the Gulf

"Six-billion dollars goes a long way,” says one energy fund portfolio manager, referring to one estimate of the oil spill’s final cost. “With the right amount of investment [in biofuels], eventually the need for new [fossil fuel] production drops at some point. Is it $6 billion? I don’t know.”

Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel have been commercially available for some time, mandated by various laws and regulations, but are usually blended with their fossil-fuel-derived counterparts.

Next-generation biofuels in the development pipeline now use different processes to create fuels from renewable feedstocks—animal fats and algae for example—that are chemically identical to the products created from petroleum.

Known as “drop-in fuels", they can be put directly into gas tanks and burned like fossil-fuel gasoline and diesel, with no equipment modifications or blending needed.

“There’s no need to rebuild the entire infrastructure” says Advanced BioFuels Association president Michael McAdams, a trade organization representing biofuels developers. “It could be $20 billion to retrofit the market for (more) corn-based ethanol.”

Several members of McAdams’ organization are now ramping up test-production facilities.

Biofuel generation at a Tyson Foods [TSN 17.65 0.92 (+5.5%) ] processing plant in Louisiana will come online later this year, turning chicken fat into diesel with a production capacity of 75 million gallons a year.

Tyson produces about 300 million gallons of chicken fat per year, and would normally sell it for use in other chemical processes or simply pay for disposal.

Finland's Neste Oil is now producing 700 million gallons of diesel from green feedstocks in several different countries.

McAdams notes Neste’s output is the equivalent to that of the entire US biodiesel sector at the moment but the green-fuels sector will need greater scale quickly to replace any new capacity from offshore oil.

Oil firms operating in the Gulf of Mexico produce about 71.5 million gallons of crude daily, and convert some of that oil to about 3 million gallons of diesel daily, according to DOE figures. Offshore oil production currently provides about 8 percent of daily US oil consumption.

Photo by Fred LaSenna

Though the output gap between the two fuels is now enormous, proponents say the seven-to-ten year development window from permits to production for new offshore drilling projects, allows ample time to ramp up production and approach parity.

George Santana, director of research at independent research and banking firm Greener Dawn, says that commercial production of next-generation biofuels is now achievable in that time frame.

He points out that perfecting the enzymes needed for cellulosic ethanol production is probably three to five years away from commercialization, while algae-derived drop-in fuels are five to ten years away.

McAdams agrees that drop-in biofuels are still in the demonstration plant phase, but as firms like Neste and Tyson demonstrate feasibility, investment should flow and scale could be achieved quickly.

“Ethanol took 20 years to achieve commercial scale,” McAdamas points out. “But then took six years to double production.”

John Felmy, API’s chief economist, says take those estimates with a grain of salt. “In the early 80s, people were saying cellulosic ethanol was five years away.”

But the cost gap is closing from both ends, and investment in biofuels today hinges on the rising cost of oil production and on tax incentives to help bridge the remaining difference.

For oil production costs, Felmy points to a 2008 Department of Energy survey placing US offshore production costs at $73/barrel, versus $38/barrel in Canada and $17/barrel in the Middle East.

Joule Biotechnologies, a green energy startup making diesel fuel from algae-like organisms, is aiming for production costs of as little as $30 per barrel.

Cost of production comparisons aren’t the only point of contention between green and fossil fuel energy firms.

As a large employers and sources of tax revenues—often in areas of high unemployment—all energy producers sell themselves as job creators, and all benefit from government subsidies in the process.

McAdams and Felmy disagree over which sector has benefited the most from government tax incentives in recent years, but a 2007 report on oil and gas sector subsidies from the Congressional Research Service, a non-partisan group that provides data and analysis to members of Congress, showed tax credits were evenly distributed.

The Carbon Challenge - A CNBC Special Report - See Complete Coverage

The agency determined that over an eleven-year period, oil and gas exploration/distribution tax credits were $5.6 billion, versus $5.7 billion for all renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives.

Gauging job growth in the nascent biofuels sector is tough at this point, but industry sources claim it requires similar headcount, in production and distribution at least, to the oil and gas sector.

Felmy adds that even if new biofuel production replaces proposed expansion in US offshore drilling down the road, the US will still be consuming oil at that point.

“To the extent we're going to need [oil] and we're going to need it for the foreseeable future, we may as well produce it here, " he says.

DOE and industry sources, however, estimate that any new offshore capacity would meet growth in our domestic oil demand for a period of less than three years, based on projected consumption trends.

Greener Dawn’s Santana says that supports the case for moving investment capital into greener fuels now, when the price of oil is well off its sky-high peak of two years ago.

“Biofuels are not going to drive oil costs down to zero anytime soon,” he says, adding that we’ll be still consuming oil even if biofuels can replace any new offshore oil production. “But it can bend the [cost] curve.”

Gulf oil spill now bigger than Exxon Valdez

2010-05-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Oil spill beach clean up.

From newswire: The threat is here and is real.

COVINGTON, La. – The Gulf oil spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst in U.S. history, according to new estimates released Thursday, but the Coast Guard and BP said an untested procedure to stop it seemed to be working.

A team of scientists trying to determine how much oil has been flowing since the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and sank two days later found the rate was more than twice and possibly up to five times as high as previously thought.

Even using the most conservative estimate, that means the leak has grown to nearly 19 million gallons over the past five weeks, surpassing the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, which at about 11 million gallons had been the nation's worst spill. Under the highest Gulf spill estimate, nearly 39 million gallons may have leaked, enough to fill 30 school gymnasiums.

"Now we know the true scale of the monster we are fighting in the Gulf," said Jeremy Symons, vice president of the National Wildlife Federation. "BP has unleashed an unstoppable force of appalling proportions."

BP did not immediately comment on the new estimate.

U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt said two different teams of scientists calculated that the well has been spewing between 504,000 and more than a million gallons a day.

BP and the Coast Guard estimated soon after the explosion that about 210,000 gallons a day was leaking, but scientists who watched underwater video of well had been saying for weeks it was probably more.

Last week, BP inserted a mile-long tube to siphon some of the oil into a tanker. The tube sucked up 924,000 gallons, but engineers had to dismantle it so they could start the risky procedure known as a top kill to try to cut off the flow altogether by shooting heavy drilling fluid into the well.

If that works, BP will inject cement into the well to seal it. The top kill has been used above ground but has never been tried 5,000 feet beneath the sea. BP pegged its chance of success at 60 to 70 percent.

Lt. Commander Tony Russell, an aide to Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday that the mud was stopping some oil and gas but had a ways to go before it proved successful. The top kill started Wednesday night and it could be several days before officials know if it is working.

"As you inject your mud into it, it is going to stop some hydrocarbons," Russell said. "That doesn't mean it's successful." BP spokesman Tom Mueller also discounted news reports that the top kill had worked.

"We appreciate the optimism, but the top kill operation is continuing through the day today â€” that hasn't changed," he said Thursday morning. "We don't anticipate being able to say anything definitive on that until later today."

Oil is coating birds and delicate wetlands along the Louisiana coast, and the political fallout from the spill has reached all the way to Washington, where the head of the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling resigned Thursday. Minerals Management Service Director Elizabeth Birnbaum stepped down just hours before a planned White House press conference where President Barack Obama was expected to extend a moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling.

Birnbaum and her agency came under withering criticism from lawmakers of both parties over lax oversight of drilling and cozy ties with industry. An internal Interior Department report released earlier this week found that between 2000 and 2008, agency staff members accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography. Birnbaum had run the service since July 2009.

After receiving the results of a 30-day safety review from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Obama also planned to delay controversial lease sales off the coast of Alaska and cancel entirely plans for drilling lease sales in the Western Gulf and off the coast of Virginia, according to a White House aide.

Polls show the public is souring on the administration's handling of the catastrophe, and fishermen, hotel and restaurant owners, politicians and residents along the 100-mile stretch of Gulf coast affected by the spill are fed up with BP's failures to stop the oil.

"I have anxiety attacks," said Sarah Rigaud, owner of Sarah's Restaurant in Grand Isle, La., where the public beach was closed because blobs of oil that looked like melted chocolate had washed up on shore. "Every day I pray that something happens, that it will be stopped and everybody can get back to normal."

The Coast Guard pulled commercial fishing boats from oil cleanup efforts in Breton Sound off the Louisiana coast on Wednesday after several people became ill. Crew members on three vessels reported nausea, dizziness, headaches and chest pains, the Coast Guard said. Four people were hospitalized, including one who was flown to a hospital.

If the top kill fails, BP says it has several backup plans, including sealing the well's blowout preventer with a smaller cap, which would contain the oil. An earlier attempt to cap the blowout preventer failed. BP could also try a "junk shot" — shooting golf balls and other debris into the blowout preventer to clog it up — during the top kill process.

The only permanent solution is drilling a second well, but that will take a couple of months. BP plans to go ahead with that even if the top kill works.

Though the spill is now the biggest in U.S. history, it's not the biggest ever in the Gulf. An offshore drilling rig in Mexican waters — the Ixtoc I — blew up in June 1979, releasing 140 million gallons of oil.

Oil rig spill, pictures tell it all. Enviroment-Animals

2010-05-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

It’s been more than a month since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 people and blew out an undersea well that continues to gush oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In the following weeks, there have been attempts to contain and control the scope of the environmental damage.

But so far none have been successful. Over the weekend, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced he intended to proceed with plans to construct sand booms to protect his state's shoreline — without waiting for federal approval. Meanwhile, engineers for BP are working feverishly to prepare for their "top kill" maneuver, hoping an injection of heavy mud will stop the leak.

Dead sharks and dolphins are washing ashore. Crabs, turtles and birds are being found soaked in oil as the slick sloshes into Louisiana’s wetlands. South of New Orleans, chocolate-like globs of oil have shut down the public beach.

Coast Guard officials say the spill’s impact now stretches 150 miles. Some scientists fear the spreading plumes will catch the ocean current to the Florida Keys and up to the eastern seaboard.

NOW...Biofuel is more convinient that man has all the controls on hand. Well, how careful and trustworthy is a robotic arm deep in the murky blue?, see how things can go wrong to such lenght.

Photographers' images, some of them chillingly beautiful, can only begin to hint at the enormity of the disaster. When we go deeper into sea to save the world in search of fuel, we CAN destroy the world in hours.

Scientist Attack Biofuel!

2010-05-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

There were 90 respected scientist who seem to come seeking any arguable biofuel development loopholes as also being a contributor and needing to 'slack off' policy in USA on biofuels. The biofuel worldwide has eyes on this:

Here is what they say and what we say respectively, readers and audience can judge. The issue is 'backed' seem to me personally by big cats if possible (who knows?).

Here is what they wrote to the speaker Nancy Pelosi:

May 17, 2010
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0508
Fax: (202)225-4188
The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
United States Senate
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2803
Fax: (202) 224-7327
Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Senator Reid,
We write to bring to your attention the importance of accurately accounting for carbon dioxide emissions from bioenergy in any law or regulation designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy use. Proper accounting can enable bioenergy to contribute to greenhouse gas reductions; improper accounting can lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions both domestically and internationally.
Replacement of fossil fuels with bioenergy does not directly stop carbon dioxide emissions from tailpipes or smokestacks. Although fossil fuel emissions are reduced or eliminated, the combustion of biomass replaces fossil emissions with its own emissions (which may even be higher per unit of energy because of the lower energy to carbon ratio of biomass). Bioenergy can reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide if land and plants are managed to take up additional carbon dioxide beyond what they would absorb without bioenergy. Alternatively, bioenergy can use some vegetative residues that would otherwise decompose and release carbon to the atmosphere rapidly. Whether land and plants sequester additional carbon to offset emissions from burning the biomass depends on changes both in the rates of plant growth and in the carbon storage in plants and soils. For example, planting fast-growing energy crops on otherwise unproductive land leads to additional carbon absorption by plants that offsets emissions from their use for energy without displacing carbon storage in plants and soils. On the other hand, clearing or cutting forests for energy, either to burn trees directly in power plants or to replace forests with bioenergy crops, has the net effect of releasing otherwise sequestered carbon into the atmosphere, just like the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. That creates a carbon debt, may reduce ongoing carbon uptake by the forest, and as a result may increase net greenhouse gas emissions for an extended time period and thereby undercut greenhouse gas reductions needed over the next several decades1
Many international treaties and domestic laws and bills account for bioenergy incorrectly by treating all bioenergy as causing a 100% reduction in emissions regardless of the source of the biomass. They perpetuate this error by exempting carbon dioxide from bioenergy from national emissions limits or from domestic requirements to hold allowances for energy emissions. Most renewable energy standards for electric utilities have the same effect because bioenergy is viewed as a renewable energy even when the biomass does not eliminate or even reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This general approach .
1 J. Fargione, J. Hill, Tilman D., Polasky S., Hawthorne P (2008), Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt, Science 319:1235-1238
appears to be based on a misunderstanding of IPCC guidance2
U.S. laws will also influence world treatment of bioenergy. A number of studies in distinguished journals have estimated that globally improper accounting of bioenergy could lead to large-scale clearing of the world’s forests. Under some scenarios, this approach could eliminate most of the expected greenhouse gas reductions during the next several decades.
3
The lesson is that any legal measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must include a system to differentiate emissions from bioenergy based on the source of the biomass. The National Academy of Sciences has estimated significant potential energy production from the right sources of biomass.
4
Sincerely, . Proper accounting will provide incentives for these sources of bioenergy.
2 T.D. Searchinger, S.P. Hamburg, J.Melillo, W. Chameides, P.Havlik, D.M. Kammen, G.E. Likens, R. N. Lubowski, M. Obersteiner, M. Oppenheimer, G. P. Robertson, W.H. Schlesinger, G.D. Tilman (2009), Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error, Science 326:527-528
3 E.g., J.M. Mellillo, J.M. Reilly, D.W. Kicklighter, A.C. Gurgel, T.W. Cronin, S. Patsev, B.S. Felzer, X. Wang, C.A. Schlosser (2009), Indirect Emissions from Biofuels: How Important?, Science 326:1397-1399; Marshall Wise, Katherine Calvin, Allison Thomson, Leon Clarke, Benjamin Bond-Lamberty, Ronald Sands, Steven J. Smith, Anthony Janetos, James Edmonds (2009), Implications of Limiting CO2 Concentrations for Land Use and Energy, Science 324:1183-1186
4 National Research Council (2009), Liquid Transportation Fuels from Coal and Biomass: Technological Status, Costs, and Environmental Impacts (National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.)
William H. Schlesinger (Member, National Academy of Sciences)
President
(Past President, Ecological Society of America)
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Millbrook, New York
Michael Allen
Director of the Center for Conservation Biology
Chair of the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, California
Viney P. Aneja
Professor Air Quality
Professor Environmental Technology
Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina
Gary W. Barrett
Eugene P. Odum Chair of Ecology
Odum School of Ecology
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Mark Battle
Associate Professor
Physics & Astronomy
Bowdoin College
Brunswick, Maine
Sharon Billings
Associate Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Kansas Biological Survey
Lawrence, Kansas
Mark A. Bradford Assistant Professor of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Yale University
Donald Kennedy
(Member, National Academy of Sciences)
Bing Professor Environmental Science and Policy
President, Emeritus
Stanford University
Stanford, California
New Haven, Connecticut
Phil Camill
Rusack Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
Earth and Oceanographic Science Director,
Environmental Studies
Bowdoin College
Brunswick, Maine
Elliott Campbell
Assistant Professor School of Engineering & Sierra Nevada Research Institute
University of California, Merced
Merced, California
Joseph Craine
Assistant Professor
Division of Biology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas
Stephen R. Carpenter
(Member, U.S. National Academy of Sciences)
Director and Professor
(Past President, Ecological Society of America)
Center for Limnology
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Sallie (Penny) Chisholm
(Member, National Academy of Sciences) Martin Professor of Environmental Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Eric Chivian
(Shared 1985, Nobel Peace Prize) Director Center for Health and the Global Environment Harvard Medical School Cambridge, Massachusetts
Norm Christensen
(Past President, Ecological Society America)
Professor of Ecology
Nicholas School of the Environment
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
James S. Clark
Hugo Blomquist Professor
Nicholas School of the Environment/Dept Biology
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Jon Cole
Distinguished Senior Scientist and G.E. Hutchinson Chair
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Millbrook, New York.
Gretchen C. Daily
(Member, National Academy of Sciences) Stanford University Stanford, California
Frank P. Day
Professor of Biological Sciences and Eminent Scholar
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, Virginia
Seth DeBolt
Assistant Professor
Horticulture Department
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Evan H. DeLucia
G. William Arends Professor of Integrative Biology & Director,
School of Integrative Biology
University of Illinois
Urbana, Illinois
Samir Doshi
Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Dr. Charles T. Driscoll
(Member, National Academy of Engineering)
University Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York
Paul R. Ehrlich
(Member, National Academy of Sciences)
Bing Professor of Biology and
President, Center for Conservation Biology
Stanford University,
Stanford, California
James Ehleringer
Distinguished Professor of Biology
Director, Global Change and Ecosystem Center
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Erle C. Ellis
Associate Professor
Department of Geography & Environmental Systems
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Baltimore, Maryland
Paul R. Epstein, M.D. Associate Director Center for Health and the Global Environment Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts
Paul Falkowski
(Member of the National Academy of Sciences)
Board of Governors' Professor
Marine, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Adrien Finzi Associate Professor Department of Biology Boston University Boston, Massachusetts
Andrew J. Friedland
The Richard and Jane Pearl Professor in Environmental Studies
Chair, Environmental Studies Program
Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire
James N. Galloway
Department of Environmental Sciences
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Frank S. Gilliam Department of Biological Sciences Marshall University Huntington, West Virginia
Christine L. Goodale
Assistant Professor
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
Nancy B. Grimm
(Past President, Ecological Society America) Professor,
Department of Biology
Arizona State University
Phoenix, Arizona
Peter M. Groffman
Senior Scientist
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Millbrook, New York
Nick M. Haddad
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina
Charles A.S. Hall
College of Environmental Science and Forestry
State University of New York
Syracuse New York
John Harte
Professor of Ecosystem Sciences
Energy and Resources Group
University of California
Berkeley, California
Harold Hemond
W. E. Leonhard Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Sarah Hobbie
Associate Professor
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Kirsten Hofmockel
Department of Ecology, Evolution, & Organismal Biology
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
R.A. Houghton
Deputy Director and Senior Scientist Woods Hole Research Center Falmouth, Massachusetts
Benjamin Houlton
Assistant Professor, Terrestrial Biogeochemistry
Department of Land, Air and Water Resources
University of California at Davis
Davis, California
Robert W. Howarth
David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
A. Hope Jahren
Department of Geology & Geophysics
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
Dan Janzen
DiMaura Professor of Conservation Biology
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Daniel Kammen
Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy Professor in the Energy and Resources Group
and in the Goldman School of Public Policy
Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
William S. Keeton
Associate Professor
Center for Natural Resources
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Thomas H. Kunz
Professor and Director
Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology
Department of Biology
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts
Beverly Law
Professor, Global Change Forest Science
Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society
College of Forestry
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon
John Lichter
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
Bowdoin College
Brunswick, Maine
Gene E. Likens
(Member, National Academy of Sciences)
Distinguished Senior Scientist
(Past President, Ecological Society America)
Founding President, Emeritus (Recipient, 2005, National Medal of Science)
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Millbrook, New York
Thomas Lovejoy
Heinz Center Biodiversity Chair
Heinz Center for Environment
Washington, D.C.
Daniel Markewitz Associate Professor Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources University of Georgia Athens, Georgia
Roz Naylor
Professor, Environmental Earth Science;
William Wrigley Senior Fellow, and
Director, Program on Food Security and the Environment
Stanford University
Stanford, California
Jason Neff
Associate Professor
Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Michael O’Hare
Professor of Public Policy
Goldman School of Public Policy
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Scott Ollinger Associate Professor of Natural Resources Complex Systems Research Center Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space University of New Hampshire Durham, New Hampshire
Michael Oppenheimer
Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs
Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey
Margaret A. Palmer
Professor and Director
Chesapeake Biological Lab
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland
Todd Palmer
Department of Biology
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Richard P. Phillips
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
Stuart Pimm
Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology
Nicholas School of the Environment
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Jennifer S. Powers
Assistant Professor
Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
James W. Raich
Professor
Department of Ecology, Evolution & Organismal Biology
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
Chantal D Reid
Assistant Professor of the Practice
Department of Biology and
Nicholas School of the Environment
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
William A. Reiners
Professor of Botany and
J.E. Warren Professor of Energy and Environment
University of Wyoming
Laramie, Wyoming
Heather Reynolds
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
Indiana University
Bloomington Indiana
G. Philip Robertson University Distinguished Professor W.K. Kellogg Biological Station and Department of Crop and Soil Sciences Michigan State University Hickory Corners, Michigan
Steve Running
Regents Professor and Director,
Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group
Department of Ecosystem Sciences
University of Montana
Missoula, Montana
Lee Schipper
Project Scientist
Global Metropolitan Studies
UC Berkeley
And Senior Research Engineer
Precourt Energy Efficiency Center
Stanford University
Stephen H. Schneider (Member, National Academy of Sciences) Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for
Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Professor, Department of Biology and Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment
Stanford University
Stanford, California
H.H. Shugart
W.W. Corcoran Professor
Department of Environmental Sciences
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Kirk R. Smith (Member, National Academy of Sciences)
Professor of Global Environmental Health
Director, Global Health and Environment Program
School of Public Health
University of California
Berkeley, California
Stanley D. Smith Associate Vice President for Research Professor of Life Sciences University of Nevada Las Vegas, Nevada
Robert Socolow
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Director of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey
John Sperry
Professor
Biology Department
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Dan Sperling
Professor and Director
Institute of Transportation Studies
University of California
Davis, California
Jennifer L. Tank
Galla Associate Professor of Ecology
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana
Pamela Templer
Assistant Professor
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts
John Terborgh
(Member, National Academy of Sciences)
Nicholas School of the Environment
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Thomas P. Tomich
W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems
Director, UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute
Director, UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program
Professor of Community Development, Environmental Science & Policy
University of California
Davis, California
Alan R. Townsend
Professor, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Director, Environmental Studies Program
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Ross A. Virginia
Myers Family Professor of Environmental Science
Director, Institute of Arctic Studies
Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire
Diana H. Wall
(Past President, Ecological Society of America)
University Distinguished Professor
Director, School of Global Environmental Sustainability
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado
Matthew Wallenstein
Research Scientist Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado
Thomas R. Wentworth
Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor of Plant Biology
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina
Donald R. Zak
Burton V. Barnes Collegiate Professor of Ecology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Cc: Carol Browner, White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy
Lisa Jackson, Environmental Protection Agency
Steven Chu, Ph.D, Department of Energy
John Holdren, Ph.D, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

Here is what we say: Biofuel/biofuel digest-worldwide.

Reaction from the Natural Resources Defense Council

Nathanael Greene, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, commented: “Today a group of leading scientists from across the country sent a letter to congressional leaders and Obama officials urging them to carefully count the carbon from biomass burned for energy as part of a comprehensive climate bill or any other legislation or regulation.
The American Power Act (APA) proposed by Senators Kerry and Lieberman provides a solid framework for reducing our global warming pollution and investing in a cleaner economy. Unfortunately, as proposed, the bill would turn a blind eye towards emissions from biomass combustion, threatening to significantly undermine the bills carbon reduction goals. (For some basic thoughts on how the bill should be amended see this fact sheet put out by NRDC and other groups after the House climate bill passed.)

I did a little video late last year explaining the fundamental flaw in the approach that the APA would take. The letter from the scientists puts it clearly: Replacement of fossil fuels with bioenergy does not directly stop carbon dioxide emissions from tailpipes or smokestacks. Although fossil fuel emissions are reduced or eliminated, the combustion of biomass replaces fossil emissions with its own emissions (which may even be higher per unit of energy because of the lower energy to carbon ratio of biomass). Bioenergy can reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide if land and plants are managed to take up additional carbon dioxide beyond what they would absorb without bioenergy…. On the other hand, clearing or cutting forests for energy, either to burn trees directly in power plants or to replace forests with bioenergy crops, has the net effect of releasing otherwise sequestered carbon into the atmosphere, just like the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. That creates a carbon debt, may reduce ongoing carbon uptake by the forest, and as a result may increase net greenhouse gas emissions for an extended time period and thereby undercut greenhouse gas reductions needed over the next several decades.

The Digest’s take: ”Round up the Usual Suspects.”

The letter was signed by seven members of the National Academy of Sciences and a Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate. and should be taken seriously as a point of view in science, and certainly as a political act.

This letter represents scientists, but does it represent science? Imagine what a country the United States would have turned out to be if every US state ratified a different Constitution.

It was primarily signed by biologists and ecologists and did not include leading scientists noted in the development of bioenergy technologies — such as George Church, Chris Somerville, Bruce Dale, Lee Lynd, or Charles Wyman to cite a few examples. A letter signed by a more inclusive group of scientists would have done more to dispel the sense that this letter represents a narrowly-held view within the scientific community, rather than consensus, and consensus must be the basis of any renewable energy policy which would provide any of the benefits of policy stability that renewables as a sector unequivocally require.

Give me Liberty or Give me Death: Give Us Unity or We’ll Face Dearth

The Digest urgently calls on its friends in the scientific community, through the National Academy of Sciences, or other appropriate vehicles, to develop a point of view which can be generally said to be representative of a broad scientific consensus. We have seen what a lack of consensus can do to side-track the discussion of climate change.

Whatever the consensus is, let the chips fall where they may.

Renewable energy needs stability, not a series of partisan letters from open side of the table that can be expected to be answered with a parallel set of letters from the other. That’s ping-pong, not policy, and the time for games has long since passed.

Here at Biofuel, we believe that we are capable to go green and in one big leap will support the world go green and efficiently support and supply the needed commodity The fuel...that is Biofuel for blend or pure! Beside we are cleaning the tons of trash laid down by 200 years of fossil fuel. A group of scientist from that corner of the world cannot ultimately turn down biofuel..we further emphasis that panel of scientists from all arena will have to give in their grip on Biofuel. Besides, Biofuel is a wheel that is at your disposal to steer the course unlike fossil fuel.

Responses

millercs | May 25, 2010 | Reply

I am amazed at the fossil thinking of these “scientists.”

1) There is a fundamental difference to the carbon content of the atmosphere between using fossil carbon and biogenic carbon sources. Fossil carbon combustion adds GHG that was never part of the carbon cycle before – carbon positive. Biogenic carbon combustion simply recycles that which is already in the atmosphere – carbon neutral.

2) GHG emissions is only one scientific reason for replacing fossil fuels with biogenic. Others include: fossil is not renewable (biogenic is); fossil distillation is getting more toxic (biogenic is getting cleaner); direct fossil land and water use change is severely impacting ecology (i.e., oilspills and tar sands); bioenergy conversion facilities will provide env. clean-up and funding for timberland thinnings, hurricane knockdown, flood demolition, invasive species control, landfill mitigation, etc.

This doesn’t even begin to cover the environment, pollution, and biodiversity costs of present and future strategic commodity resource wars like Iraq.Someone needs to rethink their carbon accounting.

Algae-Lemna: Biofuel Briefs

2010-05-22T03:21:00.000-07:00

Lemna, (top)this possibly have dynamics to be potential energy feedstock. Once cuased havoc in swamps of China specially Taihu Lake in Wuxi city of PR China due to its high photosynthetic efficiency and high adaptations. (right) The algae bioreactor, a mechanism that can go tons per day production bringing the algae biofuel world closer to reality.

While algae has reemerged from 2008 which has been year of algae, 2010 seem to capture more interesting private patented interest and results already look promising with bioreactor/photobioreactor microalgae cultivation. The multi-enduse algae can be used intensively as fuel,medicinal or food based.

Feature: Biofuels: a sea change
Energy, water and food resources are interconnected and in increasing demand worldwide. Scientists at the University of Texas note nearly 1 billion people worldwide are near starvation, nearly 1 billion do not have adequate freshwater, and more than 2 billion people do not have proper sanitation. Systems models and dynamics demonstrate key interdependencies between energy, water and food. For example, increases in wastewater and sanitation industrialisation place greater demands on energy use. Similarly, increasing food production for global population growth creates greater demands for energy and freshwater – two commodities in increasing in demand and limited supply. How can aquatic feedstock systems help to solve these interconnected energy, food, fuel challenges? One solution is emerging from salt-tolerant feedstocks such as seaweed, sea asparagus, algae, and lemna, that can grow in brackish water, saltwater and desert areas, saving freshwater and arable land for vital resources.

Producer News

In Texas, attorney Jon Jaworski, "the Grease Lawyer," was one of the subjects of a look from popular business website Minyanville.com at the phenomenon of grease theft. "I had a guy who was paid with a bottle of vodka and a couple cartons of cigarettes to steal grease," Jaworski told Minyanville.

In California, energy crop company Ceres and Novozymes, the world's largest enzyme provider, have entered a research collaboration to co-develop customized plant varieties and enzyme cocktails for the production of cellulosic biofuel. Ceres and Novozymes will initially work on switchgrass and will move to similar evaluations of sweet sorghum.

"It's the Enzymes, Dr. Watson," writes Digest columnist Dr. Rosalie Lober in a column examining the tie-up between Novozymes and Ceres, looking at the Bioenergy PROFITS Principle: "Position Only for Growth"."What are some of the ways that successful companies position for growth in all industries and particularly in the bioenergy space. Know your customer's business. Provide new and different solutions," adds Dr. Lober.
In India, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar told Business Week that the country will increase ethanol production in anticipation of a bumper sugarcane crop, as an additional market that will keep the global price of sugar from collapsing. "Instead of producing other products, the industry should make more of ethanol," Pawar told the newsweekly.

In Pakistan, Minister for Population Welfare Punjab Neelam Jabbar Ch. told Online News that Pakistan is making strides to increase production of biodiesel and ethanol, as a hedge against oil price volatility. The Minister also said that a domestic production of renewable energy would conserve the country's foreign currency reserves.

US petrol refiner Sunoco’s ethanol plant located in New York is expected to come online in the beginning of July this year.

The plant has been undergoing repairs for almost six months in order to get it to operate at its full capacity of 100 million gallons of ethanol a year.

Sunoco purchased the ethanol plant for $8.5 million (€10 million) in June last year after it was closed when previous owner Northeast Biofuels filed for bankruptcy. At the time of sale Sunoco said that it expected to spend in the region of $10 million to upgrade the plant.

Pilot plant launched in Finland
based process technologies and production solutions, has launched a pilot plant in Oulu, northern Finland.

The $24.4 million (€19.7 million) biorefinery will produce a daily supply of 68 tonnes of cellulosic ethanol from agricultural waste and waste paper.

The facility will also be used to test raw materials for the production of small amounts of bioethanol, biochemicals and papermaking fibres.

The technology the company will use to create bioethanol is called formicobio, which, Chempolis says, can be licensed based on customer demand.

Oil spill-Biofuel go!

2010-05-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

Here is one tragic reason why Biofuel will be pushed further (from newswire).

A month into gulf spill disaster, major questions linger
Thursday marks a month since the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform that killed 11 oil workers and unleashed a still-spewing torrent of oil from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. As the first blanket of oil comes ashore on the Louisiana wetlands, questions linger about the spill and its impact. Here's a rundown of issues that inquiries into the disaster have yet to resolve:
How much oil has leaked?
BP initially estimated that the well was pumping about 42,000 gallons daily (from three different leaks) into the gulf. A few days later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an estimate of five times that.
Scientists examining satellite photos showing the reach of the spill contended that NOAA's estimate should be increased another fivefold— to about 1 million gallons a day.
[Raw video: Coast Guard burns gas from BP well]
As conflicting estimates continued to surface, scientists pushed for the release of BP's underwater video footage of the leak at its source — a request the company stonewalled for weeks (theories seeking to explain BP's reluctance abound, and almost all of them tilt toward the dastardly). Last week, BP finally released a 30-second snippet of footage — thereby furnishing evidence that the spill was much worse than most investigators had assumed, pumping as much as 70,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf. At that rate, the well was releasing the same amount of oil lost during the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster during a four-day span.
Scientists who study the impact of old spills have faulted the Obama administration for not releasing more information about the gulf disaster — and for failing to compel BP to supply the material for a more timely and accurate assessment . Rick Steiner, a marine biologist who worked on the aftermath of the Valdez spill, told the New York Times that "a vast ecosystem is being exposed to contaminants right now, and nobody's watching it. That seems to me like a catastrophic failure on the part of NOAA."
[Slide show: Giant tar blobs wash ashore]
Earlier this week, BP released some additional video footage that seemed to give a clearer and more sustained picture of the rate of flow from the broken well. Once these images — obtained after more prodding on Capitol Hill from Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and other lawmakers — are analyzed, they may spur another sharp rise in estimates, since they show that the smallest of the three leaks is spewing oil at a much greater volume than previously thought.
All of which is to say that even a month into the disaster, the true scale of the leakage is still unknown. The key to arriving at a reliable estimate, experts say, is to monitor video footage of the leak site for several hours straight to establish the rate of flow from the broken well.
What's the likely fallout of the spill?
This, too, is still largely a matter of conjecture — though as with the oil-leak guessing game, there's little cause to believe that the final answer will be remotely encouraging. With Thursday's landfall in the wetlands off Louisiana's Gulf Coast, the enormous stakes of the catastrophe are starting to sink in for the land-based natural and social order in the spill's path.
[Slide show: Animals bear brunt of oil spill]
Area wildlife has taken a hit: 156 sea turtles, 12 bottlenose dolphins and 23 oiled birds have been found dead since the oil began leaking and since millions of gallons of chemical dispersants — which pose environmental hazards of their own — have been dumped into the gulf to contain it. NOAA Fisheries Director Steve Murawski, commenting Wednesday on the first wave of wildlife deaths, noted that these numbers probably represent a small fraction of the devastation in marine life habitats.
"The impacts are difficult to detect offshore because the area is difficult to observe," Murawski told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "But the long-term impacts of this event are likely to express themselves for years to come."
Forecasters also say that the spill's reach will spread far beyond the Louisiana coast. It already appears to be bound for the Florida coast, and from there, may well move up the Eastern Seaboard in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, giant plumes of oxygen-sucking oil lurk far beneath the surface.
[Video: Oil enters the loop current]
This paints an exceedingly grim picture of the prospects ahead for people in the gulf region who earn their livelihoods from the water — everyone from commercial fishermen and seafood wholesalers to workers in the regional tourist industry. On Tuesday, the federal government closed off one-fifth of the gulf to fishing. That area is sure to expand with the scale of the leak — and no one can be sure when these waters will again be able to safely accommodate fishing and other human activities, especially since the life of the leak may extend for years.
The leak may well wreak some long-term havoc on the existing model for federal regulation of the offshore oil industry — and will almost certainly produce some long-term legal fallout. Observers expect that several executives from the companies involved in the spill — BP; Transocean, which leased the rig to BP; and Halliburton, a contractor on the rig — could face criminal charges. On Wednesday, the White House announced plans to split into three parts the agency that oversees offshore drilling.
The political climate surrounding offshore drilling will probably also change dramatically. In March, President Obama announced that the White House would reverse a longstanding ban on offshore drilling off the Eastern U.S. Commentators hailed the move at the time as politically savvy, but it now looks like a nonstarter at best — and a colossal miscue at worst. In the wake of the spill, public opinion is shifting sharply on the question of expanded drilling. Now doubts are being raised over pending plans to to increase drilling off California and in the Arctic, as well as in the Atlantic corridor opened up under the new White House policy.
Who's to blame?
In recent Capitol Hill testimony, executives at BP, Transocean and Halliburton muddied the question of ultimate accountability for the disaster. President Obama called their performance a "ridiculous spectacle." But more dispassionate accounts of the April 20 explosion that destroyed the underwater well are starting to emerge.
A "60 Minutes" report that aired this past Sunday interviewed a survivor of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and verified that crewmembers had either ignored or insufficiently addressed serious safety concerns on the rig as BP executives pressed them to drill down faster into Earth's core to reach the oil. Based on that survivor's account, Bob Bea, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that BP clearly bore chief responsibility for the disaster.

Where will biofuel stop?

2010-05-21T00:45:00.000-07:00

Photos and realities speak better than thousand words.

It seems some people seem to forget that fuel is part of the blood of human today. Blood keeps flowing keeps body alive, fuel keep flowing keeps world going and human live is interwined arround fuel.However, the good all days of fossil fuel which were abundant and thus cheap are marked for the reason that millions of tons of pollution at in terms of carbon dioxide is realesed into atmosphere at daily basis. The climate scientists have better idea to argue here,thus the valididty of biofuel as an alternative way to go has long been embraced. Two way forward, firstly food based and secondly non-food based. The former is subjected further scrutinity given the addtional 800 million people increase per year,meaning increased agriculture,space and demand is proportional linear.
The second item, that is the neone food based has been riggidly addressed as a way to go. Some of these are algae,jatropha, waste to bioeenergy opportunities (biometahen,biohydrogen,syngas etc...).

Algae has gone through a very rapid study and developement with target reaching with in the next ten years in fact some have alreaady pu within the door step in terms of full commercialization.
Just when early-stage companies like Algenol have partnered up with Valero, Dow and Linde; PetroAlgae with Indian Oil; Martek with BP; Synthetic Genomics with ExxonMobil; Solazyme with Chevron; and Sapphire Energy continuing to attract a stream of senior execs from BP, Ex-Im Bank and elsewhere, it’s been starting to feel like the algae biofuels movement has grown into an industry.

It also might appear to readers that the “wild, wild wet” period is over, that innovation will increasingly focus on a handful of companies as they pursue cost parity and scale.

Partly true: the leaders in the algae biofuels space have made screaming progress with strategic investors and developing their commercial-scale strategies and technologies.

I doubt if the Clinton Administration foresaw, in 1996 when they shut down the Aquatic Species program, that 2010 would see virtually every oil major tied up in the algae race, the Navy placing fuel orders, several airlines testing algal biofuels, and Sapphire laying down a vision to reach 1 billion gallons in production, all by its onesy, by 2025.

But wait, there’s more

However, in the tradition of Ginzu knife infomercials – “But wait, there’s more!”

A whole passel of algae companies and ventures are still entering the marketplace, and the Digest today, in Top Story, is dedicated to highlighting just a few of the new. Some of these – in the grand tradition of algal development – are coming out with claims that make you get out your Cliff Notes version of the Laws of Thermodynamics.

But all of them make you marvel at the creativity and persistent entrepreneurship of it all. Bold, brash, brainy – algae has it all. here are some updates on companies from the Wild, Wild Wet.

7 Brides for 7 Investors

In Kentucky, Alltech announced that it will establish the world’s second largest algae farm in Kentucky, and will announce the location in August. Alltech, primarily known as a nutritional supplements maker, said that the deal for land is still under negotiation, but said that the company believed that its algae operations could realize up to 5,000 gallons per acre.

In Texas, Photon8 CEO Brad Bartilson said that his company’s “Traveling Wave Tube” photobioreactor technology can boost algal growth production rates by 500 percent, has slashed production costs associated with other PBR technologies, and has been genetically modifying its algae to double lipid production. Photon8 is presented at the Algae World Summit earlier this week in San Diego.

In Illinois, students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed an algae biofuels photobioreactor, using a collection of parts including an old Apple G4 CPU tower, an Apple iMac CRT, PVC pipes, a Dell Latitude CPX laptop, acrylic panels, and foam. The project’s goal? Bringing algae biofuel production down to the household level, with the project team estimating that a deployment of the BioGrow technology in around 7 million homes would produce enough biodiesel to replace petroleum as a diesel feedstock. The developers say that their algae can be harvested every three days, and can sell for up to a dollar per gallon – with a proposed central collection system that would transport the algae to a biorefinery for oil extraction and conversion to fuel.

In Wales, Merlin Biodevelopments said that it is using anaerobic digestion to harness electric energy from cow slurry and food waste, to bring down the cost of producing protein-laden algae for food consumption, using a closed PBR system. The company has developed a bench-level project at the Moelyci Environmental Centre in Tregarth. The company said it is capturing waste CO2 from waste, as well, and characterized its operation as a means of producing high-value protenin from low-value land.

In Pennsylvania, Berks County state Representative David Kessler has driven through a $175,000 award for a feasibility study for algal biofuels production — and said that he has been collaborating with Colorado-based Algae at Work as well as two unnamed “multi-billion dollar” companies in Houston and DC on the prospects for biofuels in the Keystone State. The feasibility study is due within five months.

In California, Jose Olivares updated Xconomy’s Bruce Bigelow on progress at the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB). Olivares said that the consortium of more than 20 companies and universities is primarily focused on increasing algae production rates to more than 20 grams per square meter per day, and developing cost-effective water and oil extraction systems. By contrast, a typical US soy farm develops an average of 1 gram of soybeans per square meter per day. The consortium has a three-year budget of $69 million from the DOE and cost-shares from the institutions.

In Missouri, Phycal announced that it is moving out of the lab and into the BioResearch and Development Growth Park at the Danforth Plant Science Center, with a 2800 square foot facility. Phycal, which was co-founded by Dr. Richard Sayre, Director of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Danforth Plant Science Center; Chief Scientist of the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB); and Director of the Center for Advanced Biofuels Systems (CABS). The company is based in Ohio, where it is part of the Logos Energy Group, and is building a pilot project in Hawaii that will open this year.

Why Hawai’i? According to Phycal, “energy costs in Hawai’i are the highest in the United States, and its principal source of electricity is oil-fired plants that consume more than 400 million gallons of petroleum-based fuels annually. Phycal’s system can deliver algal oil at a competitive price for the Hawai’i market.” The company also points to the Hawai’i Clean Energy Initiative, which sets stringent clean energy targets. Successful demonstration and testing of components, system performance, and products will support deployment of a commercial scale farm as soon as 2015.
A whole passel of algae companies and ventures are still entering the marketplace. The Digest Top Story today is dedicated to highlighting just a few of the new. Some of these ventures - in the grand tradition of algal development - come with claims that make you get out your Cliff Notes version of the Laws of Thermodynamics, but all of them cause one to just marvel at the creativity and persistent entrepreneurship of it all.

As they development focuses on other important features such as plant source that can strive with reasonable yield, jatropha has been recently embraced for rapid commercialization due to varieties of features. Camalina,grass species etc..which can give abundance feedstock in shorter time,less fertile regions and sustainable development both short and long term.
Now coming back to the question of where will the biofuel stop, no there is no stop! Biofuel is the essential industry and it will reside side by side with fossil fuel. Blend or pure, there is no leave it.

Biofuel in briefs:

From the Manila Times: "Biofuels should not be viewed as a threat to food security. Instead, it should be considered a boon to the industry if the Brazilian experience is any indication...data from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) negate this misconception as only one percent of the cultivated areas in these countries are used for biofuels crops."

Tyson Foods President and CEO Donnie Smith: "If I'm guessing, E-12 [a 12% blend] will be the highest. Of course, we're hoping there's no change. Grain is down, but look where it's down to. There's a new kind of normal."
International News

In the Netherlands, Avantium announced the launch of its technology platform to produce green building block for materials and fuels, called YXY, on which it will collaborate with NatureWorks and DAF among other organizations. Avantium developed a process to convert biomass directly into furanics, green building blocks for materials and fuels.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance is reporting that global clean energy investment reached $27.3 billion in Q1 2010, up 31% from the Q1 2009, but dropping 13.6% from Q4. Asset-based financing was strongest in China, with $6.5 billion, while the fast-mover was the US, growing from $2.4 billion to $3.5 billion between Q1 '09 and Q1 '10. Last year, biofuels investment reached $44.9 billion for all of 2009.

In Brazil, Reuters is reporting that Bunge is promoting a $100 million investment fund that would be dedicated to agricultural land investments in Brazil. Bunge's management said that the fund would invest in multiple types of crops, but would focus on sugarcane production, noting that domestic demand for Brazilian ethanol has been growing at a rapid pace.
In China, China Integrated Energy (CBEH), announced that it has secured production equipment for its new 50,000 ton biodiesel production facility under construction in Shaanxi. The Company's advanced production technology is estimated to reduce production costs by 20%, and will utilize crop straw, agricultural waste, and organic waste as feedstocks.

In South Africa, ADEPT Airmotive unveiled a light general aviation aircraft, liquid-cooled engine, with advanced electronic engine management, that can operate on biofuels, or LP gas. The 320 horsepower engine was fitted recently in Durban to a SA Ravin 500 light aircraft, where it is expected to significantly reduce lead, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions and noise levels.

In Brazil, UNICA reports that ethanol sales in South-Central Brazil rose 17.83 percent in April to 1.85 billion liters (489 million gallons), with hydrous ethanol sales reaching 1.32 billion liters in April in the Brazilian domestic market, up 24 percent over March. Meanwhile, cane crushing reached 30.56 million tons in the second half of April, up 14.47% with total recoverable sugars at 121.38 kg per tone, up 6.6 percent.

In Israel, FuturaGene (LSE: FGN) has received an $85.9 million takeover bid offer from Brazil's Suzano Papel e Celulose (Bovespa: SUZB5), with an offer for $1.30 per share. Suzano Papel, a paper giant in Brazil which owns 750,000 acres of forest land, said that it wishes to enter the biofuels business. FuturaGene develops genetic engineering methods for biofuels feedstocks and other agricultural crops.

In Denmark, Novozymes filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin against Danisco for patent infringement. Novozymes believes that Danisco's alpha-amylase products GC358 and Clearflow AA for the biofuel and starch industries infringe Novozymes' US patent 7,713,723. The suit asks for an injunction against Danisco for breach of patent, but did not specify damages.

In Argentina, the Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber has released its latest study in its State of the Biofuels Industry series, covering the B5 and E5 mandates that began this year. Ethanol and biodiesel highlights, and graphs and tables available via biofuelsdigest.com.
In the Philippines, the Star is reporting that the national government will develop a $5 million, 250 acre, seaweed-based ethanol plant and aquafarm cluster. Sen. Edgardo Angara, speaking with the Star, said that seaweed grows faster than terrestrial crops, has no lignin, absorbs more airborne carbon, requires no pretreatment, and is suited at the Aurora site for up to six harvests per year.

In Germany, Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber confirmed to reporters that the airline will commence a transition to aviation biofuels in 2012. The airline's executive team confirmed that a more specific timeline, including blends, feedstocks and processing technologies/partners, will be released later in the year.

In Singapore, Portelet Asia partner Per Dahlen offers a follow up to his popular Southeast Asia, a Bio-Based Arabia? ."With this story we continue to explore the tremendous potential for 2nd generation biofuels in Southeast Asia by reviewing 25 horsepower tractors and the USD 25bn fuel-subsidies. Both will play a tremendous role in the deployment of second generation biofuels, both in this part of the world, and maybe also on a global scale."
In Peru, the SNV Netherlands Development Corporation released an impact assessment of potential biofuels production. Together with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) the reports looks at sustainable palm and jatropha options in the Peruvian Amazon.

In Switzerland, more than 50 organizations expressed support for the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels after support letters were circulated following the withdrawal of the European Biodiesel Board and eBIO from the organization. "We wish to express our continued support to the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) Secretariat" began one letter from members of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group. The signatories are on view at biofuelsdigest.com.

In the Philippines, the Department of Energy has announced a plant to increase biodiesel blends to 20 percent by 2025, with intermediate steps at 10 percent in 2015, and 15 percent in 2020. The Philippines have an E10 ethanol standard scheduled to take effect in 2011, which increases to E15 in 2015 and E20 by 2020.

PARTNER, FOCUS, SCALE: latest on biofuel world over

2010-05-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

Camalina plant

Partner, focus, scale

CEOs lay out the bioenergy challenges, solutions at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference in DC

At the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference in Washington, delegates heard yesterday from C-level executives at Coskata, Cobat Technologies, TMO Renewables, Iogen, Sapphire Energy, PetroAlgae, LS9, SG Biofuels, and Solazyme, as well as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan.

Merrigan noted in her keynote address that a partnership approach to commercializing biofuels was driving USDA's activity within the US Interagency Working Group as well as the partnership in Hawaii with the Department of the Navy to develop solutions that would reduce Hawaii's oil imports, which are the highest by percentage in the nation, as well as developing rural economies.

"I have been in Washington for a long time," observed Merrigan, "and recently we started hearing about a new acronym, USG, and a number of us asked each other, what is that agency? But it actually stands for the United States Government - meaning government-wide projects." crossing over traditional turf barriers to drive innovation.

Among other highlights, PetroAlgae chairman John Scott said that the company is now in discussion with 300 companies in 41 countries regarding licensing its technology. Sapphire Energy president C.J Warner confirmed that it is on track to break ground on its 300-acre pre-commercial facility later this year. Solazyme CEO Jonathan Wofson confirmed that the company is now doing multiple production runs per week in leased fermentation equipment. Joule Unlimited CEO Bill Sims confirmed a target of $30 per barrel oil equivalent and said commercial-scale construction would commence this year.

More highlights from ABLC day 2, including comments from INEOS Bio, LS9, SG Biofuels and more from Sapphire Energy, Joule, Solazyme, and PetroAlgae,at biofuelsdigest.com.

Producer News

In California, EdeniQ announced today the closing of a $12.4 million Series B round of financing led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. EdeniQ will use the funds to speed deployment of its existing yield enhancement technologies and to further develop its Corn-to-Cellulose Migration (CCM) program, which was recently awarded a $20.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

In California, Cereplast announced that it expects to commercialize its first grade of Cereplast Algae Plastics by the end of the year. Cereplast algae-based resins represent a breakthrough in industry technology and have the potential to replace 50% or more of the petroleum content used in traditional plastic resins.
World Opinion

Domestic Fuel: "Ethanol producers and corn farmers who were hoping for President Obama to make a strong show of support for the ethanol industry when he appeared at a POET plant in Missouri on Wednesday were probably a little disappointed...The entire speech, minus introductions, was only 10 minutes long and most of it was spent talking about the economy."

Digest subscriber Ottar Stensvold: "The carbonic anhydrase enzymes as means of carbon fixation? Carbonic anhydrase is an enzyme that assists rapid inter-conversion of carbon dioxide and water into carbonic acid, protons and bicarbonate ions. They are widespread in nature, being found in animals, plants, and certain bacteria...Since these enzymes are extremely efficient and abundant, there is a fair chance they can be harvested and used in carbon capture.

International News

In Denmark, Novozymes and China's Dacheng Group signed an agreement to expand their cooperation in developing biochemicals derived from biomass and to promote the industrialization of plant-based glycol. At the same time, Novozymes reported that Q1 sales increased by 11 percent and earnings increased by 33 percent over the corresponding period in 2009.

In Canada, Tim Cesarek, managing director in the Organic Growth Group of Waste Management, will join the board of Enerkem following from WM's strategic investment in the cellulosic ethanol pioneer. The company's strategy and goals were reported earlier this week in "Waste Management: Portrait of a Renewable Energy Strategic Investor."

In Indonesia, New World Energy, and Bosch and Siemens Home Appliance Group (BSH) of Germany have partnered on a pilot project to distribute the BSH-manufactured Protos, a stove powered by crude jatropha oil instead of kerosene, the dominant cooking fuel in Indonesia.

Research News

In Belgium, researchers determined that legislation to force the separate collection of organic waste in Europe could realize up to $10 billion in economic benefits. Eunomia, ARCADIS were the authors of the report, "'Assessment of the options to improve the management of bio-waste in the EU," which will support efforts by the European Commission to develop a bio-waste directive by the end of the year.
Camelina Aviation Biofuels Study

1 billion gallons of Camelina biofuel are projected to be produced for the aviation and biodiesel sectors by 2025, creating 25,000 new jobs; producing over $5.5 billion in new revenues and $3.5 billion in new agricultural income for U.S. and Canadian farmers. The projections are contained in "Camelina Aviation Biofuels Market Opportunity and Renewable Energy Strategy Report," released today by Biomass Advisors, the research division of Biofuels Digest.

"Camelina Aviation Biofuels Market Opportunity and Renewable Energy Strategy Report," is 116 pages, and includes more than 60 figures, tables and charts, along with regional crop forecast maps for visualizing business opportunities and planning infrastructure needs. The report is available for a purchase price of $695.

Biofuel doubling!

2010-05-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

Biofuel has been gaining ground were fossil fuel failed in terms of environment, pollution and economic benefits. Recent studies indicated very positive linear hike in biofuel production (solid,liquid,gas) from renewable sources such as from minute microbes to macro organism. The rise in Bioethanol,biobuthanol, biogas (methane, hydrogen) biodiesel (methyl esters) derived from waste or plant source has been very rapid across EU states, Asia, Asia Pacific specifically Australia picking up on biofuel mandates, USA, Canada, and the South American regions.

The focus is to blend or pure with fossil fuel given the climatic changes and immediate threat worldover. More recently, the oil spill in is changing the course for more imminient support to go biofuel. The scenario seem likely that biofuel have better positioned itself were fossil fuel was for the past 200 years thus the future look green for developers bringing in immense benefits to people as land will be used directly to support production. Given the technology, science and improvement, most of the word’s wasteland can be turned into useful eco-farm for energy feedstock, now here is the logic, put aside those fears and think from this end, if we are using land to produce food that is consumed in millions of tons per day, would the biofuel reach the same way? I do not see the threat in this newer trend , especially non food plant for biofuel, some examples are Jatropha,camalina,algae and host of other potential source for energy processing. Coffee waste processing to Bioethanol (enzymatic-acid hydrolysis) to fermentation and distillations are feasible approach and can be adequately met. Someone can look at the cost and unit operation involved in oil processing and compare that to biofuel processing and weigh the benefits, that will give a clear picture as a way to go is biofuel. Off course blending is the way to go, biofuel does not necessary have to replace fossil fuel,that will be impossible until such time in the future.
A simple google search for biofuel trends showed that biofuel has taken huge toll since 1995 and doubled in 2009, and 2010 is the year of intense race in biofuel, the coming 2020 is mandated to be the year of algae ‘’2020 algae’’.
Biofuel sustainability is inline with focus, it is believe and strongly convinced that biofuel future is coming out more clearly as the ‘energy-focus’ for every nation.

Research and publications: Waste to bioenergy bioprocessing, a circular system

2010-05-07T20:12:00.003-07:00

In our studies, I have been working on converting biowaste to value-added products. Using biological agent like algae such as microalga Chlorella vulgaris, or C. protothecoides have shown very interesting outcome. In these publications (Journal of Microbial Biochemical Technology-US base journal, and Indian journal of Science and Technology, we showed that a digestion-fermenter side by side symbiosis system is likely possible for the follwing bioproducts:

Biomethane was produced at 74% content, digestate residue was cleaned and feed to Chlorella vulgaris which showed optimum growth performance (high algal yield biomass, later we designed feeding mechanism that improved algal oil content/yield that was used for making biodiesel.
The residue digestates as semi solid were assessd as biofertilizer and found of high value for crop production. A backyard eco-farm can be sufficiently supported that feeds agro-waste to the digester for biomethane (the cycle)

Briefly, the study was recommendable becuase the biowaste processing-digester-fermenter (alga cultivation) system was new concept that can be easily produced even at family unit. The family housewhole or backyard farm watse,livestock waste can be converted into more useful energy feedstocks(biomethane,algal oil. The big picture here was algae commercialization involving the population, in other words, algae can be produced and be sold to the processor that makes range of biofuel (biodiesel,bioethnaol,biomethane,biobuthanol). In this way, algae becomes a 'cash crop' for many. Thus the algae 2020 plan (USA) can be easily achieved involing people from the bottom up.

Finally, the use of digested waste in microalgae cultivation using different modes of nutrition (dark/light) conditions proved interesting an art. Cellular lipid content and yield were easily increased with carbon source addition at later state of growth. The circular system proofed feasible.

The two abstracts are pasted here:

Abstract 1
Poultry manure (PM) was decomposed under high and low aeration-agitations and the digestates were supplemented in mixotrophic cultivation of microalga Chlorella vulgaris. High aerobic decomposition was recommended for faster mineralization. The study was conducted to find out the effect of poultry manure digestate (PMD) on cell biomass and lipid yield in C. vulagris. The cultivation were conducted ‘with’ (single and two-stage feeding strategy) and ‘without’ PMD feeding. Cultivation ‘without’ PMD at 120 h, dry cell weight (DCW) of 8.2g/L was reached, by 180 h, lipid yield of 2.1 g/L (45%) was reached. In single-stage of adding varied PMD, at 120 h, DCWs of 8.48, 9.39 and 10.45 g/L were achieved for PMD of 20, 30 and 40 ml/L, respectively. By 180 h, lipid contents were 45, 43 and 40% giving yields of 2.4, 2 and 1.8 g/L, respectively. In two-stage feeding (0-120 h and 120-180 h), at 120 h, DCWs were similar to single-stage but improved when supplementing with 2 g/L glucose reaching DCW of 12.6, 13.14 and 14 g/L achieving lipid yields of 2.9, 3.8 and 4.9 g/L, respectively, after 180 h. The addition of glucose seems to assist nitrogen depletion which in turn resulted in rapid increase in cellular lipid. It was obvious that addition of glucose at stationary phase maybe a novel method to improve lipid yields. The algal biomass PMD dependent accumulation showed that PM is an attractive waste which means that PM is potential waste for algae biofuels.

Keywords: aeration; digestion; digestate; Chlorella vulgaris; poultry manure

Abstract 2:
In this study we developed and tested a sustainable system that produces high-yield outputs of biomethane, biofertilizer and biodiesel. These were achieved by blending of poultry manure (PM), paper pulp and algae waste sludge in co-digestion producing biomethane, digestate filtrated to get semi-solid and aqueous, the former as biofertilizer and latter was used in algal cultivation to enhance algal biomass for biodiesel production. The varied blending of the substrates resulted in carbon/nitrogen ratios (C/N) of 26, 30, 31, 34 and 37 which were assessed for biomethane. C/N 26 resulted in 1045 ml/L/d (74% biomethane content) which was highest yield comparing to other C/N, C/N 30 achieved in similar (1010 ml/L/d) making the C/N range for optimum biomethane for these substrates to range between C/N 26 to 30. In comparison, C/N 31 to 37 achieved lower biomethane yields indicating. Pretreatments of the digestate improve the yields of biomethane in C/N 26 and 30 significantly. We assessed all the digestates from each of the C/N 26,30,31,34 and 37 based on nitrogen mineralization and found C/N 26 to 31 as being nutrients-rich. We filtered the digestate and used in algal supplemental feed and also found that glucose depletion was linearly depleted (as sufficiently used in cell growth) lowest with the nutrients-rich that is C/N 26 to 30.As expected, digestates from C/N 34 and 37 in single-addition failed to yield comparable algal yields then yields from C/N 26, 30 and 31 digestates at 120 h that achieved dry cell weight (DCW) of 7.72, 7.8 and 7.12 g/L respectively. To improve alga biomass yield and enhance cellular lipid content and its final yield, we investigated two-stage supplemental feeding strategy using digestates from C/N 26 and 30. Based on cultivation ‘without’ digestate that showed growth phases, we added digestate at lag-exponential (0-120 h) and stationary (120-180 h) phases. The supplemental feeding resulted in rapid glucose depletion achieving 9 g/L at 120 and reaching lipid yield 3.77 g/L after 180 h. Based on this study, it is conceivable that a circular system using the biowastes discussed or those of the similar nature can develop and constitute a self-supporting sustainable system from waste treatment, biogas to algal biofuel opportunities. The simple approach taken in algal cultivation under the condition studied further showed that microalgae biofuel can be easily promoted and commercialized as a revenue generating back-yard entity for housewhole. The way-forward for microalgae biofuel is to attract and make more population as a fun art.

Keywords: poultry manure, biomethane, biogas, biofertilizer, Chlorella vulgaris, alga biodiesel

Jatropha can soon be another Coffee for PNG if we..............

2010-01-18T05:46:00.000-08:00

As being said in my past articles regarding jatropha as being potential crop for PNG sub tropic clime. Its going into being an important cash crop as soon fuel will be derived from it and marketed worldover.

The article from biofuel digest says it all. Coffee was wild tree is africa some 150 years ago then it turned into green Gold in PNG and world over so is jatropha!

The New Jatropha
SG Biofuels parters with Life Technologies to accelerate development timelines by 60 percent; new jatropha high-profit cultivars released this year

In California, jatropha pioneer SG Biofuels announced a strategic alliance with Life Technologies, a provider of innovative life science solutions, to advance the development of Jatropha as a sustainable biofuel.

The partnership will initially include sequencing the Jatropha curcas genome, allowing for the rapid introduction of new traits targeted toward increasing the yield of the oil-producing plant. Life Technologies will also become a strategic partner in SG Biofuels.

In terms of metrics, the Life alliance is expected to reduce the cycle time for bringing new jatropha cultivars to market by 60 percent, from five years to two years.

For newer readers of the Digest, SG represents a new fork in jatropha development. In the 2000s, a number of developers emerged in jatropha, hailing it as a high-yield, stress-tolerant, non-food "wonder crop" that could be grown on fallow and otherwise unproductive land. As the Digest's March 2009 story "The Blunder Crop: a Biofuels Digest special report on jatropha biofuels development," detailed, "things would be going great if they weren't going so badly."

In recent months, jatropha has begun to turn a corner. GEM Biofuels has commenced shipping crude jatropha oil from Madagascar, Mission Bioenergy in Australia has steadied its balance sheet, the aviation industry has embraced jatropha as a near-term candidate for aviation biofuels feedstock and conducted successful flight tests, and now SG's alliance with Life promises to accelerate the next generation of high-profit cultivars.

Of particular interest: SG's announcement from last year that it had identified cold-tolerant jatropha varietals in its collection efforts in Central America. Work on those traits - using SG's existing breeding techniques, now combined with Life's genome sequencing tools - may well expand the geography for jatropha over the next 5-10 years.

Oil reserves going offshore-high price is imminent

2010-01-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

Big Oil never wanted to be here, in 4,300 feet of water far out in the Gulf of Mexico, drilling through nearly five miles of rock.

It is an expensive way to look for oil. Chevron Corp. is paying nearly $500,000 a day to the owner of the Clear Leader, one of the world's newest and most powerful drilling rigs. The new well off the coast of Louisiana will connect to a huge platform floating nearby, which cost Chevron $650 million to build. The first phase of this oil-exploration project took more than 10 years and cost $2.7 billion -- with no guarantee it would pay off.

Chevron came here, an hour-long helicopter ride south of New Orleans, because so many of the places it would rather be -- big, easily tapped oil fields close to shore -- have become off-limits. Western oil companies have been kicked out of much of the Middle East in recent decades, had assets seized in Venezuela and seen much of the U.S. roped off because of environmental regulations. Their access in Iran is limited by sanctions, in Russia by curbs on foreign investment, in Iraq by violence.

So, Chevron and other major oil companies are moving ever farther from shore in search of oil. That quest is paying off as these companies discover unexpectedly large quantities of oil -- oil that only they have the technology and financial muscle to find and produce.

In May, the first wells from Chevron's latest Gulf of Mexico project came online. The wells are now pumping 125,000 barrels of oil a day, making the project one of the gulf's biggest producers. In September, BP PLC announced what could be the biggest discovery in the gulf in years: a field that could hold three billion barrels.

Beyond the Gulf of Mexico, companies have announced big finds off the coasts of Brazil and Ghana, leading some experts to suggest the existence of a massive oil reservoir stretching across the Atlantic from Africa to South America. Production from deepwater projects -- those in water at least 1,000 feet deep -- grew by 67%, or by about 2.3 million barrels a day, between 2005 and 2008, according to PFC Energy, a Washington consulting firm.

The discoveries come as many of the giant oil fields of the past century are beginning to dry up, and as some experts are warning that global oil production could soon reach a peak and begin to decline. The new deepwater fields represent a huge and largely untapped source of oil, which could help ease fears that the world won't be able to meet demand for energy, which is expected to grow rapidly in coming years.

For oil companies, the discoveries mean something more: After a decade of retreat, large Western energy companies are taking back the lead in the quest to find oil. "A lot of people can get the very easy oil," says George Kirkland, Chevron's vice chairman. "There's just not a lot of it left."

There are challengers to Big Oil's deepwater dominance. Brazil recently has moved to give a larger share of its offshore oil to its state-run oil company, Petrobras. A handful of smaller companies, such as Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Tullow Oil PLC, have had success offshore, particularly in Ghana, where giants like BP and Exxon Mobil Corp. are now playing catch-up.

The enormous investments of time and money required for such projects have made many experts skeptical that they can ease the long-term pressure on global oil supplies. The scale of the projects means that few smaller companies have the resources to take them on. Devon Energy Corp., an independent producer based in Oklahoma City, recently announced plans to abandon its deepwater-exploration business to focus on less-expensive onshore projects, which is says will produce a better return.

"This is technology capable of going to the moon," says Robin West, chairman of consulting firm PFC Energy, involving "extraordinary uncertainty, immense levels of information processing, staggering amounts of capital."

Offshore drilling is almost as old as the oil industry itself. In the 1890s, companies began prospecting for oil from piers extending off the beach near Santa Barbara, Calif. Gulf Oil drilled the world's first fully offshore well from cedar pilings on a shallow lake near Oil City, La., in 1911.

From there, the industry pushed gradually outward, from the Louisiana bayous in the 1920s into the Gulf of Mexico, where Kerr McGee drilled the first well out of sight of land in 1947.

The push into deeper water has come in the past decade.

"What has enabled us to do that is technology," says David Rainey, BP's head of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico. "We have been pushing the limits of seismic-imaging technology and drilling technology."

Perhaps a bigger reason for the recent emphasis on deepwater exploration is that companies had few other places to go. In the early decades of oil exploration, Western companies were the only ones with the technology to manage big oil projects. But as technology spread and state-run oil companies became more sophisticated, foreign governments have relied less on outside help and have demanded greater control of their own oil resources.

With a few exceptions, state-run companies have largely stayed out of the deep water, with its enormous technical challenges and multibillion-dollar investment requirements. Western companies have steadily pushed farther offshore, not just in the Gulf of Mexico but in places like Nigeria, Malaysia, Norway and Australia.

At the same time, traditional oil fields have begun to dry up. In Mexico, the world's seventh-largest oil producer, daily production has dropped 23% since 2004 as output from its giant Cantarell field fell sharply. Other countries have seen their own, mostly smaller, declines.

Falling output from old fields has stoked fears that world-wide production could be nearing its peak. Global oil reserves -- a measure of oil that has been found but not yet produced -- fell in 2008 for the first time in a decade, according to BP's annual statistical review. Moreover, there are signs demand could soon catch up to supply. Global oil consumption has risen by 5.4 million barrels a day in the past five years, while production has risen by just 4.8 million barrels a day.

Such fears helped drive a rapid run-up in oil prices to nearly $150 a barrel in July 2008. The global recession cooled demand, driving down prices, although many experts expect prices to rise again when the economy recovers. Already, prices have rebounded to about $80 a barrel, from under $35 in December 2008.

Rising prices have spurred offshore exploration. By 2008, about 8% of global oil production came from deepwater fields.

Yet even the biggest deepwater projects aren't enough to put a dent in global supply problems on their own. The world's largest deepwater platform, BP's Thunder Horse in the Gulf of Mexico, produces 250,000 barrels of oil a day, just 0.3% of global consumption.

"These discoveries are changing the debate," says Ed Morse, chief economist for LCM Commodities, a brokerage firm. What remains unclear, he says, is whether the deepwater projects will ensure that new discoveries continue to meet demand.

Many in the industry argue the new fields have expanded the limits of where the industry can find oil, potentially delaying a decline in global production.

"There are vast unexplored areas in deep water, so tremendous opportunities for growth," says Steven Newman, president of Transocean Ltd., which owns the Clear Leader rig.

The push into deeper water hasn't always been smooth sailing. Offshore projects are expensive, time-consuming and prone to failure. Chevron boasts of a 45% exploration overall success rate in recent years, a remarkable run by industry standards, but one that also means the company has spent billions on projects that haven't panned out.

Chevron's successes have outweighed its failures. It was expected to be the fastest-growing big oil company in 2009, as measured by oil production, in large part because of new offshore projects in the Gulf of Mexico and off Brazil. Other companies that have embraced offshore exploration, such as BP, are also seeing big growth, while those that haven't are scrambling.

Exxon, which hasn't emphasized deepwater exploration as much as competitors, recently offered $4 billion for a stake in an oil field off the coast of Ghana.

Chevron made its big offshore bet in the 1990s, when it began buying up leases in the Gulf of Mexico that were in such deep water, the technology didn't yet exist to drill there. Confident that technology would catch up, the company in 1996 bid in and won a U.S. government auction for the right to explore for oil in several areas of the gulf, in hopes that a fraction would turn into producing fields.

Chevron then spent six years analyzing its new holdings, figuring out which were most likely to hold oil. The key tool in its arsenal: seismic imaging, a sonar-like process in which sound waves are shot into the rock, and their echoes are picked up by sensors on the surface.

Adding to the challenge: The oil that Chevron was pursuing lay beneath a thick layer of salt, which disrupts seismic sound waves and blurs the images like a smudge on a camera lens. The company had to analyze the data with supercomputers to clear up that distortion.

The analysis revealed a potentially huge oil reservoir. Even so, Chevron estimated it had only a one-in-eight chance of finding commercial quantities of oil. The only way to know for sure was to drill.

So, in 2002, Chevron spent about $100 million to sink its first well in the field, which came to be known as Tahiti. That well needed to hit a 200-foot-long target from five miles away -- akin to hitting a dart board from a city block away.

"You have to roll the dice, and the dice roll now is north of $100 million," says Gary Luquette, president of Chevron's North American exploration and production division.

Chevron's first Tahiti well struck enough oil to make it worth more drilling to see how big the field might be. By 2005, the company had learned enough to go forward with the project. That required building a 700-foot-tall, 45,000-ton floating oil-production platform, and drilling a half dozen wells to feed oil to it. Tahiti produced its first commercial quantities of oil in May.

On a recent morning, the Clear Leader rolled on the waves 190 miles south of New Orleans, held almost perfectly in place by its satellite-controlled navigation system and six Korean-made engines.

In a cabin on the ship's deck, a team of drillers in coveralls monitored computer terminals as they used joysticks to control a drill bit more than 12,800 feet below. The oil they were targeting lay another 14,000 feet underground -- an easy reach for a ship that can drill down 7.5 miles.

The well is part of a second phase of the Tahiti project, which will require drilling several more wells and expanding the floating platform -- an additional $2 billion in spending, still with no guarantee of success.

Kevin Ricketts, a Chevron engineer who worked on both phases of the Tahiti project, recalled looking up at the massive platform while it was still on shore, and reflecting on how his team's analysis had led to its construction.

"I'd never seen anything that big," Mr. Ricketts said. "I thought, holy moly, our production forecast led to that thing being built. I sure hope we're right."

Brazil tops US in $8.73 billion in 2009 biofuels equity

2010-01-05T06:20:00.000-08:00

While PNG rush into mass resources exploitation resulting in money rain in those lucky areas. Some clever regions are looking into the future through renewable resources development. As LNG,gold copper etc ..investment raises, Biofuel investments have been sharply rising.

Below is the updates.

Brazil tops US in $8.73 billion for biofuels investments for 2009

Digest project summary available for free download

$8.737 billion in biofuels processing technology and feedstock development investments were announced in 2009, based on analysis of 81 investments in 18 countries as reported in Biofuels Digest.
Overall, Brazil led with $3.454 in announced investments, followed by the US with $2.31 billion. Among fuels, mixed product strategies dominated with 23 investments aimed at multiple fuels or co-products, while wood and sugarcane dominated the feedstocks. The largest reported investments were a $2.8 billion commitment from Petrobras and a $600 million investment by ExxonMobil.

The investments include debt, equity and government grants, and in most cases involve multi-year investments, funds that may be injected into projects in later years, or projects that may be delayed or in some cases not completed.

The downloadable project table includes projects, location, investment amlount,. fuel, feedstock and, in some cases, additional notes on project investors or investment structure

Producer News

Reporter Bill Tauber of the McClatchy newpaper chain, promoted as the "Green Enmergy Coach" said in answer to a reader question that "ethanol, energy savings is a hoax". Tauber asserted that corn ethanol production requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the energy contained in the ethanol fuel, and asserted that "corn grain [is]...doing harm to the soil since the corn is planted regularly without a natural break in the planting seasons." The Digest is inviting readers to submit hard data in support of, or in opposition to, McClatchy's reporting.

In Texas, the 180 Mgy Renewable Biofuels biodiesel plant, with the largest refining capacity in the country, has been idled due to the expiration of the biodiesel tax credit. Meanwhile, GreenHunter Energy, owner of a 105 Mgy biodiesel facility near Houston that is also idled and up for sale, said that its GreenHunter Biofuels subsidiary has received a waiver to any claims of default from lender WestLB, while it looks for fresh capital or sell its assets.

World Opinion

Renewable Fuels Association: "The past decade truly was the era when biofuels such as ethanol came of age. From just 1.4 billion gallons of production in 1999, the U.S. ethanol industry last year produced an astonishing 10.6 billion gallons. Ethanol is now, truly, a ubiquitous component of the U.S. motor fuel market, with ethanol blended in more than 80% of every gallon of fuel, and ethanol blends sold virtually coast to coast and border to border."

Todd Guerrero, Frederickson & Byron: "Growth Energy and the RFA recently filed suit in federal district court alleging that California's low carbon fuel standard violates the federal Constitution. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution invalidates state laws that interfere with or are contrary to federal law...the trade groups assert that the LCFS stands as an obstacle to Congress' intent in adopting the 2007 EISA Act...The LCFS conflicts with EISA because it will impose limits on GHG emissions on existing plants that Congress specifically exempted."

International News

In India, Indian Oil Corporation told the Business Standard that it has entered talks to acquire 123,000 acres in Uttar Pradesh for jatropha and karanija oilseed plantations. The company previously acquired more than 75,000 acres in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, where it has planted over 20,000 acres to date with jatropha. Those plantations are expected to be harvest-ready by 2013-14.

In Hungary, ethanol construction pioneer Fagen is turning to Eastern Europe for new business as US biofuels construction slows. CEO Ron Fagen said that his company is completing one more corn ethanol plant, but expects that his business mix will be 560 percent biomass power projects, and 25 percent wind energy.

Keeping you updating on biofuel future.

Biofuel 2009 present 2010 focus and developments worldwide.

2010-01-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

In biofuel, it is a general believe that cheap fossil fuel will become more scarce as population and modernisation climb.The interest for biofuel development is likewise to meet the growing market and to neutrlise and safegurd for any fuel crisis. It is also clear that ,as inland reserves are depleting,off-shore operation will be expensive and by-products will be ezpensive.These focusts had pushed biofuel developments, the 2010 and beyond is focused on feasible source,sustainble operation and processing for liquid,gas and solid fuels biofuels.

From biofueldigest.com Highlights.

Yesterday is history, but is tomorrow really a mystery? Some biofuels trends are becoming increasingly clear.

Here are the Digest's 10 Predictions for 2010.

#10. Low Carbon Fuel Standards. Increasing action from the states in establishing fuel-neutral Low Carbon Fuel Standards based on the California LCFS model - which will likely create a checkerboard of allowable biofuels, and prompt a series of lawsuits by trade associations such as Growth Energy that address the ultimate question: Can individual states ban corn ethanol in terms of qualifying towards state renewable fuels mandates, when the fuel is approved under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard? Look for this one to reach the Supreme Court. The hint from 2009.

#9. Cellulosic ethanol "happens". In the US, ZeaChem's semi works facility will be completed, POET will near completion at its 25 Mgy project in Iowa, and Range Fuels' will open a 20 Mgy facility in Soperton, Georgia. Internationally, look for LanzaTech's 500,000 gallon project to open, the first cellulosic ethanol deal in China, and announcements that Brazilian, Vietnamese and Australian sugarcane bagasse will be utilized in advanced biofuels projects. Overall, 102 million gallons of advanced biofuels capacity by the end of the year, with 25 Mgy of it cellulosic ethanol at 17 facilities. The hint from 2009.

#8. Aviation biofuels surge. Certification complete for Bio-SPK as an aviation biofuel. Major deals struck by British Airways, Qantas, Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines for biofuels. Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic will also announce new paths to increased use of renewables. The hint from 2009.

#7. More ethanol capacity acquired by oil companies. For 2010, look for a major acquisition of 200-800 Mgy in ethanol capacity, at discounted rates of around $0.70 per gallon of capacity, by a major oil refiner in the US. The hint from 2009.

#6. Green chemicals and plastics boom. In 2010, look for: Major strategic investment from chemicals and plastics firms - likely Dupont, Monsanto, or India's Reliance - in a renewable chemicals platform. The hint from 2009.

#5. A jatropha revival. Look for a major investment announcement from SG Biofuels, outlining their capital strategy. Potential reorganization of GEM Biofuels. Strong interest in jatropha from fast-emerging aviation biofuels sector. The hint from 2009.

#4. US Congress revises Renewable Fuel Standard. Congress will take up the Renewable Fuel Standard with a goal of setting new targets and timelines, and making the language more fuel and feedstock neutral. Look for the 36 billion gallon target established in 2007 to be extended towards 2025, or reduced. Look for drop-in fuels and microcrops to be added to the legislation. Look for indirect land use change to be dropped as a criteria for biofuels until 2015. The hint from 2009.

#3. Lemna, cyanobacteria and heterotrophic algae gain traction as microcrops begin transition from R&D to commercialization. In 2010, look for a major customer for the lemna platform via PetroAlgae; reorganization at Biolight Harvesting. Open ponds to be reconsidered in favor of partially closed environments to reduce the impact of soot on pond development. The hint from 2009.

#2. Long range marine biofuels/green port deals. Two major port based orders for renewable marine fuel (bunker fuel from pyrolysis, or marine diesel). The hint from 2009.

#1. Alternative financing: REITs move in. The formation of at least one, major $1B+ bioenergy investment fund that will acquire assets on a build-leaseback or buy-leaseback basis. Possibly the fund will replenish its capital through the sales of securities based on the underlying pool of assets. The hint from 2009.

Merry Christmas and happy new year 2010.

2009-12-28T03:35:00.000-08:00

Some lonely faces of 2009.

Happy new year to all my readers on this blog. May you have a blessed new year 2010.

Copenhagen meeting regarding Bioenergy Future.

2009-12-24T06:37:00.000-08:00

Source: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2009/12/23/copenhagen-cop15-bioenergy-industry-reacts/

Copenhagen (COP15): Bioenergy industry reacts
Copenhagen climate summit (COP15) has concluded without a definitive climate treaty. Inductry reactino follows from Renergie CEO Brian Donovan (US), Alkol CEO Al Costa (Brazil), Biomass Advisors’ Mackinnon Lawrence (US), and Biofuels Digest South Asia correspondent Joelle Brink:

Joelle Brink, South Asia correspondent for Biofuels Digest, writes:

Biofuels leaders invited to the Copenhagen came away from the first week of negotiations assured that they will receive priority in the UN’s renewable energy plans, and eager to partner with one another to speed up the pace of innovation. In the second week, however, the negotiations with national governments bogged down over the issue of emissions cuts by China and the developed economies. In the end a nonbinding agreement between the major polluting nations was signed with many others dissenting, leaving the real work for the Mexico City round n 2010.

Not only were many developing nations left hanging, but also US utilities that had planned on utilizing cap and trade credits. A global recession, heightened economic competition between developed nations and emerging superpowers, and historic neglect of the environmental problems of the poor led to a collective reluctance to address the thornier aspects of global warming. In particular, the question of “carbon budgets” linked to population size was a sticking point. By this measure the US would not be eligible for carbon credits and would have to pay into a fund to assist poor nations.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived at the talks with a pledge of US $100 billion per year to fund environmental action in the most endangered developing nations. President Obama later acknowledged that more was needed but said the $100 billion pledge was the best the US could do in its present circumstances. He attempted to broker a last minute emissions reduction agreement among the major polluters, but came away with a nonbinding voluntary commitment only.

China subsequently declared itself satisfied with the non-binding resolution, which leaves it free to maintain or even increase its emission levels and does not require it to accept international monitoring. The same line was taken by other governments that lack political transparency. India, which already has a monitored civilian nuclear agreement in place with the US, took the American side. Indian Climate Minister Jairam Ramesh, who was among the chief negotiators in Copenhagen, declared that the Indian delegation was “preparing for 2010” and would continue to press for a binding resolution.

Climate activists gathered in the cold outside the Bella Center and representatives of environmental NGOs gathered inside reacted at first with disbelief, which slowly turned to anger. Al Gore canceled a scheduled personal appearance “with great annoyance” according to the publisher of his upcoming book, Our Choice. As Friday night wore on some proposed uniting to take on the challenge of global warming collectively. It was a moment Ghandhi would have approved of, in which people at last understand that they must be the change they wish to see in the world.

In 2010 the discussions move on to Mexico City, and to what was originally intended as a meeting to resolve the logistics of the Copenhagen action plan. There is no action plan at present, but political heat from environmental activists and pro environment governments, which is likely, may produce one over the next several months.

Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, said:

“While the accord negotiated in the closing hours by a small number of heads of government, including China, India, and the US, is a disappointment to many—in process, form, and content—others will see the full engagement by heads of government as a milestone in climate policy. The true value of the accord depends on the follow-up. A key aspect of follow up is the fast, forgotten 50% of warming caused by non-CO2 gases and aerosols. Not only do non-CO2 pollutants make up half of warming, they are the half that can be solved quickly. Cuts in CO2 are essential but won’t result in cooling benefits for up to 1,000 years. The islands have recognized the urgent need for fast, near-term solutions, in addition to CO2 reductions.”

Mackinnon Lawrence, a policy analyst with Biomass Advisors, writes:

Last week, world leaders emerged from the two-week Copenhagen conference (COP-15) with an Accord falling well short of the binding agreement many had argued was necessary to combat the worst effects of human-induced climate change. To be fair, with a slumping global economy draining political will and lethargy in the U.S. Senate raising questions about U.S. climate leadership, expectations were low heading in. Just weeks before the Conference kicked off on December 7th, world leaders announced they would pursue a two-step strategy, which included a framework agreement as a foundation for follow-up talks in Mexico City in December 2010.

To this end, the Accord seems to have delivered with provisions that include aid to developing countries, transparency, and most notably, commitments among the world’s major economies to curb emissions and report actions. But it fails to agreements Reports suggest that the deal was brokered in large part by some 11th-hour bargaining by Obama among the U.S., China, India, Brazil, and South Africa, which salvaged a diplomatic deadlock that took negotiators through an all-night marathon session.

First, it represents the first time that all major economies (including emitters) have made commitments to curb global warming pollution and report their actions. This latter point is especially encouraging in anticipation of future talks.

Perhaps the most difficult obstacle for international consensus on climate change has been the rift between developed and developing countries. Developed countries that have long enjoyed the benefits of industrialization and resulting economic prosperity want to hold developing countries accountable for their emissions as they modernize their economies. Developing countries, including China, India, and Brazil, argue that they should be exempt from having to report their emissions so long as they are playing “catch up.” The deadlock slowly eroded Kyoto’s efficacy and has more recent efforts to reach an agreement.

Getting China on board is perhaps the biggest breakthrough, especially in light of their increased willingness to exercise its growing economic influence. Although China forced a roll-back of emissions reduction commitments, they are now not only putting numbers on the table with a pledge to join the global fight to reduce climate pollution, they have agreed to open their books on their rising emissions and allow a transparent review of their progress toward their emission pledge. The China excuse is now off the table for the U.S. Senate, which could lead to action on the Kerry-Boxer bill.

Second, the Accord establishes the first ever “Green in the amount of 30 billion dollars for 2010-2012 to be allocated between adaptation and mitigation, including forestry.

Third, while fingers have been fixed on the U.S. over the last decade for its part in styming international efforts to combat climate change, Obama may have single-handedly salvaged U.S. reputation and leadership through, what is being hailed, as a skillful diplomatic meneuvering.

Still, the Accord falls well short on a number of issues.”

Renergie CEO Brian Donovan offers a detailed policy analysis: “Why Carbon emissions should not have been the focus of the U.N. Climate Change Summit and why the 15th conference of the parties should have focused on technology transfer. ” Donovan writes, “Unfortunately, this conference focused primarily on setting a cap on carbon emissions and providing financial aid to developing countries to build capacities to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change… the focus should have been on the transfer of proven renewable energy technology from developed to developing countries and how this technology transfer can be financed with currently available funds.”
Al Costa, CEO of Brazil’s Alkol, writes:

Thank you Lula for saving COP15 (a “basic” solution)

One of the first things anyone who lives in Brazil learns is the famous “jeitinho brasileiro” (”brazilian little way”), or the ability to find some loophole, a legal backdoor, some little-known or used judicial tool to get things done. We see them happening everywhere: in fact, it was the only way former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso found to run the country: by issuing “MP – Medidas Provisórias” (”Temporary Measures”), or measures only to be used in times of war. So you get the point.

Still, there are times in which that artifice actually shows its value, and COP 15 is a prime example, for anyone who actually thought that COP 15 would be able to produce a legal document was to say the least a dreamer. In fact, the UN only accepts decisions that are made unanimously. And if we consider the fact that there 193 nations involved in an event that was already in its 15th edition, and that the event saw 3 presidents give their places to others, we easily see we were dreaming indeed.

And in fact, after almost 2 weeks of going in circles and with the event nearing its very end, no real agreement was done. Yes, there were plenty of drafts, ideas, proposals, etc presented by several parties but none seemed to satisfy everyone: when one almost seemed to be “the one”, some party would disagree on something and everyone would have to go back to the drawing board. So just when everyone was about to go home totally empty handed, 4 countries that were named “BASIC” (Brazil, South Africa (”Africa do Sul”), India and China), lead by Brazil, decide to have a secret meeting at 2:00 AM to actually work in a draft.

And Brazil has plenty of credibility to call such a meeting: the country actually made it into a law the proposition to cut greenhouse emissions from 36,1% to 38,9% until the year 2020: almost twice what was being proposed in COP15. It will also decrease the cutting down of the amazon forest by 80% until that year. It has also allocated R$1 billion a year from the pre-salt oil money for a fund destined to cover for global warming changes destined for the north-east region (which lacks water) and the coastal regions (because of the danger of the sea level elevation). It has also passed a law that allows sugarcane to be grown only in especific areas of the country, far from the amazon, cerrado, etc. And all that will come at a cost of US$16 billions a year: a very respectable number considering we are talking about a developing country. Lula even claimed in his final speech that if need be Brazil will step forward and actually lend or give money to developing countries to help them achieve their CO2 commitments.

During the secret meeting, Obama asked to sit besides Lula. The chinese promptly reminded Obama that they would not accept international inspections to check if their emissions were in fact being lowered, as they understood that was a breach in their sovereign, self-determination etc. Lula saved the day simply by suggesting a change of name: so, instead of “inspection”, the term “analysis” was chosen. Even so Obama objected, and was finally convinced when reminded by India that the term is actually used by the OMC. Finally, and to give the document a legal ground, a rarely used legal loophole was used and so the meeting ended, everyone went to their hotels and in the morning the draft was presented to the UN board. This promptly accepted the thing, glad that SOMETHING was finally signed and agreed upon!

So what it amounts here is basically a meaningful and united group got fed up with the indecisions and excessive babble of the event, got together in a secret meeting, was able to create a draft, and invited the US to bless it. The text basically recognizes the need to keep world climate 2 degrees down until 2020 and promises US$ 30 billion in financing to developing countries. So, after almost 2 weeks of intense debates that went basically in circles, the world saw COP15 ending up with a draft that had no legal binding and was not widely shown nor really understood. A very disappointing document indeed.

But the question remains: what if that document was not written? Most probably over 190 countries represented there would go back to their homes totally empty-handed. The unbelievable shame of that would completely destroy any possibility of ever reaching any sort of agreement on any COP16, 17, 18, you name them.

Still, the document was rejected by the usual US enemies: Cuba, Bolivia, and Venezuela. This last one very ungratefully to Brazil, as the country recently approved its entry to Mercosul. And not to mention Bolivia, which took over US$1.3 of brazilian oil investment a couple of years ago and payed mere US$150 million back for it. (If these are friends who needs enemies?) Other countries such as Tuvalu made the usual pseudo-impressive biblical remarks, saying they would not sell their countries for 30 pieces of silver, etc.

But the fact of the matter is that the usual legal tools to get things done have shown their inefficiencies for too long. And curiously enough, the jeitinho brasileiro is showing up in places known for being radically opposite to that. In the US, last week the EPA issued a ruling that greenhouse gas emissions actually endanger human health. And since anything that has to do with human health is under its unbrella, that effectively cleared the way for it to be able to regulate carbon without congressional legislation. In a similar fashion, Senator Lisa Murkowski, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is leading an effort to overturn that ruling through a rarely used congressional joint resolution of disapproval.

So, again, anyone who truly thought that over 190 countries with radically different views on a subject that even in the scientific community is still debated would be able to produce a legal document under the UN framework is just not for real. That doesn´t mean however that we can´t still find ways to create some levels of commitments, as Lula proved.

In fact, Brazil showed without a doubt that it is definitely leading the way in nature conservancy and is in the right and fast track to be considered a a world leader. And let us not forget that Brazil is also being a very important part in the Honduras crisis, and was recently a peace keeper in Haiti as well. Brazil and Lula are definitely showing world-class leadership and COP 15 is a shining example of that.

Feasible Energy source and processing-Biogas

2009-12-20T08:04:00.000-08:00

The possibility of processing/design of portable digester for private energy generation using microbe is attracting.

If you have to digest 50 kg of organic material, theoretically 34-37% percentage will generate into biogas and more than 70% of the biogas is biomethane. Compressing that into a tank and injecting into your car engine could save more liters of fossil fuel save more money and run extra mile efficiently.

This is the new technology emphasising down stream processing and can be done by any person.

Today when unstable fuel market high prices and climate change propaganda, the general direction is self sufficiency in fuel production for own use. Surplus energy and cheaper source,feasible,sustainable and more importantly renewable is the correct ingredient for today's society.

The genration of biogas from agricultura waste,local biomass,backyard waste/garden compost and anaimal waste is uniquely attracting.The cheap ,more emphasised fossil fuel has blinded these generations and we have been somewhat addicted to depending on it so much and this is good for producers.

However, the view in this blog persents the potential at our disposal that can make us more independent from within our graps on such important item as fuel.

The importance of genrating biogas at lcal home scale has long being surpressed for fear of turning people's attention.

Given the todays' changing geopolitical status, supply of fuel can go into jeopardy and millions or even billion population into stone age choas.

The PNG LNG project will come and go, if skills and knowledge cannot be used to exercise self-producing today,the glories will go with it. LNG glories will come and go,nothing changed,PNG and her people will still remain faithful consumer to foreign producers and deadly dependent.

My study in producing biogas using domesticate livetsock waste successfully indicated that free energy can be easily processed and locally go independent.

New Algae 2020 Study Asks: Can Algae Feed and Fuel The World?

2009-09-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

(BIOFUELS DIGEST NEWSWIRE: Houston, September 23) Emerging Markets Online, a strategic management consultancy specializing in energy forecasting and technology commercialization, recently published a study Algae 2020: Biomass Market Strategies and Commercialization Outlook (460 pages, June 2009). Algae 2020 is a strategic guide for investors, fuel producers, agribusiness, researchers, stakeholders, and consultants.

The Algae 2020 study asks: Can Algae Feed and Fuel The World?

The answer is: it already does.

Can Algae Fuel The World?

We already use algae for fuel. It is in the car you drive, a fossil fuel. Today's crude oil originates from algae that has cooked in the layers of the earth for hundreds of millions of years. Fast forward 20 years. The US Department of energy estimates global demand for energy will increase by 50% by the year 2030. Most of this energy growth will come from the Emerging Markets of China, India, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas.

"Emerging Markets Online asks - how will the world meet this increasing demand for energy? The Algae 2020 study answers these questions and presents real-world, practical, achievable mid to long-term solutions for algae biomass and biofuels production," said Thurmond. "The US, Europe, China and India are addicted to imported foreign oil. Each of these countries has a plan to reduce oil consumption with biofuels. Oil and gas majors BP, Chevron, Exxon and Shell are investing in algae as their logical feedstock of choice to produce biofuels without compromising the rainforests or arable land. Plus, algae consumes CO2 from power plants, a double benefit for carbon reduction and biofuels production." said Thurmond.

Can Algae Help Feed The World?

We already use algae to feed livestock. Fish and cattle feed on algae produced from oceans, rivers and in ponds. Chickens feed on proteins from algal biomass, and humans consume these livestock. In the Emerging Markets of China, India, Africa, the Middle East and Africa, there is an increasing demand from rising middle classes for more beef, chicken, fish and protein in their diets, representing a huge opportunity for algae feedstock. According to of the United Nations, agricultural output will need to double by 2050 to feed more than 9 billion people, which notes increasing food production is a moral imperative to meet growing population demands.

"Emerging Markets' Algae 2020 study examines these challenges and finds algae will play an increasing role in bio-industrial production systems to create high-value feed for livestock and human consumption, “ said Thurmond. "Algae feedstocks have a key role to play in feeding this massive demand for food from the Emerging Markets by 2050," said Thurmond.

Will Industrial Algae Projects Help to Feed and Fuel The World?

"The increasing needs from Emerging Markets for feed and fuel are creating greater demands on arable lands" said Thurmond. "Algae 2020 concludes the commercialization of algae technologies will play a key supporting role in bridging the gap between today’s resources, and the future Emerging Market demands for feed and fuel," said Thurmond.

The Algae 2020 study was written by Will Thurmond, President of energy strategy and forecasting firm Emerging Markets Online. The Algae 2020 study was based on dozens of on-site visits with algae producers and more than four years of collaborations with scientists, biofuel producers, associations, governments, investors, inventors and NGOs, and includes a forward by Jim Lane, Editor of Biofuels Digest.

Algae is future!

2009-09-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

It’s an economically viable fuel option—producing algae fuel is low in cost and can yield high returns. Not only are the two main inputs free (sunlight and carbon dioxide), the fuel source itself is not subject to political price fluctuations. It also appeals to fuel companies as a way to reduce carbon emissions, and would become even more popular if the U.S. were to implement a carbon cap-and-trade system. Once dried, algae as a fuel source is versatile—it can be burned like coal, liquefied to produce oil, or used in other ways to make plastics, foods, or nutraceuticals—occupying many of the same niches as corn and fossil fuel but in a more cost-efficient manner.

It’s actually sustainable—algae farming doesn’t require arable land or potable water to produce an abundance of energy (it grows in brackish waste or sea water), and the energy used to turn the algae into liquid fuel can be excess heat from a nearby power plant or from photo-bio-voltaic panels. Algae removes inorganic carbon dioxide—excesses of which cause global warming—from the air, eventually turning it into the organic carbon dioxide that powers our cars, trains and planes. Though there might not be a net loss of carbon dioxide in the process, by displacing fossil fuel and other fossil fuel-intensive bio-fuel sources, algae fuel would eliminate the introduction of new carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

It’s scalable—enough algae fuel can be produced to sustain our fuel-guzzling habits. The constraints common among other alternative fuel sources don’t affect algae farming: algae reproduces at a rapid rate, can be harvested, dried and turned into liquid fuel within a two-week period, and is a sustainable practice. Currently, algae is the only crop capable of being converted into biodiesel fuel to support the world’s current consumption rates.

Admittedly, there are some remaining glitches in the proposition of large-scale algae farming. It has been tried before and met with mixed results; however, the newest fuel-production method is both more energy efficient and less expensive. New techniques such as gravity and non-thermal drying have greatly improved the process of algae biofuel harvesting.

Both corn and soybeans use arable land and potable water, require longer growing seasons and rely on fertilizers made from fossil fuels or natural gas. Additionally, these other biofuel contenders take away from food that could otherwise be consumed. Compared with other available options, including fuel made from corn and soybeans—not to mention fossil fuels—algae biofuel seems to be the best option if the world’s current fuel and food consumption patterns continue at their current level or increase.

Bioethanol news in brief.

2009-09-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

Kentucky sets biomass, biofuel production goals
Kentucky has developed a 21-member executive task force to facilitate the development of a statewide sustainable biomass and biofuels industry and to educate state legislators on the ability to utilize local biomass to achieve this goal. The task force held its first meeting Sept. 2, and determined the state needs to produce 25 million tons of biomass annually by 2025 in order for Kentucky to adequately contribute to the federal renewable fuel standard and a state renewable portfolio standard. The state should also produce enough biofuels by 2025 to meet 12 percent, or 775 million gallons per year, of its transportation fuel demand.

NDPSC files motion on VeraSun Hankinson grain elevator
North Dakota's Public Service Commission will seek permission to pursue a state insolvency case against VeraSun Energy Corp.'s grain storage facilities at Hankinson, in southeastern North Dakota. Specifically, the Public Service Commission asks in the filing that the grain elevator "may be liquidated and distributed to certain farmers who allege they have not been paid for grain they delivered to a public warehouse facility operated by [VeraSun Hankinson, LLC.]" While the case proceeds, the commission wants a federal bankruptcy court order allowing it to be appointed trustee of the grain elevator where the corn was stored.

WASDE: Record yields meet increased demand from ethanol
The USDA lowered its expectation for beginning corn stocks by 25 million bushels due to higher expected corn use for ethanol in 2008-'09, according to its Sept. 11 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate. The U.S. DOE Energy Information Agency reported record blending of ethanol into gasoline in July and August and the trend is expected to continue. The USDA now expects over 4 billion bushels of corn to be used in 2009-'10 for ethanol production

South Dakota adds ethanol storage for state fleet
South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds recently announced that ethanol fuel tanks will be installed at three state Department of Transportation regional yards in an effort to increase the use of renewable fuel by the state fleet. Although nearly 40 percent of South Dakota's 3,395 government vehicles are flexible fuel vehicles, state employees have not had access to high ethanol blends, such as E85, at state fueling facilities. Instead, they had the option of purchasing E85 at commercial stations. During the 2009 fiscal year that ended June 30, state employees purchased only 32,640 gallons of E85.

North Carolina explores biofuel feedstock options
The Biofuels Center of North Carolina, Oxford, is investigating the potential for in-state biofuels production from energy crops and forest biomass. Industry leaders, elected officials and others recently toured the center's 4-acre plot of more than a dozen energy crops and fast-growth trees as part of the North Carolina Grows Biofuels event. The state allocated $5 million to the center to fund research and development in three main areas: agronomics, conversion technologies and workforce development, according to Norman Smit, director of communications and education for the center. Grants have been awarded to several companies and liquid biofuels projects. "The biofuel center's goal is to replace 10 percent of all fuel used in the state with homegrown and produced biofuels by 2017," Smit said. North Carolina buys 5.6 billion gallons of liquid fuels annually, according to the center.

Canadian software company targets ethanol producers
Canada-based STI Corp. said despite current difficulties within the industry, ethanol is a growth market and long-term energy demands will prove it's an industry worth investing in. The manufacturing operations management company last year determined that ethanol should be a part of the company's long-term strategy and is now focused on providing ethanol producers with its Manufacturing Execution Systems as a way to increase plant productivity and reduce costs.

Brazilian organizations unite in alliance to fight climate change
Fourteen major Brazilian organizations representing the agribusiness, planted forests and bioenergy sectors recently announced the creation of the Brazilian Climate Alliance, with the goal of contributing solid proposals for the negotiations related to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Brazilian Climate Alliance stresses that Brazil, a country with one of the cleanest energy matrixes in the world, with over 40 percent of its makeup originating from renewable sources, should play a leading role in global climate discussions.

In New Hampshire, Mascoma announced that it has entered into a feedstock processing and lignin supply agreement with Chevron Technology Ventures. Under terms of the agreement, CTV will provide various sources of lignocellulosic feedstock to Mascoma. Mascoma will then convert the feedstock to cellulosic ethanol through its proprietary process, which produces lignin as a by-product. Mascoma will provide this lignin to CTV for evaluation.

There has been considerable research on the use of lignin as a feedstock for hydrocarbon-based fuels, and last year, Chevron and Weyerhaeuser announced the formation of a joint venture, Catchlight Energy, to research the production of fuels from forest materials, including lignin.

In Iraq, the national government has approved a plan to improve agricultural productivity by commencing a project to convert surplus dates into ethanol. The national date palm board said that an unnamed company from the UAE would process dates from the Tigris-Euphrates region in a project intended to assist the agricultural sector which has been beset by soil salinity and exhaustion.

Biofuel is mandatory,indefinite fossil fuel price is not promising.

2009-09-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

Future is molded by today's choice.

There are very imminent catatrophies ahead whether be it money (economies) natural and manmade. Major concerns are resource scarcity,booming population,rising pollutions and changes associated with these dynamics. Major concern are widespread fears of carbon dioxide and other green house gases to which the global climate change is subjected as is the main believe in geoppolitics worldwide.

In facts policies and international relations are truning new angles with common ground to battle or reduce or more appropriately control. Some newers poicies that will affect our daily lives are though strigent measures soon to be impossed on human populations, indusries, economic activities. For instance, baby cabon, where total carbon dioxide as green house gas is realesed from a single person as infant througout his entire live until death, the total green house gas contributed and the impact on climaye change. Take the wolrd population and measure toatl green house gas and impact magnetude for climate change etc..etc.

The issue of population control or depopulation is at hand.

While biofuel development took rocket high interest in the worst economic crisis period, now being abit over with it would see more industries multiple worldwide as they rush to supply the ever increasing demand the fossil fuel has maintained for past 150 years since machines came to be automated.

Given the low resource scarcity worldwide, few with resources are going resource boom exploitation as the world rushed to get more out. PNG is one of this country where the world powers come to have their batlle for resources.

There are many things to consider here, outside climate change fears,fuel crises,biofuel development are majors issues and fears. I have said issues in regard to biofuel developments are mandotary for PNG development, fuel security and stability.Without repeating what i have said, it is a serious matter when the government will alow foreign firms to produce biofuel from PNG resoruces and feed the national demand.The national economy is not safer, nor the ecomony control for the sake of its booming 6.2 m people but PNG will still be exposed to outside to take advantage.In the age when fuel will be manufactured ,importing biofuels is no acception.

Urgent message!

2009-09-09T05:36:00.000-07:00

February 17, 2009 (A Message from Choo Thomas)

Hallelujah, the Tribulation has Already Begun; MARANATHA!!!

During 2006, 2007 and 2008 God showed so many Christians the rapture as well as some unbelievers. These visions made so many people excited about the rapture and at the same time some of us were very disappointed because it had not happen yet. I believe God wanted to stir our hearts up for the rapture so we can be prepared for it at anytime.

The Lord told me a few months ago that the tribulation has already begun. He is warning and preparing people for the rapture but realized not many are paying attention to the signs of the rapture and they will be very surprised because He is going to only bring those who are ready and waiting for Him. God also said He has given enough chances for everybody to be ready for His coming. Now the tribulation has begun and this means the rapture could happen at any time for those who are ready and waiting. After He raptures His chosen ones, then the antichrist will take over the world and great disasters will come to those left behind especially those Christians who refuse to receive the Mark of the Beast (#666). God said not too many Christians will be raptured and whoever does get raptured will have to stand before the judgment seat (2 Corinthians 5:10) and our work will be tested by fire (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). Even after we are raptured not too many Christians will enter His Kingdom because their hearts are not pure enough. When God says these words they really scare me and whoever has read the book should already know these things.

When the Lord took me to Heaven the first couple of times, He showed me crystal clear water and said one’s heart has to be as clear as this in order to enter His Kingdom. When the Lord told me this, I was very scared and I wondered how anyone’s heart could be this pure. I always live in fear of God ever since He showed me the water. This is the reason why I still spend a lot of time with the Lord by praying and having a relationship with Him daily. I know it is hard for people who work to spend long hours with the Lord but please do your best to spend as much time as you can and let Him be the center of your life not just sometimes but always. Without a relationship with the Lord and not living in fear of God, one cannot please Him. We have to make sure the Holy Spirit is pleased with us continually. He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead to Heaven (Romans 8:11). My heart’s desire is that all my brothers and sisters in the Lord will be raptured.

When I saw Linda’s prophetic words, it really impressed me. I prayed about it and the Lord told me to have it posted on my website. Some people complained about who Linda is but the truth is I did not know Linda but rather the message (the part posted on my web site) and how it is biblical. The message posted on my website from Linda is very similar to what God tells me and also what He wants His Bride to be. It hurts me to see the way some Christians live and behave and they don’t know what it takes to be the Bride of Jesus. We cannot let anyone or anything come before God no matter what the situation. We have to know that He has to be above everyone and everything in our lives. According to Luke 14:26-27, none of our family members or loved ones can ever be put before our Lord Jesus who died for us. PRAISE THE LORD. Anyone who wants to be holy has to live by the word of God. We have to walk a narrow path (Matthew 7:14). Whatever hardship comes into our lives we have to endure as good soldiers of the Lord (2 Timothy 2:3).

Some Christians believe by doing great work for God they will enter the Kingdom (Matthew 7:22-23). The most important part of our salvation is total obedience and love (Matthew 5:19; Mark 12:30-31; John 14:23-24). We must love others enough to witness to them to also be saved. Jesus died for our soul, if we truly love the Lord and want to please Him, we have to die from the world because we cannot love both (1 John 2:15-16). God is love and He wants us to love all not just believers and if we have unforgivness in our hearts that is a great sin. We have to forgive and not hate others no matter what they have done to us. His word says the people who are living in darkness are the ones who do not forgive (1 John 2:11). If one does not forgive then they also cannot be forgiven by God and that will prevent that person from entering the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 6:14-15). As much as the Lord suffered for our eternity, whatever we sacrifice for Him is really insignificant because no suffering that we will ever endure can ever be compared to what He went through.

Some Christians think when they receive the Lord into their hearts by faith that is all they have to do in their Christian life but this actually is a deception from the Devil. According to Philippians 2:12, we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We must never forget that without a pure heart no one can see the Lord (Matthew 5:8, Ephesians 5:27, Hebrews 12:14). God is so holy that any defiled thing cannot enter His Kingdom. I believe this is why God showed me so many people outside His Kingdom and that is called the valley. Some people tell me that being in the valley is better than Hell. Yes, of course it is better than Hell, but we still have a chance to receive the wonderful promises of God if we enter His Kingdom. All He requires from us is a small sacrifice and that is to be obedient and to love Him above all. Jesus suffered and died for our eternity so why shouldn’t we receive all that He prepared for us?

We should be looking forward to being the most beautiful Bride of Christ. Why shouldn’t we give up all worldly habits and try to please the Lord? We are only on this earth for such a short period of time but with the Lord it will be forever and the happiest time we could ever imagine. Whatever we sacrifice while we are here on earth is all worth it. In Linda’s message she commented on how Christians are watching too much television. Truly reborn Christians do not watch worldly things on television or listen to worldly music. Like God says, we cannot enjoy both the world and Him.

We must understand that the tribulation has begun but none of us will know the day or hour when the rapture will actually occur. We have to patiently wait and never give up, just be ready and waiting for the Lord because no one can understand God’s will (Isaiah 55:8-9). I believe those who are not ready and waiting are going to be very surprised how soon the rapture could happen.

The Lord is concerned about some pastors and He is very dissatisfied with them because they are not teaching about the End times, Rapture and Mark of the Beast (# 666). God says these pastors are going to be left behind with members of their congregation and most of those church bodies will receive the Mark of the Beast because they have never been taught what will happen to them if they receive this number. This is why the Lord says most Christians left behind will become Satan’s. The Lord also said most churches that have business on His holy day (buying and selling things) and are not teaching His church bodies not to spend money on the Lord’s day. According to the Lord, Christians should only use money on the Lord’s day for tithes and offerings (Nehemiah 10:31 and 13:15, 1 Corinthians 16:2).

I am humble and thankful to God for allowing me to write this for my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I pray this message from our Lord will be a blessing and an eye opener to every reader so His Bride will be ready and waiting for the rapture of the Body of Christ, Amen.

Peace and all spiritual blessing to every reader.

To God be all the glory and honor.

MARANATHA!!!

February 1, 2009

I have been sounding the alarm through the mouths of My prophets. They have heard ME tell of My intentions to come in months past. And, I have been ready! All in heaven is now prepared and ready and I am giving this one last shout! There shall be no other delay, past this one! I only delay now as My bowels of mercy and compassion have been moved to extend this time for a short time indeed! For, many of you, oh My Bride, stand on the brink of being ready! But, you are not ready!

LET IT BE KNOWN THAT I WILL MARRY NO GOSSIP-MONGERS. NO PURVEYORS OF HATE OR MALICE, SAVE YOU REPENT IN DEEP SORROW AND SEEK MY FORGIVENESS FOR ALL.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO DO NOT LOVE OTHERS, EVEN TO LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, TO PRAY FOR THEM AND TO BLESS THEM.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO HAVE ANY SORT OF UNFORGIVENESS IN THEIR HEARTS.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHOSE BOWELS ARE NOT FULL OF LOVE AND COMPASSION TOWARD ALL.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO DO NOT HAVE MERCY AND COMPASSION TOWARD THE LOST, THE HURT AND THE SUFFERING.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO HAVE NOT SPENT LONG HOURS IN PRAYER BEFORE ME, NIGHT AND DAY, SEEKING ME TO JUDGE THEM, TO PURIFY THEIR SINS THROUGH FORGIVENESS AND TO MAKE THEM WHITE.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO LOVE THE WORLD AND WHAT IS IN IT.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO ARE ADDICITED TO TELEVISION, OR TO ANY OTHER WORLDLY THING!

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO LUST AFTER THE FLESH AND WHO LOVE THINGS OF THE FLESH.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO MAKE TELEVISION THEIR COUNSEL, AND WHO LOOK UPON VIOLENCE.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO BACKBITE, AND WHO MOCK AND SCORN MY TRUE WORKS AND WILL NOT REPENT.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO STAY UP LATE TO CHASE THINGS OF THE WORLD, AND WHO PUT ME LAST.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO LOVE THE WORLD AND WHAT IS IN IT! FOR, I DEMAND THAT YOU RENOUNCE THE WORLD AND ALL OF ITS EVIL MATTERS AND CONCERNS.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO LOOK UPON ANOTHER WITH EYES OF LUST, OR WHO COVETS, OR JEALOUSLY LONGS AFTER WHAT BELONGS TO ANOTHER.

I WILL MARRY NONE, WHO DO NOT PUT ME FIRST, KEEP ME FIRST AND LOVE ME ABOVE ALL, CHERISHING MY COMMANDMENTS AND OBEYING THEM ALL.

REPENT, OH, YOU BRIDE OF MINE! I WILL COME FOR A CLEAN BRIDE! AND, BE WARNED, THAT I COME VERY SOON AND BE WARNED ALSO THAT AT THIS TIME, AND FROM MY VANTAGEPOINT, SAVE MANY OF YOU GET CLEAN AND QUICKLY SO, I WILL TAKE AT THIS TIME FEW INDEED! FOR, FEW INDEED YOU ARE, WHO HAVE MADE YOURSELVES CLEAN! BUT, EVEN SO, IT IS NOT FOR ANY LACK OF WARNINGS THAT I AM COMING FOR MY BRIDE! I HAVE WARNED YOU! AND, THE TIME OF MY TARRYING IS FAST COMING TO AN END.

I am your Father Yahweh, yea Jehovah, Most High God, Jesus, Saviour, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

As witnessed, dictated and recorded this 21st day of January, 2009,

Linda Newkirk

October 13, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As we all can see the end time is already here. When you receive this message, please forward it to everyone you know; it is the most important message for everyone before the Rapture and those left behind. Please do print this message and share it with as many as you can. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian and has no desire to witness to souls, this is the saddest thing to our Lord because He died for our souls, PRAISE THE LORD.
Choo Thomas
MARK OF THE BEAST (666)
RFID
"He required everyone - great and small, rich and poor, slave and free - to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. Wisdom is needed to understanding this. Let the one who has understanding solve the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666" (Rev. 13:16-18 New Living Translation).
666 IS A SYSTEM OF THE ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT
At the present time, computer-assisted biometric identification systems are being developed rapidly and have been readily accepted into our society. Miniature computer chips, using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, have already been embedded within electronic appliances, retail goods, livestock, and human beings. This is not tomorrow's science fiction
- it is happening today.
In many parts of the world, Applied Digital Corporation's human implanted RFID microchip (VeriChip) is used to help diagnose Alzheimer's disease, mental illness, Diabetes, heart problems and it also helps to prevent kidnappings. In the near future, this type of biochip will be widely accepted and implanted for personal identification, protection, monitoring, tracking, commerce, and other uses not yet imagined.
Unfortunately, such biochips store personal identification and the information generated from its use will be stored and maintained in a computer database. Your body becomes a tagged asset that is monitored and whose behavior will be tracked. Implanting the microchip in the body alters a person's physically, mentally and ultimately - spiritually. The problem that arises from the use of biochip in humans is more than an aesthetic, medical, political, or legal issue.
Satan works in the world and he shapes people and society to achieve his goals. Knowingly or not, anti-christ will force people to follow and obey an agenda that appears to be in the best interest of its people but, in following the pattern of human history and man's rebellion to God, will bring about pain and suffering until Christ comes again.
"...he [satan's agent] deceived all the people who belong to this world. He ordered the people of the world to make a great statue of the first beast, who was fatally wounded and then came back to life. He was permitted to give life to this stature so that it could speak. Then the statue commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die." (Rev 13vs14-15 New Living
Translation).
A time is coming when society and lives will be ruled by a self-imposed system where mankind is monitored, analyzed, measured, and evaluated by computers. In those times, anyone who refuses to accept this system will be tortured then killed.
FORMATION OF A UBIQUITOUS SOCIETY
We are moving towards a ubiquitous society where people from all walks of life can access anything, anywhere, and at anytime regardless of time and location. The implementations of RFID technology in retail stores is one example. It's estimated that the majority of retail merchandise will use RFID technology within 1 or 2 years (as of 2005) and will replace bar codes, which have been used for the past 30 years.
What drives such development is the belief that we will live safer, easier, richer and more enjoyable lives by using technology to manage everyday aspects of daily life. In a society that craves automated financial management, instant communication and security, it's not a far stretch for RFID enabled biochips to be implanted into the body, and eventually replacing currency that is easily stolen, lost, or hidden. In the near future:
1) All people will be required to have a biochip. All economic operations will use this chip thereby replacing today's unit of monetary exchange.
2) There will be privacy invasion and freedom will cease to exist.
3) A charismatic leader, who is the Anti-Christ, will rule the whole world through a system that is interconnected and interdependent.
MARK OF THE BEAST IN THE HUMAN BODY, WE MUST NOT RECEIVE IT. (REV 14VS9,
14VS11, 16VS2)
1) Accepting this mark is the irreversible act of selling your soul to Satan. This sin is unforgivable and cannot be reversed by physically removing the mark (Rev. 14:9-11). Your soul belongs to God. Therefore if you receive this mark, you then will belong to Satan.
2) If you receive this mark, you willfully placing your faith in man and not in God. You are actively choosing to live without a loving God who desires to spend eternity with you in Heaven. God does not want you choosing Hell's path.
God knew these things beforehand, and because He loves us and wants us to acknowledge this, it was revealed to us through the writing of the apostle John in Revelation around 100 AD.
If you are not taken up to heaven and are thereby left behind for the tribulation, you must not receive the mark of the beast even though you will be tortured then killed for not accepting the government's sanctioned acts of satan. You must remember this at all times because the hope of heaven still remains until the end comes.
HAVE YOU RECEIVED JESUS AS YOUR PERSONAL SAVIOR?
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Money is not everything. A person cannot come to God by believing in any other gods, ethics, discipline, or by good deeds.
Only a personal relationship with Jesus Christ makes it possible to stand righteous before a holy God at end of human history. It was for this reason that Jesus Christ suffered on the cross, shed His blood, died, and came back to life. This was done to demonstrate God's willingness, ability, and glory in saving us from sin and death.
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father excerpt through Me. (John 14:6)
That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. And it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Rom 10:9-10) You must believe in Jesus and that He died for your sins. Jesus loves you. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Realize that you are as sinner and you must pray in faith. You need to receive Jesus as your personal Savior. There is surely a Heaven and a Hell. Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven.
JESUS IS COMING SOON, PREPARE FOR THE RAPTURE
Jesus, who redeemed us through the cross will prepare a place and will come back to be with us. He has promised us. (John 14:3)
The rapture will take place before the Great Tribulation (Rev. 3:10). Jesus said, "you know to interpret how to interpret the appearance of the sky but you cannot interpret the signs of the times, (Matt. 16:3 Luke 12:56).
ALL BELOVED SAINTS IN JESUS CHRIST
The rapture is reserved for those saints who will be lifted into the sky upon God's trumpet call, saints that are to be raptured will be lifted into the sky to meet Jesus in the clouds (1 The 4:16-17). The rapture is reserved for those believers who wear spiritual white robes. Their physical
body will be transformed into a glorious body and will be God's delight, (Rev. 19:7-8).
If you remain in lukewarm faith, Jesus will spew you out so you must not be like this type of believer (Rev. 3:16). Jesus' first coming was to bring salvation, but He is coming again to meet those who are Ready and Waiting in the clouds at the sound of the trumpets and this is call Rapture. Lord Jesus, will take His children with Him to Heaven for seven years. After the seven years tribulation on earth then He will return again on earth with those who were ratpured with Him into Heaven to the New Jerusalem this will be called His Second Coming.
For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? (1 Thess. 2:19)
At Jesus' return, only raptured saints will be presented at the seat of glory (1 Cor. 15:49-55). Even if we do not know the day and time of His coming, the sons of light are not in darkness therefore that day will not come upon you like a thief (1 Thess. 5:4-5). Do not be lukewarm believers nor do not sleep but be awake and pray. (1 Thess. 5:1-4)
Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard: obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you, (Rev. 3:3). Those with lukewarm faith, those who are tied to the world, and those who do not know Jesus will be left behind for the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation will be the most devastating time in all of human history. Those who are left behind in the Great Tribulation must not receive the biochip (which bears satan's name) into their body (forehead or right hand; Rev 13vs16, 20vs4) even to the point of death. Christians who commit suicide will spend eternal life in hell. By refusing this chip, you will be tortured then killed but if you remain faithful, you will be able to enter into Heaven. All saints must realize this truth and wish Jesus to return. Be awake in the spirit and know that Jesus Christ's return is very near,
Amen.

Praise the Lord praise the Lord......leva yah...fit nating Jesus!

$600 million for algae oil approximately to replace 70 billion liters of fossil fuel world wide!

2009-09-08T03:17:00.000-07:00

Gene scientist Craig Venter has announced plans to develop next-generation biofuels from algae in a $600m (£370m) partnership with oil giant Exxon Mobil.

His company, Synthetic Genomics Incorporated (SGI), will develop fuels that can be used by cars or aeroplanes without the need for any modification of their engines. Exxon Mobil will provide $600m over five years with half going to SGI.

"Meeting the world's growing energy demands will require a multitude of technologies and energy sources," said Emil Jacobs, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil. "We believe that biofuel produced by algae could be a meaningful part of the solution in the future if our efforts result in an economically viable, low-net carbon emission transportation fuel."

Transport accounts for one-quarter of the UK's carbon emissions and is the fastest growing sector. Finding carbon-neutral fuels will be crucial to the government meeting its target to reduce overall emissions by 80% by 2050.

Algae are an attractive way to harvest solar energy because they reproduce themselves, they can live in areas not useful for producing food and they do not need clean or even fresh water. In addition, they use far less space to grow than traditional biofuel crops such as corn or palm oil.

"Algae consumes carbon dioxide and sunlight in the presence of water, to make a kind of oil that has similar molecular structures to petroleum products we produce today," said Jacobs. "That means it could be possible to convert it into gasoline and diesel in existing refineries, transport it through existing pipelines, and sell it to consumers from existing service stations."

The Carbon Trust, a government-backed agency that promotes low-carbon technologies, has forecast that algae-based biofuels could replace more than 70bn litres of fossil fuels used every year around the world in road transport and aviation by 2030, equivalent to 12% of annual global jet fuel consumption or 6% of road transport diesel. In carbon terms, this equates to an annual saving of more than 160m tonnes of CO2 globally with a market value of more than £15bn.

Ben Graziano, research and development manager at the Carbon Trust, said that alge-based biofuels offered the potential for "major carbon savings". "Exxon Mobil is estimating that algae could yield just over 20,000

litres of fuel per hectare each year, which is in line with our own forecasts. However, producing biofuel from algae on such a massive commercial scale is a major challenge, which will require many years of research and development."

Venter, who is best known for his role in sequencing the human genome, said the new partnership was the largest single investment in trying to produce biofuels from algae but said the challenge to creating a viable next-generation fuel was the ability to produce it in large volumes. "This would not happen without the oil industry stepping up and taking part," he said. "The challenges are not minor for any of us but we have the combined teams and scientific and engineering talents to give this the best chance of success."

The research programme will begin with the construction of a new test facility in San Diego, where Venter says different techniques to grow and optimise algae will be tested. These will include open ponds as well as bioreactors, where the algae are grown in sealed tubes. "We will be trying out these different approaches … using newly-discovered natural algae to test the best approaches we can come up with to go into a scale-up mode."

Venter has spent several years trawling the world's oceans in search of environmentally-friendly microbes that could be used, in one way or another, to bring down the world's carbon emissions. The organisms he has found include those that can turn CO2 into methane, which could be used to make fuels from the exhaust gases of power stations, and another that turns coal into natural gas, speeding up a natural process and reducing both the energy needed to extract the fossil fuel and the amount of pollution caused when it is burned.

News in brief:

Australian municipality switches fleet to B100 biodiesel
In Australia, the Marrickville municipal council, in Sydney’s inner southern suburbs, voted to switch their entire fleet of diesel vehicles and equipment to B100 soy-based biodiesel. The Council will purchase B100 Soybiodiesel-branded fuel from from Sydney’s first biodiesel service station, Franks Automotive. National Biodiesel is supplying biodiesel to the local station.

German researchers target winter sugar beet as biofuel feedstock
In Germany, researchers from Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel have commenced a project, titled “Bioenergy 2021: winter sugar beet as energy crop”, to improve breeding of winter sugar beet as a biofuel feedstock.

The Institute of Plant Production and Plant Breeding said that, so far, the winter sugar beet is producing up to 30 percent more biomass, and contains more sugar, than conventional sugar beet, due to a longer growing season.

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “The future is now for cellulosic ethanol.”
From Examiner.com: “Henry Ford predicted back in 1925 that the future fuels used to power automobiles, trucks, planes, and power boat engines would come from sustainable and more eco-friendly resources than fossil fuels. He even aggressively supported the use of hemp products to create bio-degradable auto parts.

“With so many changes happening in the auto industry, companies like Fisker and Tesla working on electric models, motorsports competitors participating in Formula 3 Racing looking closely at bio-fuels, big name exotics company leaders like Ferrari — who participate in Formula 1 and are planning to release hybrid exotics on the market soon.

In Washington, the Congressional Budget Office has released a study concluding that the market in carbon could grow to $60 billion in 2012, as much as the current US markets in corn and wheat. A report from Delta Farm Press says that the Chicago Climate Exchange says that demand for carbon certificates is strong - with up to 5000 contracts being traded per day involving 11 percent of the Fortune 500.

Father's Love Letter

2009-08-25T22:08:00.000-07:00

Father's Love Letter

My Child…
You may not know me, but I know everything about you…Psalm 139:1
I know when you sit down and when you rise up…Psalm 139:2
I am familiar with all your ways…Psalm 139:3
Even the very hairs on your head are numbered…Matthew 10:29-31
For you were made in my image…Genesis 1:27
In me you live and move and have your being…Acts 17:28
For you are my offspring…Acts 17:28
I knew you even before you were conceived…Jeremiah 1:4-5
I chose you when I planned creation…Ephesians 1:11-12
You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book…Psalm 139:15-16
I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live…Acts 17:26
You are fearfully and wonderfully made…Psalm 139:14
I knit you together in your mother's womb…Psalm 139:13
And brought you forth on the day you were born…Psalm 71:6
I have been misrepresented by those who don't know me…John 8:41-44
I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love…1 John 4:16
And it is my desire to lavish my love on you…1 John 3:1
Simply because you are my child and I am your father…1 John 3:1
I offer you more than your earthly father ever could…Matthew 7:11
For I am the perfect father…Matthew 5:48
Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand…James 1:17
For I am your provider and I meet all your needs…Matthew 6:31-33
My plan for your future has always been filled with hope…Jeremiah 29:11
Because I love you with an everlasting love…Jeremiah 31:3
My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore…Psalm 139:17-18
And I rejoice over you with singing…Zephaniah 3:17
I will never stop doing good to you…Jeremiah 32:40
For you are my treasured possession…Exodus 19:5
I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul…Jeremiah 32:41
And I want to show you great and marvelous things…Jeremiah 33:3
If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me…Deuteronomy 4:29
Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart…Psalm 37:4
For it is I who gave you those desires…Philippians 2:13
I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine…Ephesians 3:20
For I am your greatest encourager…2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles…2 Corinthians 1:3-4
When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you…Psalm 34:18
As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart…Isaiah 40:11
One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes…Revelation 21:3-4
And I'll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth…Revelation 21:3-4
I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus…John 17:23
For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed…John 17:26
He is the exact representation of my being…Hebrews 1:3
He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you…Romans 8:31
And to tell you that I am not counting your sins…2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled…2 Corinthians 5:18-19
His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you…1 John 4:10
I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love…Romans 8:31-32
If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me…1 John 2:23
And nothing will ever separate you from my love again…Romans 8:38-39
Come home and I'll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen…Luke 15:7
I have always been Father, and will always be Father…Ephesians 3:14-15
My question is…Will you be my child?…John 1:12-13
I am waiting for you…Luke 15:11-32
Love, Your Dad. Almighty God

Dark fermentation-Sugar to lipids then to biodiesel. BP and Martek Bioscience for microalgae biodiesel.

2009-08-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

BP enters algae market: signs with Martek Biosciences for conversion of sugars to biodiesel
BP and Martek Biosciences announced the signing of a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to work on the production of microbial oils for biofuels applications. The partnership combines a broad technology platform and operational capabilities to advance the development of a step-change technology for the conversion of sugars into biodiesel.

Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Martek and BP will work together to establish proof of concept for large-scale, cost effective microbial biodiesel production through fermentation.

At first glance, the technology reflects a similar path - fermentation - as outlined by Solazyme.

“Martek is pleased to partner with BP’s Alternative Energy team, to combine our unique algae-based technologies and intellectual property for the creation of sustainable and affordable technology for microbial biofuel production,” said Steve Dubin, Martek CEO. “BP’s global leadership and commitment to alternative energy solutions complements Martek’s own commitment to responsible and sustainable products and production.”

“BP is very pleased to be entering this important partnership with Martek,” says Philip New, CEO BP Biofuels. “As an alternative to conventional vegetable oils, we believe sugar to diesel technology has the potential to deliver economic, sustainable and scaleable biodiesel supplies. In partnering with Martek, we combine the world’s leading know-how in microbial lipid production with our expertise in fuels markets and applications, and our more recent experience in biofuels production and commercialization.”

The technology has been demonstrated in Martek’s field for more than 20 years and the challenge is to adapt this technology to the needs of the biofuels market, in terms of product profile and economics.

Philip New added, “This technology is also a perfect fit with our other strategic choices for biofuels, all based on sustainable feedstocks and fermentation to produce advanced biofuels. It is part of our approach of integrating sugar cane and lignocellulosic biofuels with advanced technologies to produce products with a wide range of uses.”

BP has agreed to contribute up to $10 million to this initial phase of the collaboration which leverages Martek’s significant expertise in microbial oil production and BP’s production and commercialization experience in biofuels as the platform for the joint development effort. Martek will perform the biotechnology research and development associated with this initial phase, whilst BP will contribute to its integration within the biofuels value chain.

All intellectual property owned prior to the execution of the JDA will be retained by each respective company, and all intellectual property developed during the JDA will be owned by BP, with an exclusive licence to Martek for application and commercialization in nutrition, cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications. Additionally, each party is entitled to certain commercial payments from technology commercialized in the other party’s field.

ABC news:Plants to produce a third of our petrol by 2025 in Australia.

2009-08-10T23:51:00.000-07:00

A researcher from the Southern Cross University says up to a third of the nation's petrol could come from plants by the year 2025.

Professor Robert Henry says biofuel has the potential to become a five-billion dollar industry in Australia.

Professor Henry says plants such as sugar cane and eucalyptus trees can be used to produce fuel.

He says more than a hundred conversion facilities would have to be built in rural and regional areas, spreading the wealth and creating jobs.

"This could see very substantial growth in a number of rural industries and so the benefits will be in more than one area and across a number of different sectors we would expect within rural communities," prof Henry said.

"We would be replacing imported oil and that would have benefits for our balance in the economy, but we'd also see the creation of large numbers of jobs in regional areas associated with the production of these crops and their processing into fuel," he said.

Meanwhile, PNG is still rampant with high class corruption, government is poised at bringing in investors for sake of collecting more tax. Natrual resources exploitation is rampant while population is doubling with high rate of unemployment, drop outs , rapid rise of crime and violence rates upon upon 50 years old infrasturures too small to contain ever growing demand.
Angels from heaven will fall and tell PNG what to do, PNG is waiting for that time! Hahahah not in a histroy!

Green jobs in PNG can erase high unemployment rates.

2009-07-31T23:18:00.001-07:00

PNG is going about 7 million population with uncontrolled population growth boom , last reported was 1.7 growth rate means doubling the current poplation in less than 20 years would account for 14 million plus by 2030.

More and more graduates from secondary to colleges and universities will be spited out every year totalling some hundred thousands yearly. Government in desperate measure had opened accessively to allow more natural resources exploiters in order to increase its tax collection. Quite a number will be absorded into these investment but for how long as minings will be exhausted in 15-25 years.

Government has to made desperate measure to contain all problems that will rise into seriuos economic and social issues. One of the easiest way to capture more graduates into permennent jobs is called green jobs. these jobs are renewable resources, recycle and alternative energy development is one such opportunity that will give the nation longest term benefit.

Acoording to reports(http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0907/S00417.htm), Australian government has created 30 000 green jobs by injecting $94 m into alternative energy development. New Zealand is desperate to create more jobs after Australia. Where is PNG in this regard?

Below is as reported in New Zealand.

New Zealanders will be asking how “Australia can create 50,000 green jobs while we are getting just 160 so far for a bike track”, Labour Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe says.

David Cunliffe said National should be urgently investigating a green jobs package similar to Australia's.

Yesterday Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a $94 million jobs package made up of around 30,000 trainee and apprentice positions concentrating on "green skills" in building and construction, 10,000 jobs in a new National Green Jobs Corps, 6,000 local green jobs through the jobs fund, and the 4,000 people already working in the housing insulation programme.

Vote Yes for Children in the 2009 referendum

David Cunliffe said: "That's the equivalent of 10,000 new jobs in New Zealand, a quarter of all those hard-working Kiwis thrown on the scrapheap since National took office. Contrast that to the white elephant cycleway creating perhaps 160 to 300 jobs over three years --- less than one day's sackings at the current rate.

“National will no doubt be self-congratulatory at its annual conference this weekend, but they’re not doing enough in terms of maintaining or creating employment. Apart from the token cycleway, its so-called green employment initiatives --- Auckland rail electrification, home insulation and biofuels --- were all happening under Labour.”

David Cunliffe said New Zealand could have a global leadership role in renewable energy and environmental technology that “builds off our fantastic primary industries. Instead we have a government whose response to recession has been one of retrenchment, creeping deregulation and yet again flogging off more of our land and assets to foreigners.

“There’s no future in that approach. New Zealanders deserve a government with vision and commitment to sustainable full employment in the future and to helping New Zealand maximise its potential. Building serious capability in environmental business should be a no-brainer. Why isn't the government doing it?"

"Instead of a credible plan to create much-needed jobs, National has cut R and D tax credits and the Fast Forward research fund, and gutted the Conservation Department’s budget. Why? New Zealanders deserve action. A credible plan for 10,000 Kiwi green jobs would be a start,” David Cunliffe said

Biofuel in Briefs.Biofuels market to triple from $76 billion to $240 billion by 2020

2009-07-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

Pike Research: biofuels market to triple from $76 billion to $240 billion by 2020
In a positive outlook for the biodiesel industry, Pike Research, a new cleantech analysis firm headquartered in Boulder, Colo., has predicted robust growth over the long-term for the global renewables market. "The study started out as an assessment of technologies in the biofuels industries, but then it grew into a more of a market analysis," said Robert McDonald, author of the report. Growth on the supply side was linked to game changing technologies related to biofuels processing. "In the biofuels world, feedstock is king and any technology that provides additional feedstock is a game changer to me," McDonald told Biodiesel Magazine

British OK world's largest renewable energy plant
A 295-megawatt biomass electricity plant-the largest in the world-is expected to be operational and capable of providing energy for 600,000 households near Teesport, England, in late 2012, according to British company MGT Power, the company developing it. The Tees Renewable Energy Plant will run on 2.65 million tons of wood chips per year shipped over from sustainable and certified forestry operations mostly in Europe and America, including the Southeast U.S., according to MGT, which recently received consent from the British government to proceed with development of the facility

UK's largest anaerobic digestion plant approved
A proposal to build the largest anaerobic digestion facility in the U.K. has been granted planning permission by the North Yorkshire County Council. The $32.8 million Selby Renewable Energy Park project will power nearly 11,000 homes and divert 165,000 tons of food waste from landfills each year. Meanwhile,the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) announced that a coalition of universities and aviation companies will undertake a $148 million research program to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation and improve engine fuel efficiency. Funding is provided by the TSB and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
In the EU, a new report from RDC Aviation and Point Carbon concluded that the the airline industry will face carbon credit costs of $1.54 billion per year starting in 2012, based on the current carbon spot price of $20.26 per tonne. That year, the industry will enter the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The report warned that costs could soar even higher if carbon prices rise as expected.

Oxnard, Calif.,-based Gills Onions, a fresh onion producer, will soon be able to achieve 100 percent of its electricity requirement, 600 kilowatts daily, through anaerobic digestion of its onion waste. The company's Advanced Energy Recovery System will convert 75 percent of the 300,000 pounds of waste produced daily into biogas to be fed into two 300-kilowatt fuel cells, according to the company.

Bacteria simplifies cellulosic ethanol production
Bacteria found in sweet gum wood may improve the preprocessing steps for cost-effective production of cellulosic ethanol. JDR-2, a strain of the wood-decaying bacteria, Paenibacilluscan, break down and digest hemicelluloses, which in traditional cellulosic ethanol production is broken down by acid hydrolysis. This bacteria is also isolated from anaerobic digesters, it is facultative and can work in both anaerobi and aerobic conditions.

Terrabon proves biomass-to-fuel process
Terrabon LLC has produced high-octane green gasoline from biomass at its advanced biofuels research facility in Bryan, Texas, using its MixAlco pretreatment and fermentation technology. In April, Terrabon received the first installment of an equity infusion for an undisclosed amount, from Texas-based oil refiner and lead Terrabon investor Valero Energy Corp., which owns and operates 16 oil refineries in the U.S. Its subsidiary, Valero Renewable Fuels, recently became the owner of some of bankrupt ethanol producer VeraSun Energy Corp assets, including five ethanol production facilities and a development site.

Covanta to acquire seven waste-to-energy facilities
Covanta Holding Corp. has signed a $450 million definitive agreement with Veolia Environmental Services to acquire seven municipal solid waste-to-energy facilities in North America, which collectively process approximately 3 million tons of waste each year. Covanta has 38 existing waste-to-energy facilities, which annually process an approximate total of 17 million tons of municipal solid waste.

Government funding to support biofuels research
U.S. DOE Secretary Steven Chu and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced July 22 the joint selection of up to $6.3 million in awards towards fundamental genomics-enabled research to improve the use of plant feedstocks for biofuel production. The seven grants will be awarded under a joint DOE-USDA program that began in 2006 to conduct fundamental research in biomass genomics that will establish a scientific foundation to facilitate and accelerate the use of woody plant tissue for bioenergy and biofuel. The DOE will provide $4 million in funding for four projects; the USDA will award $2.3 million to fund three projects. Initial funding will support research projects for up to three years. The government also announced up to $30 billion in new loan guarantees, funded partly through the Recovery Act and partly through 2009 appropriations.

The lending authority includes up to $500 million in subsidy costs to support loans for cutting edge biofuel projects funded by the Recovery Act. The solicitation is the seventh rounds of solicitations by the Department's Loan Guarantee Program, which encourages the commercial use of new or improved energy technologies to help foster clean energy projects.

Applications will be accepted over the next 45 days. In addition, the DOE has streamlined its processes to accelerate these new loan solicitations, and is absorbing up to $3 billion in loan guarantee administration costs that were previously charged back to loan recipients. The DOE said that additional loan guarantee solicitations funded by the Recovery Act will be announced soon.

In China, researchers will publish a report in the Aug 20 issue of The American Chemical Society's Energy & Fuels of their success in developing a low-cost biodiesel catalyst from shrimp shells. The researchers say that their catalyst converted rapeseed oil to biodiesel faster than existing catalysts, and that the catalyst can be recycled.

In Taiwan, CPC announced that it would commence sales of E3 ethanol in Kaohsiung City, and added that it would incentivize sales with a discount of wNT$2 per gallon below the cost of gasoline. Kaohsiung joins Taipei as the only two cities with E3 fuels available - eight stations in Taipei offer ethanol blended fuel. A similar project, replacing diesel with biodiesel, is aiming to reduce diesel demand by 10 Mgy.

In California, SunEco and JB Hunt announced a cooperative agreement which could lead to J.B. Hunt becoming a significant purchaser of biodiesel made from natural algae oil using SunEco Energy's proprietary technology. The two companies said that they had completed a series of successful tests using biodiesel made by SunEco Energy from 100 percent natural algae oil produced at the company's pilot plant in Chino, California.

In Massachusetts, BP and Verenium have named their 50-50 joint venture company Vercipia Biofuels, and plan to relocate its corporate headquarters to Florida. Vercipia continues to focus on the development of one of the nation's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facilities, located in Highlands County, Florida. The company is also developing a second commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol site in the Gulf Coast region.

The Energy Tribune ran an article by John Lynn of the Methanol Institute, which outlines that group's vision for the prospects and opportunities of methanol fuels. Methanol has been a controversial fuel option due to concerns over efficiency and safety. The Methanol Institute article gives an excellent introduction to the opportunities, as seen from the industry point of view.

In Finland, Neste Oil said that its new 170,000 tonne biodiesel plant at its Porvoo refinery has successfully completed start-up and is now running at full capacity. The plant doubles the company's biodiesel capacity at Porvoo, and the company is also expected to complete 800,000 tonne biodiesel plants in Singapore in 2010 and Rotterdam in 2011, which will be the largest plants in the world.

In New Zealand, Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee said that five companies have taken advantage of a three-year biodiesel grant fund. Meanwhile, a Green Party bill that establishes sustainability standards for biofuels production passed its first reading in the national Parliament. The bill would eliminate biofuels made from food crops or made from materials that led to the destruction of animal habitats.

In Jamaica, Jamaica Broilers Group secured a US$7 million loan from IIC, and guaranteed the debt with its JB Ethanol business, which the group has invested $42 million in to date. The ethanol business, which uses sugar cane as a feedstock, has been solidly profitable for the past two years although the operation was closed for six weeks in February for maintenance and in response to low global ethanol prices.

Oregon B2 mandate takes effect Aug. 5
Nine counties in northwest Oregon will adopt a B2 mandate beginning next week followed by the rest of the state later in the fall. The biodiesel blend will become mandatory Aug. 5 in Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook, Yamhill, Polk and Marion counties. By October 1 the rest of the state will join the effort. The only exceptions to the biodiesel blend mandate are rail, marine, and home heating oil applications. The two percent requirement has been recently triggered by Oregon's biodiesel production capacity now reaching five million gallons.
Arkansas producers urge farmer comments to EPA
Hornbeck Agricultural has gotten responses from farmers in five states and broad news coverage for a large ad that appeared in the Delta Farm Press urging farmers to tell the U.S. EPA what they think of provisions in the proposed rule for the revised renewable fuels standard. The ad read as a letter to soybean farmers. "The question is simple: Will you and other farmers have greater opportunity to raise soybeans for the production of biodiesel-or will proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations cripple that industry and limit your choices?" The letter is urging farmers to speak out in opposition to EPA regulations on indirect land use changes.

Dover Chemical markets new biodiesel additive
A new chemical additive for biodiesel fuel offered by Dover Chemical Corp. of Ohio is formulated to prevent engine deposits. "It acts as a detergent to prevent carbon contamination on engines," said Corky Thacker, spokesman for Dover. Polyisobutylene succinic anhydride (PIBSA) is a versatile chemical intermediate that adds functionality, particularly dispersion, to hydrocarbon products used in a wide range of applications including biodiesel.

Schroeder increases throughput of ColdClear
Enabling large continuous flow operations to conform to new cold soak requirements in the ASTM standard is now possible as Schroeder Biofuels has increased the handling capacity of its purification system for biodiesel. "This technology really has no top end" as to what capacity it can handle, said Jonathan Dugan of Schroeder Biofuels. In the past year ASTM published specifications for blended fuel-from B6 to B20-as well as pure biodiesel which means fuel terminals and distribution centers which perform blending operations also have to comply with ASTM specifications. The increased handling capacity of Shroeder's ColdClear product will allow them to purify blended fuel as well.

In Italy, Biofuels International is reporting that a consortium of eight biodiesel producers, working with researchers from the University of Florence, have developed a technology to replace corn and rapeseed as feedstocks with algae. The $14 million project is being coordinated by the Union of Biodiesel Producers, which heads the project.

In Ghana, allafrica is reporting on efforts by the The Civil Society Coalition on Land (CICOL) to persuade the government to accelerate development of a biofuels policy. The current draft policy was originally developed in 2005, not finalized, and contains deadlines as soon as 2015.

USA admin is dead serious in Bionergy. Obama injected 1.8 billion US dollars

2009-07-27T04:41:00.000-07:00

From: www.climateart.org

Obama ploughs $1.8bn into US biofuel industry makeover
Agencies release biofuel targets and unveil $1.8bn in funding designed to accelerate switch to second generation fuels

James Murray, BusinessGreen, 06 May 2009
The Obama administration grasped the nettle of US corn ethanol policy yesterday, unveiling a £1.8bn strategy designed to bolster biofuel production while guarding against potential environmental damage.

Green groups have argued US subsidies for producers of corn-based ethanol coupled with targets for biofuel production have contributed to rising food prices and deforestation as land previously used to grow corn for food is instead used to supply ethanol producers.

The charge has been vehemently denied by the US biofuel industry, which insists corn-based ethanol delivers net environmental benefits while providing the US with a secure source of fuel.

Now the Obama White House has waded into the row, calling for increased production of conventional biofuels, alongside greater research into its potential environmental impact and more investment in the development of so-called second generation cellulosic biofuels, which experts claim will have less impact on food prices and land use.

The new policy was kicked off with the release of a presidential memo in which Obama instructed the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture to form a new Biofuels Interagency Working Group, designed to identify the policies required to drive the production of more environmentally sustainable biofuels.

He also instructed agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack to accelerate the roll out of $1.1bn in new financing, such as loan guarantees, to help developers investing in the construction of biorefineries and biofuel infrastructure.

Meanwhile, energy secretary Steven Chu announced that $786.5 million of economic stimulus funding would be made available to support research into second generation biofuels made from non-food crops such as grasses and algae.

"Developing the next generation of biofuels is key to our effort to end our dependence on foreign oil and address the climate crisis - while creating mil lions of new jobs that can't be outsourced," Chu said. "With American investment and ingenuity - and resources grown right here at home - we can lead the way toward a new green energy economy."

The new funding came as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed it would retain President Bush's target for the US to use 36bn gallons of biofuels by 2022, but would also introduce tough new standards designed to ensure only biofuels that deliver net environmental benefits will be allowed to count towards the target.

Under the new rules, which are now subject to consultation, corn-based ethanol will have to demonstrate that it delivers full lifecycle greenhouse gas emission savings of 20 per cent compared to the fossil fuel it replaces, biomass-based fuels will have to deliver a 50 per cent cut, and cellulosic biofuels will have to deliver a 60 per cent cut.

The EPA also set out annual targets for different types of fuel, which will require producers to deliver 16bn gallons of cellulosic biofuels, 15bn gallons of conventional biofuels, four billion gallons of advanced biofuels, and one billion gallons of biomass-based diesel by 2022.

Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that the aim of the new policies was to engineer a gradual shift from controversial corn-based ethanol to second generation biofuels.

"As we work towards energy independence, using more homegrown biofuels reduces our vulnerability to oil price spikes that everyone feels at the pump," she added. "Energy independence also puts billions of dollars back into our economy, creates green jobs, and protects the planet from climate change in the bargain."

The proposals were broadly welcomed by both green groups and biofuel producers.

Environmentalists said that the focus on second generation biofuels indicated that the administration was willing to take on the powerful farming lobby and listen to concerns about the full lifecycle impact of biofuels.

Meanwhile, biofuel industry trade group the Renewable Fuels Association gave the package a cautious welcome, but expressed some reservations over how the EPA plans to assess the environmental impact of conventional biofuels.

Bob Dinneen, chief executive and president of trade group the Renewable Fuels Association, said that second generation biofuel technologies had the potential to "create the kind of economic and green job opportunities, as well as provide cleaner solutions to petroleum use, that President Obama desires".

But he also warned that uncertainty continues to surround the viability of some of these technologies and criticised the government's analysis of how biofuel will impact land use, arguing "questionable logic" was "being used to penalise existing biofuel producers for carbon emissions occurring halfway around the globe for reasons that may have little, or nothing, to do with US biofuel production".

Exxon bet million Dollars in Algae transport fuel development.

2009-07-27T04:38:00.000-07:00

from: www.climateart.org

Exxon makes first big investment in biofuels
Source: Copyright 2009, Associated Press
Date: July 14, 2009
Byline: John Porretto
Original URL

Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it will make its first major investment in greenhouse-gas reducing biofuels in a $600 million partnership with biotech company Synthetic Genomics Inc. to develop transportation fuels from algae.

Despite record-breaking profits in recent years, the oil and gas giant has been criticized by environmental groups, members of Congress and even shareholders for not spending enough to explore alternative energy options.

One of the company's requirements was finding a biofuel source that could be produced on a large scale. It says photosynthetic algae appears to be a viable, long-term candidate. If the alliance is successful, pumping algae-based gasoline at Exxon service stations is still several years away and will mean additional, multibillion-dollar investments for mass production.

"This is not going to be easy, and there are no guarantees of success," Emil Jacobs, a vice president at Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering Co., said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But we're combining Exxon Mobil's technical and financial strength with a leader in bioscientific genomics."

Jacobs said the project involves three critical steps: identifying algae strains that can produce suitable types of oil quickly and at low costs, determining the best way to grow the algae and developing systems to harvest enough for commercial purposes.

Besides the potential for large-scale production, algae has other benefits, Jacobs said. It can be grown using land and water unsuitable for other crop and food production; it consumes carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas blamed for climate change; and it can produce an oil with molecular structures similar to the petroleum products -- gasoline, diesel, jet fuel -- Exxon already makes.

That means the Irving, Texas-based company will be able to convert the bio-oil into fuels at its own refineries and use existing pipelines and tanker trucks to get it to consumers.

The $600 million price tag includes $300 million for Exxon's internal costs and $300 million or more to La Jolla, Calif.-based Synthetic Genomics -- if research and development milestones are successfully met.

"Even though this is a multiyear program, we both still consider it a very aggressive timetable, and it involves a lot of basic research," said J. Craig Venter, founder and CEO of the privately held company. "As a result, you don't know the answers until you've done these tests and experiments."

Algae is considered a sustainable source for second-generation biofuels, which go beyond corn-based ethanol into nonfood sources such as switchgrass and wood chips.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said earlier this year it would scale back large investments in wind and solar in favor of next-generation biofuels. The European oil giant is working with Canadian company Iogen Corp. on a method to produce ethanol from wheat straw, and partnering with Germany-based Choren Industries to develop a synthetic biofuel from wood residue.

Another oil major, BP PLC, plans to team up with Verenium Corp. to build a $300 million cellulosic ethanol plant in Highlands County, Fla.

For Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, the biofuels investment is tiny compared with its spending to find new supplies of crude and natural gas.

CEO Rex Tillerson said earlier this year Exxon's 2009 spending on capital and exploration projects is expected to reach $29 billion, up from the $26.1 billion it spent in 2008. The company said those levels are likely to remain in the $25 billion to $30 billion range through 2013.

Gene scientist to create algae biofuel with Exxon Mobil
New biofuel requires no car or plane engine modification

Alok Jha, The Guardian - Published under license by, BusinessGreen, 15 Jul 2009
Gene scientist Craig Venter has announced plans to develop next-generation biofuels from algae in a $600m partnership with oil giant Exxon Mobil.

His company, Synthetic Genomics Incorporated (SGI), will develop fuels that can be used by cars or aeroplanes without the need for any modification of their engines. Exxon Mobil will provide $600m over five years with half going to SGI.

"Meeting the world's growing energy demands will require a multitude of technologies and energy sources," said Emil Jacobs, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil. "We believe that biofuel produced by algae could be a meaningful part of the solution in the future if our efforts result in an economically viable, low-net carbon emission transportation fuel."

Transport accounts for one-quarter of the UK's carbon emissions and is the fastest growing sector. Finding carbon-neutral fuels will be crucial to the government meeting its target to reduce overall emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

Algae are an attractive way to harvest solar energy because they reproduce themselves, they can live in areas not useful for producing food and they do not need clean or even fresh water. In addition, they use far less space to grow than traditional biofuel crops such as corn or palm oil.

"Algae consumes carbon dioxide and sunlight in the presence of water, to make a kind of oil that has similar molecular structures to petroleum products we produce today," said Jacobs. "That means it could be possible to convert it into gasoline and diesel in existing refineries, transport it through existing pipelines, and sell it to consumers from existing service stations."

The Carbon Trust, a government-backed agency that promotes low-carbon technologies, has forecast that algae-based biofuels could replace more than 70bn litres of fossil fuels used every year around the world in road transport and aviation by 2030, equivalent to 12 per cent of annual global jet fuel consumption or six per cent of road transport diesel. In carbon terms, this equates to an annual saving of more than 160m tonnes of CO2 globally with a market value of more than £15bn.

Ben Graziano, research and development manager at the Carbon Trust, said that algae-based biofuels offered the potential for "major carbon savings". "Exxon Mobil is estimating that algae could yield just over 20,000 litres of fuel per hectare each year, which is in line with our own forecasts," he said. "However, producing biofuel from algae on such a massive commercial scale is a major challenge, which will require many years of research and development."

Venter, who is best known for his role in sequencing the human genome, said the new partnership was the largest single investment in trying to produce biofuels from algae but said the challenge to creating a viable next-generation fuel was the ability to produce it in large volumes. "This would not happen without the oil industry stepping up and taking part," he said. "The challenges are not minor for any of us but we have the combined teams and scientific and engineering talents to give this the best chance of success."

The research programme will begin with the construction of a new test facility in San Diego, where Venter says different techniques to grow and optimise algae will be tested. These will include open ponds as well as bioreactors, where the algae are grown in sealed tubes. "We will be trying out these different approaches … using newly-discovered natural algae to test the best approaches we can come up with to go into a scale-up mode."

Venter has spent several years trawling the world's oceans in search of environmentally-friendly microbes that could be used, in one way or another, to bring down the world's carbon emissions. The organisms he has found include those that can turn CO2 into methane, which could be used to make fuels from the exhaust gases of power stations, and another that turns coal into natural gas, speeding up a natural process and reducing both the energy needed to extract the fossil fuel and the amount of pollution caused when it is burned.

The 50 hottest Bioenergy Companies and latest hottest on Algae.

2009-07-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

The top 50 Bioenergy companies
1. Coskata
2. Sapphire Energy
3. Virent Energy Systems
4. POET
5. Range Fuels
6. Solazyme
7. Amyris Biotechnologies
8. Mascoma
9. DuPont Danisco
10. UOP

11. ZeaChem
12. Aquaflow Bionomic
13. Bluefire Ethanol
14. Novozymes
15. Qteros
16. Petrobras
17. Cobalt Biofuels
18. Iogen
19. Synthetic Genomics
20. Abengoa Energy

21. KL Energy
22. Ineos
23. GreenFuel
24. Vital Renewable Energy
25. LS9
26. Raven Biofuels
27. Gevo
28. St.1 Biofuels Oy
29. Primafuel
30. Taurus Energy

31. Ceres
32. Syngenta
33. Aurora Biofuels
34. Bionavitas
35. Algenol
36. Verenium
37. Simply Green
38. Carbon Green
39. SEKAB
40. Osage Bioenergy

41. Dynamotive
42. Sustainable Power
43. ETH Bioenergia
44. Choren
45. OriginOil
46. Propel Fuels
47. GEM Biofuels
48. Lake Erie Biofuels
49. Cavitation Technologies
50. Lotus/Jaguar – Omnivore

Hot Topics on the latest on algae-to-energy
Here are some of the most popular latest stories on algae-to-energy that have run in Biofuels Digest:

Profile of Aquatic Energy: In Louisiana, Aquatic Energy unveiled significant progress in its pilot algae-to-energy project in the Lake Charles-Lafayette corridor of the state. The company is now preparing to expand from a “couple of acre” pilot in Lake Charles, to an 30-acre demonstration project that will feature the company’s 1-acre open-pond system that is yielding 2500 gallons per acre without using an external CO2 source.

Profile of Aurora Biofuels: “It’s the Florida panther of algae biofuels: little seen, but capable of making a big mark and certainly, of late, issuing a big roar with completion of its 18-month pilot and confidence now high that they will be at demo-stage next year and on target for $1.30 algal fuel.”

Profile of PetroAlgae: “You will not see giant corn ears, gas pumps or a string of billboards in Burma Shave style at Fellsmere. What you will see is the first near-to-workable platform for a national energy solution. They, or rather PetroAlgae, is making algal oil in Fellsmere, and nearing completion of a vertically integrated, scaleable, licensable 5-6,000 gallon per acre algae-to-energy production system.”

Sapphire Energy speeds up path to commercialization: In California, Sapphire Energy said the pace of algae commercialization is increasing and that it will reach commercial scale by 2011, and producing 1 Mgy of diesel and jet fuel from algae that year, double its previous estimate.

OriginOil announces breakthrough oil extraction technology: In California, OriginOil announced a breakthrough, one-step process for extracting oil from algae. The company said that its patent-pending process does not require chemicals or significant capital expenditure for heavy machinery, and no initial dewatering is required.

Solazyme says lifecycle analysis of Soladiesel shows 93 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions: In California, Life Cycle Associates, the same consultant that performed lifecycle greenhouse gas calculations for the California Air Resources Board, completed a field-to-wheels assessment of Soladiesel, the company’s algae-based biodiesel using the Argonne National Laboratories GREET model. LCA found that Soladiesel’s full lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are 85 to 93 percent lower than standard petroleum based ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD).

Dynamic biofuel use in EU!

2009-07-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

EU biodiesel production grows, UK meets sustainability goals

Two reports issued from the United Kingdom’s Renewable Fuels Agency and the European Biodiesel Board this week give a snapshot of the European biofuels industry.

EBB reports biodiesel numbers

The European Biodiesel Board released figures showing the European Union biodiesel production
totaled 7.7 million metric tons (approximately 3 billion gallons) in 2008, comprising 78 percent of the biofuels consumed in the EU. The EBB estimates the EU is responsible for 65 percent of the world’s biodiesel output.

The organization reiterated its stand that the EU biodiesel industry was hurt by U.S. biodiesel imports in analyzing recent production trends. “EBB statistics for 2008 and 2009 show that at least 50 percent of existing plants remain idle,” the report said. The number of biodiesel plants stands at 276 as of July 2009 with close to 21 million metric tons (over 8 billion gallons) of installed capacity. The 36.7 percent increase in 2008 biodiesel production compared to 2007 indicates a continued slowing of growth in the industry, which had seen production increases in 2005 and 2006 of 65 percent and 54 percent respectively.

The EBB said the recent growth in biodiesel production is not sufficient to meet “the ambitious EU objective for climate change mitigation outlined in the recently published Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28.” The EBB estimates the 10 percent renewable content for the transport sector will require the production of 30 to 35 million metric tons (12 to 14 billion gallons) of biodiesel by 2020. The EBB called for completion of standards for B10 as soon as possible as an essential step in reaching the 10 percent target. As the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive is implemented in each of the member states, the EBB emphasized the need for coordinated sustainability requirements. “Let us not lose sight of the fact that EU biodiesel is already today produced in a sustainable way.”

UK meets GHG reduction goals

The United Kingdom beat its target of 2.5 percent biofuel content in transportation fuels, according to provisional data released July 15 by the Renewable Fuels Agency . The biofuel content was 82 percent biodiesel, 18 percent ethanol plus a very small quantity of biogas. The RFA reported the results from the first year of reporting on biofuels supplied to retail outlets under the UK Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. A final report will be issued later this year following verification.

The Renewable Fuels Agency was established in 2007 to administrate the RTFO which establishes sustainability and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets for the United Kingdom. According to the RFA statement, the most challenging target for companies was that 30 percent of biofuels should meet environmental sustainability standards. “Although many companies have risen to the challenge, others have still not reported any demonstrably sustainable fuel,” the RFA said. “Overall, 24 percent of fuel reached the required level.” The agency estimated the biofuels supplied delivered a 47 percent reduction in GHG compared to fossil fuels, exceeding the 40 percent target, although indirect emissions were not incorporated into the life-cycle analysis.

The RTFO is helping to drive the development of a sustainable biofuels market in the UK where 99 percent of the feedstocks supplied by UK agriculture meets the standard. While the UK has a well-established sustainability program, many other countries do not, said Aaron Berry, the RFA’s head of carbon and sustainability. “Progress by projects such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and the Better Sugarcane Initiative show reason for optimism,” he said, “as does the commitment of those companies that have undertaken their own sustainability audit.

Meanwhile in California, Khosla Ventures has announced two new cleantech investment funds with a combined $1 billion in fresh capital.

The first fund, $250 million in size, will fund new startups, while the larger $750 million fund will provide fresh capital to companies that are seeking funds for scale up and commercialization. The second fund is an example of an approach to solve the “valley of death” problem that befalls companies as they transition from small early-stage companies and find themselves too big for traditional VC investments but too early to attract project finance interest.

According to a report in Forbes, Khosla will set up a “conflicts committee” for the new funds that will oversee and limit re-investment in old companies that have not succeeded. Bnet.com is reporting that “Talk is growing of a spate of cleantech IPOs down the road.”

Khosla invested in Coskata, Amyris, LS9, RaneFuels, LanzaTech, Gevo and KiOR, as well as an interest in Cello Energy, which recently attracted interest when the company was assessed $10 million in liability to an earlier round investor. Among other Silicon Valley giants, Burrill & Company has also commenced development of a new cleantech fund.

Fake glories and poverty.

2009-07-20T01:07:00.000-07:00

By Gene Drekeke Iyovo in Wuxi City, China

People must change attitude for PNG to develop

PRIOR to 2007 July, I had negative perception about foreigners, especially people of Asian origins.
All I thought about them was that they were simple traders or investors from tucker shops to big mining operations.
I lived in my own isolated world while conscious of PNG’s path towards development.
Until the day I stepped out of Macau Airlines via Shanghai to Beijing in September 1, 2007, everything changed for me. I was bemused by the structures and buildings, roads and bridge, huge and gleaming, yet magnificent cities in China.
Actually, I did expect to see the images of Kung Fu movies, the replica of Kunfu Gangs and knife welding warriors. But suddenly, the big modern Wuxi City with skyscrapers erected all up, in streets abundant with cheap food, efficient transport systems and everlasting smiles, depicting the curious looks of loving citizens.
Traveling by train to another huge city with million passengers on a daily bases, I kept thinking that PNG can not match this part of the great China!
Wuxi City was one of the ten cities of the Jiangsu province where I live and study. It is a huge city, much bigger then Port Moresby alone. But interestingly, the citizens tell me it’s the smallest and unpopular city in China. I see the opposite.
The road system is very convenient, accessible and sustainable for all types of transport including bicycles, three wheeled vehicles, and electronic vehicles, even the pedestrians.
The roads are permanently built with bitumen and cement, pothole free and long lasting without regular maintenance.
I imagine our roads in PNG that experience potholes after three to four months of construction and have to go under regular maintenance or non at all leading to bumpy rides. We waste a lot of time and resources costing tax payers huge money.

The roads at Wuxi are affordable and connect all cities either by bus, train or private vehicles.
Farmers bring their produce easily using cheap and affordable transport means like three wheeled vehicles to supply the huge population that results in alleviating poverty and improving life styles.
The roads play major role in China’s magic economic rise! Mega highways are the real blood veins of China’s economic growth.
Transport ranges from luxurious kind to three wheeled cars and bicycles. Since roads are convenient and user friendly, cheaper means of transport are used making economic activities increase at a constant rate.
Creating a suitable condition and system for man is increasing the economic activities that improves and drives for a prosperous society China faces today.
The huge cities are filled with apples, watermelons, fish, shrimps, eggs, chicken, duck, pork, greens and vegetables whether processed or not at cheaper prices. Wonder how a constant supply is there in the heart of the city at certain price all year round? Efficient roads and transport!
But I wondered how China produces all these surplus agricultural products and others?
My investigations lead to government - people relationships, especially the farmer relation is rigid.
The responsible government supplies the basic farming materials, impart agriculture knowledge and make the willing and readily available farmers to engage in intensive farming activities.
The necessary bills incurred on them are paid off and the farmers take full ownership in the farming entrepreneurship that keeps a constant supply to the markets.
In this simple way, millions of farmers are rich and poverty is minimized and eventually eradicated in many parts of China.
The constant support from the government encourages the farmers and consequently, you find eels meat, shrimps, pork, apples, and other produce at cheap prices throughout the city at a constant price, despite the different weathers.
In PNG, it is rare to find an eel, shrimp, crab, mutton, pork, fish, and other food staff on a family dining table.

My first taste of shrimp was in China even though I worked and lived in the coastal city of Lae for the past 7 years that would have abundant supply of many sea produces, including shrimps.
It is embarrassing to compare PNG with China when PNG can do simple things successful but yet fail in many ways. Most of these things include agriculture, infrastructure developments, processing and other informal sectors
Many Papua New Guineans are genuine but there are rampant lazy elites that make things fall their way or fail to disseminate their services for rightful progress in every sectors.
The whole lots of population is thought to be lazy, beg, steal and are engaged in dishonest ways of life and make belief in lies and become overnight rich through corruption.
The PNG population is led to go astray as they are engaged in no knowledge no certificate jobs like thieveries, betel nut commerce, gambling and exotic and unrealistic life styles.
Imagine how many millions may be under that category for the rest of their lives as orphans lacking parental guidance.
Life is creativity and PNG lack creativity. That is why we have a stagnant economic growth while the little ripples now are due to mining boom, but all will go and leave bunch of helpless individual who will not know how to make sweet potato bread or fix a bicycle tyre.
It was confirmed when the dim-witted games like state of origin played by some individuals who played for his bread and butter down in Australia and people in PNG have to die, violence and casualties !
This was a big joke! A PNG mining engineer in Australia by online chat laughed and joked a lot when he said no body knows who is Alan Langer or Willie Mason and no body cares about state of origin in his city.
It will be another government liability if the nation develops state of origin related syndrome!
In September 2008 after the glorious high tech Olympic Beijing Games, Shenzhou 7 rocket was launched.
Before the launching time, a handful of Chinese students came and watched on their internet TV for only 2-4 minutes then back to their work in our laboratory.
This was of surprise to me because I expected them or the city and the nation to be in jubilation with shouts and fireworks, coinciding with the bursting off of the rocket.
Forget the Australians’ who were there to watch the state of origin live but imagine the jubilation amongst the crazy Papua New Guineans in PNG on the game they regard second to God.
Though Shenzhou 7s’ success was the pride of China, these Chinese students and the entire nation did not show off but humbled themselves and went back to their respective serious jobs and studies to build a even better pride for China.
And in PNG, we are like the bunch of hungry dogs fighting over the bare bone (rugby ball and state of origin) that is played somewhere in Australia where most of us will not set foot on.
For a game that will not profit PNG in any way, a game played by unknown person who is nobody to the course of the nations’ development, who plays as part of his employment, for the increase of his salary and most importantly will not sympathize for those dead, wounded or broken families, friends due to this game.
It is ridiculous enough! This is a false glory, and it is now imperative that government has the responsibility to control this rubbish given the past records and this year’s record of high violence and deaths reported.
I have also come to realize that, it is a rampant knowledge for under twelve years children to know all the players in a team, jersey numbers, full names, coach and other immediate data of the people involved.
I wonder if such zeal can be used to emphasis in the right thing, educate for vigorous national development in all sectors.
Or better I would encourage the children to learn periodic elements, names and symbols, geography, Chinese characters, mathematics, or bible text and verses then a rubbish that profits one and makes population into fake jubilations. PNG ‘s development is at snail pace and human development is low, majority of enforcers who suppose to go to the people and implement , teach , and ensure projects progress are all air conditioned office layers.
High rate of violence and crime, poor diet, low agricultural products output and increased inadequate supply of goods and services will continue to increase as long as people’s focus are on fake glories.
If PNG will have to move forward in just ten years, there has to be major changes , for instances, make illegal all playing card purchase into the country, mobilize and cut all buai trees in the country, stop rugby games on TV etc..
If PNG wants change, change yourself first. Take some drastic change and abort some stupid industries like mentioned.
If you want facts, look at Japan who make car engines “made in Japan” running in New York city after loosing WW11 after 30 to 40 years or look at China with double digit growth in economy and how they chase out foreign infiltrates, clean themselves up then go global and now in PNG.
If PNG will have to grow, there will be sacrifices the government needs to make for the good of development. Leniency is a sin in itself that will drag PNG down.
State of origin, buai and other social influences are mentioned here as illustrations but are serious problems in PNG directing people’s mind into idleness and promote rampant poverty.
Shall we clean the cobweb or kill the spider?
Note: The writer is a postgraduate PNG student in China majoring in biofuels with research interests in biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas, production-processing and engineering from algae, jatropha, oil palm, industrial wastes at Jiangnan University, School of Biotechnology. For comments or inquiry, e-mail Mathew Yakai on m_yakai@hotmail.com

ExxonMobil Vigorous investment in Algae!

2009-07-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

In California, ExxonMobil, the last of the oil majors to commit to a major investment in biofuels, announced that its Research and Engineering unit will invest $300 million in inhouse algae research, and up to an additional $300 million in La Jolla-based Synthetic Genomics, the genetics firm founded by J. Craig Venter that has been working on algae-to-energy research since 2005. SGI has developed techniques for harvesting algal oils, and will focus research on increasing lipid content by manipulating algal strains. The ExxonMobil investment in SGI is contingent on the meeting of R&D goals, according to a report in the New York Times.

The venture is presented as a research collaboration rather than a commercialization effort at his stage, and could be classified to some extent opposite a $500 million investment made in 2007 by BP in the Joint Bioenergy Institute.

For sheer magnitude of investment, the focus on a single bioenergy feedstock, and the focus on a single R&D partner in Synthetic Genomics, the announcement is without parallel in biofuels history.

"Exxon-Mobil's $600 million dollar commitment to algae based bio-crude and biofuels," said Will Thurmond, author of the Algae2020 study, "represents another affirmative commitment by major petroleum companies, research laboratories, private investors and governments that are looking beyond the research and development phase, and are now entering the next stage to scale up and build out industrial-scale systems based on innovative, emerging and disruptive technologies."

It may not be possible to interpret this investment as, in itself, a new and imminent path towards algal fuel commercialization, but it can be regarded as confirmation that ExxonMobil, after a famously long delay, has entered the renewable energy arena, and is placing its bet on algae.

Politicizing Climate Change is dangerous for PNG!

2009-07-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

The issue of climate change is a new physical science in the world today though it is taught and discovered recently of the phenomenal climate change since the beginning of time. In Papua New Guinea is totally new. Government, statutory bodies, private and individuals need to understand some real basics of science behind before shouting from the mountain tops.
Firstly lets look at the causes of temperature rise in the world. According to real science, the only factor that makes the earth warm is the sun. More than 90 % of the causes causing temperature rise in the past century by 0.8 ºC was by the sun while 10 % accounts to natural variations prone to vegetational changes due to changes in environment variability and planetary energy balance.
Many focus has being laid on carbon dioxide and methane as green house gas while over looking the water vapor which is the greatest concentration known and is one of the green house gas. Energy is not needed to drive the water cycle; the energy comes from the sun evaporation- cooling in stratosphere region and transpiration in plants. Without arguing the heat conductivity or heat capacities of carbon dioxide, methane or water lets consider from equilibrium point of view. In equilibrium science, one concentration of same kind move to lower concentration, now carbon dioxide still remains 0.03 % in the atmospheric composition since science was invented!
All plants and are satisfied with the 0.03% carbon dioxide supply and water vapor at its current routes either via its cycles or plants compost the cycle of exchange for oxygen keeping animals alive, in other words we need carbon dioxide and water vapor if we want oxygen, without oxygen.
So what are all these stories and fears about climate change? Can man save the planet? Planting trees and giving tax save how many lives either plants or animals, human beings? These are the fears that are instigated by low educated politicians and self proclaimed scientist, those hungry for rich, power and influence taking advantages of the poor uneducated mass. This is not ruling out that there is no climate change and everyone else go to sleep! There is change but gravely misunderstood and its already a government and people’s liability. It’s already a global universal god or religion.
Take away the intense politics surrounding the global warming debate. Take away the self-interest groups, business interests, legal, bureaucratic and mass media influences that all seek to make a buck out of driving public hysteria over the fads and fashions of the age. Lets focus on real science.
Ocean temperatures are these days measured by 3,000 automated Argos buoys deployed in the seas. These buoys present a challenge to global warmers. They have failed to detect any imminent signs of climate change. According to Dr. Josh Willis who worked for NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory indicated as saying only a slight cooling over the buoys’ five years of observation, but that drop was not anything really significant
Added to this challenge is the evidence produced by NASA’s eight weather satellites totaling . 7,000 land-based stations, they take more than 300,000 temperature readings daily over the surface of the Earth. In 30 years of operation, the satellites have recorded a warming trend of just 0.14 degrees Celsius—well within the range of normal variations
The results concluded that global warming campaign was inconclusive.
The sinking islands is figured as one of the causes of climate change, this may be a grave mistake. To consider the issue of rising sea levels and sinking islands, one has to consider the change of ocean currents, apart form mini currents with a set region like Guinea current, there is this huge global ocean currents called the Themohaline circulation (THC) or ocean conveyor belt which is driven by global density gradient created by surface heat of fresh water fluxes. This is known to change direction in a space of time in decades or centuries which can also be influenced by elevated salt concentration due to increasing land use and earth’s heat from sun due to routine tilt and rotation over space of time. This means any island or a little land mass in its new direction will experience heightened level, over flooding or sinking. This does not mean ice in the North and South poles will necessary melt to sink the islands!
The West industrialized since 1800’s , for the past 200 years industrialized regions rigorously destructing forest, huge minings, petroleum usage while increasing luxury, glass house, skyscrapers for these long years until effect find them out. All these times, PNG has contributed none!
This will be supported by the fact that our atmosphere contains 730 billion tons of carbon as CO2. Each year about 120 billion tonnes of carbon are cycled via plants on land and 90billion tonnes via oceans. Human emissions account for about seven billion to 10billion tonnes, or less than 5 per cent, of the annual CO2 flux. This means 95% of the emissions follow the national law of equilibrium dynamics while 5 % emitted are sucked up by oceans increasing acidity due to weak carbonic acid form by soluble state of the carbon dioxide and others by additional flora.
If Australia is said to contribute 3.5 % of that component from 5 % (10billion tones) coming from human emissions and New Zealand 0.34 %, what is PNG contribution?
According to National Climate Change Policy Framework released by the Climate change and sustainable development office in PNG is stated that PNG has contributed 1.8% of the forest degradation! That means we are better worse that developed New Zealand and half way worse than Australia. It is also stated that the emission is projected to go 127 % of which 42% is from Asia Pacific region while the under developed transport sector with 1 in 2000 with cars are blamed for 20 % of the green house gas emission! Ridiculous! More over, land use and increasing industrializations was blamed was increased emissions. This is a laughing matter when people are still burning firewood to fry flour balls for ten toea and we marked them as industries and tax them!
Scientifically speaking, to give datas is done by proven methodology, and machines by experts and interpreted as intended. For PNG to be responsible for gas emission since the first fire and flour ball era is still here is worth the argument. Huge industustries like metal refining, steel making, nuclear, power coal, etc...are not here that shake the atmospheric gaseous composition to detection, unfortunately we have none and yet we will pay tax!
Amazingly funny, global warmists have even measure cow ‘kapupu’and said to stop cattle rearing due to methane production from their digestion. They have laid tax on them, this is forcing money out of people for fear of unknown make up lies about global warming lies! This is robbery. Soon , there is expected global taxation system in the name of global warming of leaders politicize this science.
Politicians who find difficulty in gaining consensus between political parties on issues of vital importance are suddenly finding common ground on the global warming issue. One prime example was Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel. When faced with great divisions within the European Union on a range of issues during her leadership of last year’s EU summit, she cleverly played the global warming card, raising that issue to the top of the summit agenda. Predictably, all parties fell fashionably in line behind her on this one single issue. By thus achieving consensus on what the media has seized upon as an issue of vital global importance, Merkel was able to snatch victory out of the jaws of what may well have otherwise been billed as a debacle. Leaders using global warming cards are not scientists either.
But there is a cost to such politicking. Governments are imposing crushing tax burdens on industries and individuals in efforts to “solve” this illusory problem.
Finally, if PNG was serious with global warming and emission, if they said that 20 % emission comes from vehicles and fuel burning, I find is contradicting when no mention of alternative biofuels was emphasized, and still advocated to get coal powered energy supply which is the worst in light of global warming!
It was also a failure, when and how and by what means were test and analysis obtained to convince the tax payers as to its validation of the data.
PNG climate change office has a vital role to play, but when it plays wrong, we will have serious consequences. I believe it will play the game to sustainably help the lives of the natives and not to serve foreign interest or personal materialistic gain.
For PNG to be misguided while claiming to be a christian country is funny when God said in the book of Job 26:7 which says God hangeth the earth on nothing. He has about climate change then what we think about lie of man, Sciences proves the magnificent work of God Psalms8:3 and called each star by name Psalms 147:4

Gasification and agricultural rural PNG development opportunity.

2009-07-08T22:06:00.000-07:00

Biogas production for rural energy need by livstock is becoming an alternative that can not be put down with the rising eenergy crises worldwide. Below is an extract from China rural energy enhencement project.

Biomass gasification is believed to be an ideal means of efficiently disposing large quantities of agricultural waste as well as a way to relieve poverty by increasing farmers' incomes.

North China's Shanxi Province, a major coal producer of the country, has been developing farm-based biogas projects since 2003. It has set a good example for other areas of the country that are highly dependent on coal. Our reporter Xiao Hong has more.

Reporter:
In the past, many farmers in Shanxi Province in North China disposed of large quantities of agricultural waste inappropriately. Crop residue burned in open fields, and animal waste polluted streams and groundwater. This was not only harmful for the environment, but also resulted in a loss of potential energy and nutrient resources.

But the use of biogas digesters has proved to be an effective way to reduce farmers' dependence on coal, straw, and firewood for heating and cooking. The digesters generate cleaner, renewable energy and have improved the quantity and quality of the vegetables the farmers produce.

Wu Ailing (伍爱玲) is a 45-year-old woman in Xiguan (西关) village, Qixian (祁县)County. Her family built a biomass plant eight years ago.

"The biogas produced by the plant is quite sufficient for my cooking and lighting. It saves me over 1,000 yuan in buying coal every year. It's quite safe and convenient."

Wu uses animal waste from her biogas digester pool as fertilizer. She says she can sell her vegetables fertilized with the waste for 30 percent more at market than those fertilized with chemicals.

But for many other farm households, biomass technology faces numerous constraints and barriers. Many farmers cannot obtain loans to set up biogas digesters. They also do not possess the technical expertise needed to start such projects. And there are few policy incentives encouraging farmers to switch to biogas.

In 2003, Shanxi Province invested more than 8 million U.S. dollars along with another 8 million dollars in the form of a loan from the Asian Development Bank to help local farm households establish biogas digesters and biomass gasification plants for clean energy production.

At the same time, the province used a Global Environmental Facility grant worth 840 thousand U.S. dollars to train farmers how to use biogas digesters and how to farm more efficiently.

More than 5,000 farm households and medium-sized enterprises have benefited from the program to date.

The Xinxing (新兴) company in Jiaocheng (交城) County received a 200-thousand-U.S. dollar loan from the Asian Development Bank to expand its breeding capacity from 2,200 pigs to 9,000 next year. It has built a large-scale biomass gasification plant to dispose of pig dung and produce biogas at its new factory base currently under construction.

Ren Jianquan (任建全) is an agricultural official with Jiaocheng County.

"Now 100 households enjoy biogas produced by the plant for free. The company's goal is to serve 300 households after the new base is put into use. The biogas supply is now quite stable. Users can get energy at 11 o'clock every morning."

Ren says the energy will be priced at 1.2-1.5 yuan per cubic meter in the future. Most of the farmers who now use the free service say the price is fair.

Liu Wenyong (刘文勇), deputy director of the Shanxi Rural Energy Office, says other regions in China can draw on the province's experience to set up similar biogas projects using both domestic and foreign funding.

"First, by using a GEF grant and domestic funding, we have trained a group of skilled people. Second, guided by international institutions while using foreign funds, we have gained experience in bidding, purchasing facilities, and pre-auditing, and can make our project more efficient. Third, we have set some good examples for future programs."

The province now wants to develop large-scale gasification plans to cover more villages and set up biogas projects in remote mountainous areas.

Algae Biofuel commercialization!

2009-07-06T23:50:00.000-07:00

USA is digging deeper into biofuel as alternative future fuel and as role model in this regard. The whole of EU continent is embracing Biofuel to have more than 15% up to 30% of fuel to be biofuel making mandatory. Huge China is going biofuel from cassava, to sugar cane, canola and other related biofuel plants to control its fuel hunger. Elsewhere, From North to South and east and west had engaged in Biofuel developments and obvioulsy this trend will accumulate into major trades arround the globe. This will add billions of gallons per year increasing widespread interest and development, job creation and economic growth. The climate change threat and fuel reserves depletion are driving biofuel devlopment to newer heiths yearly.

One billion gallons by 2014: algal fuel price, capacity projections
Algae production facility (PetroAlgae plant in Fellsmere, Florida)
Biofuels Digest is projecting that algal biofuels capacity will reach 1 billion gallons by 2014, based on analysis of price and capacity projections for 2009-14 from leading companies in the field.

Algae producers are targeting to reach a $1.30 wholesale cost and 1.62 billion gallons in capacity by 2014.

Costs are based on the lowest cost provider - not an average for all providers. Sources are Biofuels Digest reports and interviews on PetroAlgae, Algenol, Solazyme, Aurora Biofuels, Sapphire Energy, PetroSun and Solix (among more than 30 algae biofuels companies whose progress towards commercialization was reviewed) , and a study prepared on algae feasibility for the Louisiana Economic Development. Production forecasts are based on interpretation of guidance from each company on forward production as well as public statements.

“The $9-$30 cost ranges cited in the latest research reflect today’s prices,” said Biofuels Digest editor Jim Lane. “That’s already competitive in some nutraceutical and food markets - for example, a pound of olive oil retails for around $17 at my store, or about $120 per gallon. But like the computer market - costs are expected to come down quickly.”

Readers expressed some confusion over the differing reports on price and capacity from research organizations, as well as public statements by algae biofuel producers regarding forward price and capacity. The prices expressed are wholesale, rather than retail.

Algal Fuel/Capacity projections, 2009-14

39 percent of 2014 capacity is expected to be built in the US, and 61 percent in other countries. 33 percent of 2014 capacity is projected to use a closed system, photobioreactor (PBR) process, with 67 percent using open pond “raceway” systems.

In 2012, 22 percent of projected capacity would utilize the closed PBR process, and 78 percent would utilize open ponds. 41 percent of capacity by 2012 is projected to be in the US. Algae biomass yields are projected in the 24-53 tons per acre per year for open pond systems.

This blog has focused on Algae as alternative. Below is an extract from biofuel digest on biofuel.

Of all the hydrocarbons that can be made from biomass or recovered from fossil reserves," begins today's Special Report: A Biofuels Commercialization Outlook, "gasoline, diesel and natural gas remain the most important end-products and are likely to remain so for some time to come. Into that mix comes the advent of biofuels, and in recent years the arrival of what are variously termed "second-generation" or advanced biofuels.

Though markets for intermediates and fuels such as methanol, propylene and ethylene are considerable, range into the billions, as high as $25 billion in the case of propylene, the market for gasoline is measured in trillions of dollars, not billions.

According to the Energy Information Administration, global liquid fuel consumption in 2008 was 85.43 million barrels a day at a US refiner averaged cost of $94.68 per barrel, or $2.95 trillion.

The biofuels market today is small - no more than $40 billion, or less than two percent of the total liquid fuels market, and not much more than the market for ethyl propylene. Talk about biofuels is all out of proportion to its market size.

Biofuels have four basic economic drivers: energy independence, climate change remediation, economic development, hedging, and the search for fuels that are lower in cost or in price volatility.

These are linked. As US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in urging her colleagues to pass the climate change bill: "remember these four words for what this legislation means: jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs." Pass it they did.

Algae Movers and Shakers: a Special Digest Report:

The Algal Biomass Organization. More than 600 people attended the last annual ABO summit, and up to 1000 are expected at this year's meeting in San Diego in October, bringing together many of the best-known phycologists, producers as well as high-visibility end-users including numerous airlines. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

AlgaeVenture Systems. AlgaeVenture Systems leaped into the public eye earlier this year with a dewatering solution that it said could reduce the cost of dewatering by as much as 98 percent compared to centrifuging. Digest sources confirmed that the company has at least one commercial agreement in place with an early-stage algal fuel developer. The company's process takes water out of algae instead of algae out of water. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

Algenol. Algenol has been in the news heavily in the past week, with reaction to their announced partnership with Dow Chemical. Most reaction has been positive; some continues to be skeptical. Dow Chemical announced that it will partner with Algenol Fuels to build and operate a 24-acre Texas-based algae biorefinery demonstration farm that will produce ethanol at a target cost of $1 per gallon. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

Aquatic Energy. Low-cost leader Aquatic Energy first came to wider attention this spring when unveiling details of its demo stage project as well as sharing data from its first-gen efforts with an open-pod algal biomass pilot. The company said at the time it is preparing to expand from a "couple of acre" pilot in Lake Charles, to an 30-acre demonstration project that will feature the company's 1-acre open-pond system that is yielding 2500 gallons per acre without using an external CO2 source. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

Aurora Biofuels. Aurora leapt into the news this spring with a projected $1.30 cost for algae in its second-generation technology, due in 2013. The company completed an 18-month pilot earlier this year, and the company's VC backer Jim Long of Gabriel Venture Partners recently told a group of biofuels execs at Biofuels: Science and Innovation that algae was "the focus" at GVP as far as biofuels. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

CAAFI. The Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative doesn't get as much publicity as other organizations, but it's well worth following. Last October, the CAAFI environmental team established a lifecycle emissions framework for jet biofuels, and CAAFI provided business and economics teams in support of a 46-company meeting at the Department of Commerce last September, including both end-users and producers. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

The National Algae Association. The NAA evokes passion among its membership of algae innovators, which includes both end-users and producers and ranges from pre-seed start-ups through to high-visibility companies such as Sapphire Energy and the Air Transport Association. The Association holds popular quarterly meetings in Houston. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

OriginOil. One of the shocker industry announcements this spring came from OriginOil, in revealing a one-step process for algae dewatering and oil extraction. Last month, the company said that it had filed a Patent Cooperation Treaty application for a system that provides efficient light utilization with comparatively low energy cost in algae photobioreactors. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

PetroAlgae. PetroAlgae was most recently in the news with expansion of their international sales staff to 28 people. Licensing commenced earlier this spring with an Asian deal focused on China and part of southern Japan. The company's model farm is 12,500 acres and produces 60 Mgy of fuel and as much or more value in proteins, according to company execs. In all, PetroAlgae added nine representatives in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

Sapphire Energy. Sapphire gained instant attention when it raised a stunning $100 million, and participated in the initial algae-based jet test with Continental last December. The combination were factors in propelling Sapphire to a #2 ranking in last December's 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy list. The company has been fine tuning its process in recent months, while increasing the pace of its commercialization schedule. The company has indicated it will be at 1 Mgy in production by 2011 and 100 Mgy by 2018. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

Seambiotic. The main attraction in terms of algal fuel development outside of the US, Seambiotic, a global leader in the development and production of marine microalgae for the nutraceutical and biofuel industries, reappeared in the headlines this past month via an agreement with NASA Glenn Research Center to develop an on-going collaborative R&D program for optimization of open-pond microalgae growth processes. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

Solazyme. Solazyme's been on a strong run throughout 2008 and 2009, recently announcing that it closed a $57 million third round of funding. $45 million of the round had previously been announced. Funds were invested by Braemar Energy Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, VantagePoint, Roda Group, Harris & Harris and Solazyme chairman Jerry Fiddler. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

Solix Biofuels. After a quiet start to the year, closed system photobioreactor pioneer Solix Biofuels completed its $16.8 million Series A capital funding that added Shanghai Alliance Investment to its group. Proceeds will be used to finance construction and commencement of operations at the company's Coyote Gulch Demonstration Facility, which will be operational by late summer 2009. I2BF Venture Capital, Bohemian Investments, Southern Ute Alternative Energy LLC, Valero Energy Corp., and Infield Capital also invested in this round. More at biofuelsdigest.com.

The US Defense establishment. The Air Force, Navy, DARPA and the Defense Department have all been sponsoring projects or looking at algal fuel acquisition. DOD has two projects - one led by General Atomics and the other by SAIC, which have a goal of producing $3 fuel. Most recently, the US Navy's Mid Atlantic Coast section said it is looking to put out RFPs for 30-year contracts to produce biomass and/or fuel on Navy property.

Biofuel is mandatory!

2009-07-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

Thousands of developers from individuals to group are mushrooming into biofuel developments to have the luxury once enjoyed by oil producers at their backyard ,streets and country.

The rising number of biofuel producers are rapidly increasing worldwide.The list below are some of the potential developers who will carry our fuel demand /supply into 22nd century and beyond.
The following cellulosic ethanol plants are now open or in the pre-planning stages in the United States (sources, IEA Task 39 Group, Biofuels Digest, Reuters: company name, location, capacity in Mgy and feedstock).

Company Location Capacity Feed stock
-AE Biofuels Montana 0.15 Corn, corn stover
-KL Energy Corp Wyoming 1.5 Wood
-Poet S. Dakota 0.02 Corn cobs
-Verenium Louisiana 1.4 Bagasse

Commercial scale plants not yet open:

-Abengoa Bioenergy Kansas 30 Biomass
-BlueFire Mecca Llc Calif 17 Green waste
-Colusa Biomass Calif 12.5 Rice hulls
-Gulf Coast Energy Florida 25 Woody biomass
-Mascoma Corp Michigan 40 “ ”
-Poet Iowa 25 Corn cobs, stover
-Range Fuels Georgia 20 Woody biomass
-US Envirofuels LLC Florida 20 Sorghum, sugar cane
-Verenium-BP Florida 36 Energy cane, sorghum

Pilot, or pre-commercial plants, not open yet:

Company Location Capacity Feedstock
-Abengoa Nebraska 10 Corn stover
-BlueFire Calif 3.2 Green landfill waste
-Citrus Energy Llc Florida 4 Citrus waste
-Clemson University S. Carolina 10 Wood waste, algae
-Coskata Pennsylvania 0.04 Woody biomass, waste
-Dupont Danisco Tennessee 0.25 Switchgrass, stover
-Ecofin Llc Kentucky 1 Corn cobs
-Fulcrum Nevada 10.5 Municipal waste
-GulfCoast Energy Alabama 0.4 Wood Waste
-Flambeau River Wisconsin 6 Forest, paper waste
-ICM Inc Missouri 1.5 Switchgrass, sorghum
-KL Energy Corp Colorado 5 Wood pellets
-Liberty Industries Florida 7 Forest waste
-NewPage Wisconsin 5.5 Woody biomass
-Pacific Ethanol Oregon 2.7 Wheat straw, poplar
-PureVision Colorado 2 Corn stalks
-RSE Pulp & Chem Maine 2.2 Woody biomass
-SunOpta Minnesota 10 Corn stover, waste
-University of Florida Florida 2 Bagasse
-West Biofuels Calif 0.18 Wood chips
Countries engaged in biofuel developments ranged from oil rich countries ,Afrianc continent, into Europe which is rigorously into making mandatory for all vehicles to have more than 30% vehicles on the road to have on biofuels,China, South East Asia ,Australia and the Pacific including Solomon Islands.

As haze and smog hangs on lower tree tops giving impassable view, rising risk of asthma and global climate change tours in, the world is faced with huge challenges. Drinking waters turns sour, forest disappear and food crop become vulnerable to extiction , the question of money and survival is argued, at last serving our livihood is tabled to emphasize on sustainable living by engaging in sustainable energy , renewable and recycleable.

The infliction from 200 hundred years of fossil fuel use and emission of green houses gases and destruction of enviroment reversing natrural equilibrium is facing like facing a group of hngry lions in a dent.

Some of the multi national, rich organisations had already made up there minds to turn to sustainable biofuel for the next generation and the futture for all. Given the destruction of flora and fauna in ocean,change in wind patterns,change in ocean currents, change in Ocean pH,atmospheric air composition, etc,..etc..is setting new standards for survival. With these facts in our fronts, the pattern of life in production and usage, sources etc must change and it is mandatory for survival of all.

Beleow is an extract inline with this from biofuel digest.com

Greenchipstocks neatly summarized a presentation by Don Paul, Executive Director of the University of Southern California Energy Institute, givin g five reasons why Big Oil is "coming to cleantech," and five more as to why Big Oil is headed for a major role in the renewable energy business. Notably, Paul was CTO of Chevron befor joining the Institute.

His reasons for Bio Oil entering cleantech:

1. Global reach and scale
2. Strong balance sheets and cash flow
3. Technical, business, and market capabilities
4. Infrastructure, land, and supply chain management
5. Patience and longevity

His reasons for Bio Oil entering the renewable fuels marketplace:

1. Producing alternatives to oil, and thereby diverting existing petroleum refining to deliver more natural gas.
2. Converting existing production sites to wind and solar.
3. Integrating power infrastructure with natural gas as a back up to other power producing feedstocks.
4. Geothermal opportunities are a natural fit for the oil & gas business.
5. Integration opportunities in biofuels.

In addition, I gave the following presentation on oil companies and the rise of partnerships in biofuels production at the Biofuels: Science and Innovation workshop in San Francisco this week.

In remarks that accompanied the slides, I implored biofuels companies to cease making the mistake of considering Big Oil to be the Big Enemy, and consider it instead the only practical source of capital and know-how to drive scale, and also the only realistic opportunity for VC and other early investors to find exits.

Big Oil needs early-stage investors to take the technology risks on biofuels, and de-risk the space so that Big Oil can enter a more stable environment of projectable margins, provide scale, and provide exits for the early investors who can then redeploy their capital in search of more innovation in feedstocks and yields.

Algae is rising, possibly the best alternative fuel source!

2009-07-01T22:41:00.000-07:00

Algae had staged best shows as alternative non food fuel source while collecting critics as to its dynamics of culturing and processing to biofuels. IT IS OPTIMISTIC that algae is the best way forward and nothing will impede its rise, if man can land on moon and plans to land on Mars by 2037, Algae will rise above the shoulders of technology in the twenty first century.
The recent investments and developments have been linearly increasing worldwide, below is as it appears in Biofuel digest.

Algae pioneer Solix closes $16.8 million Series A financing with new Chinese investor
In Colorado, algae photobioreactor pioneer Solix Biofuels announced the completion of its $16.8 million Series A capital funding that added Shanghai Alliance Investment to its group. Proceeds will be used to finance construction and commencement of operations at the company’s Coyote Gulch Demonstration Facility, which will be operational by late summer 2009. I2BF Venture Capital, Bohemian Investments, Southern Ute Alternative Energy LLC, Valero Energy Corp., and Infield Capital also invested in this round.

Solix COO Dr. Bryan Willson said that the company is currently at around 2500 gallons per acre, and said that the company is on track to achieve cost parity with $80 oil in 3-4 years.

The company has launched a third-generation of its bioreactors, a 20-meter system that integartes CO2 delivery and increase surface area. The system is water-supported to reduce cost. A fourth generation of photobioreactors is now under development. Willson said at the recent Biofuels: Science and Innovation conference in San Francisco that the problem with contamination of open-pond algae systems had not, in his opinion, been yet overcome.

Solix Biofuels raises $10.5 million in Series A financing; will construct 10-acre algae fuel facility in Colorado
In Colorado, algae biofuel producer Solix Biofuels announced that it has raised $10.5 million in its Series A, first-round of outside financing from cleantech investors. The company said that it has also agreed with investors regarding an additional $5 million in financing that will be used to fund the company’s pilot algae production facility in Durango.

The financing was led by London-based I2BF Venture Capital and Fort Collins-based Bohemian Investments. Other participants include Southern Ute Alternative Energy, Valero Energy and Boulder-based Infield Capital. Solix produces algae from closed photo bioreactors, and will locate its first demonstration production facility on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation near Durango. The 10-acre site will be built out in two phases over 18 months, with the first phase consisting of a 4-acre photobioreactor field.

Global pollution ,climate change steer fears and for sustainable approach and for lower emissions.

2009-06-28T05:31:00.000-07:00

The world is thousands miles away from clean, natural air and water. Population boom,production for food, machines and land use accumulates air, land, water pollution to newers heights.
Scientist around the world are already afraid of what will be like after 10 years from now in terms of pollution leading to such as climate change and its newer dynamics.
Desperate measure are needed to fight global climatic change, fauna and flora change and newer organism sprouting whether be it disease ,vectors plants,etc...

Many people especially in the developing countries are still misunderstanding and misapplying the concept of climate change,even though they have not contributed as worse emission as the developed countries but the consequent will be equally distributed.

While many more are applying the threat for their own interest and gain, many people are mislead and consequences will be paid at dear price.

In the recent days a group of professional scientists and academicians have written a letter to Preseident Barrack Obama; Below is the extract as it appears http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010041.html

An Open Letter to the President
If you think it's frustrating to be a climate activist watching Washington, imagine what it's like for the scientists who are running the numbers while witnessing bureaucratic action consistently fall short of what they know needs to be done. A group of 20 prominent scientists and academics sent a letter to Obama and the U.S. Congress on Monday, and although the language is utterly respectful, the urgent message comes across loud and clear: The U.S. must act decisively, aggressively and immediately to curb emissions, and Obama must lead the effort personally.

Specifically, the letter says that passing Waxman-Markey (which the US House of Representatives is debating today) will be an excellent step in the right direction, but certainly no reason for politicians to pause an enjoy a pause for pats on the back. Instead, the legislation "at its best will be only a first step.”

The letter also draws a timely comparison to Obama's hefty push for nationwide health care reform:

As we write, we see the unfolding Presidential effort to lead the nation in the area of universal health insurance. We urge the President to initiate an effort at least comparable in the area of climatic change. We recognize the difference in popularity of these two causes, but it is the essence of Presidential leadership to show the way even where adequate public awareness of the risks ahead may be lacking. Speaking in Germany recently, President Obama referred to climatic change as "a potentially cataclysmic disaster." We agree and believe that message must be communicated and elaborated to the American people in time to assure strong, effective Congressional action in both houses of Congress this year.

The time for national action on climatic change is now. There has already been too much delay. The stakes are far too high to compromise the integrity of, and our responsibility for, prompt national action.

Their words underscore the precarious nature of the situation we face. We're at a point where the scientists most familiar with the data of global warming still believe that there is hope -- if we act now -- yet even in the light of this knowledge, we depend on volatile factors like "popularity" and political weight. We are grateful for the efforts of these leading thinkers, and hope that their words do not fall on deaf ear.

Algae again to lead for biofuel.

2009-06-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

Algae at Petro AlgaeBiofuels Digest is projecting that algal biofuels capacity will reach 1 billion gallons by 2014, based on analysis of price and capacity projections for 2009-14 from leading companies in the field.

Algae producers are targeting to reach a $1.30 wholesale cost and 1.62 billion gallons in capacity by 2014.

Costs are based on the lowest cost provider - not an average for all providers. Sources are Biofuels Digest reports and interviews on PetroAlgae, Algenol, Solazyme, Aurora Biofuels, Sapphire Energy, PetroSun and Solix, and a study prepared on algae feasibility for the Louisiana Economic Development. Production forecasts are based on interpretation of guidance from each company on forward production as well as public statements.

"The $9-$30 cost ranges cited in the latest research reflect today's prices," said Biofuels Digest editor Jim Lane. "That's already competitive in some nutraceutical and food markets - for example, a pound of olive oil retails for around $17 at my store, or about $120 per gallon. But like the computer market - costs are expected to come down quickly."

In Arizona, algae biofuels pioneer PetroSun announced that it had signed with the town of Gilbert to commence an algae-to-biofuels wastewater pilot program at the Neely Wastewater Reclamation Facility. The pilot will evaluate the feasibility of the utilization of wastewater as a source of nutrients and water for the cultivation of algae and its subsequent processing into biofuels feedstock.

From MyNews.com: "Butanol could gradually replace gasoline as well as diesel due to its high energy content, miscibility, better combustion characteristics, low volatility and other positive qualities...it was demonstrated in June 2006 that n-butanol can be used either 100% in unmodified 4-cycle ignition engine or blended up to 30% with diesel in a compression engine or blended up to 20% with kerosene in a jet turbine engine."

Bob Dineen, CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association: "An enterprising reporter at USA Today has done more homework on the possible indirect effects of increased renewable electricity generation than scores of analysts at the über environmental agency known as the California Air Resources Board (CARB)."

In China, the State Energy Administration is making concrete plans for biodiesel promotion, according to a professor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is considering the adoption of a B5 biodiesel standard, commencing as soon as next year in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

In Japan, Tsusho Corp., the trading arm of the Toyota group, has commenced a one-hectare jatropha trial in the Philippines and will prepare a feasibility study of a biodiesel refinery. NDC, the investment arm of the Trade and Industry Department, will partner with Toyota Tsusho to identify land and import equipment.

In Norway, Green Air Online is reporting that Stavanger Airport Sola will construct a wood biomass-based 4GWh power facility. The plant will utilize local wood resources and will also supply heat to the airport complex, saving 2,000 tonnes of carbon per year in the process.

Meanwhile,in Washington, the EPA today released a guide to help states, cities and organizations save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by adopting clean energy practices in their facilities, operations and vehicle fleets. According to the EPA, a 2001 executive order in New York state saved $54.4 million in energy costs from energy efficiency improvements between fiscal years 2001-2002 and 2003-2004.

Biosolar from plant source, biogas potential for PNG rural.

2009-06-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

Biofuels development trends continue to increase worldwide, algae is still increasing interest for biofuels linearly with climate change awareness. Alternative sources are sourced and its already dynamic market for producers worldwide.

One of the alternative is the biosolar. This is emerging technology that is replacing petroleum based cell components with bio-plastics made from renewable plant sources. According to Biosolar Inc based in Carlifornia, it was noted as saying due to the increasing use of solar cells and increasing demand of the photovoltic cells has made the way to investigate environmentally friendly material from plants. The aim is to reduce reliance on petroleum product while at the same time carbon dioxide locked away in earth crust is not released into the air causing global warming.BioSolar is leading the way in addressing both the cost and ecology problems, and the company is the first anywhere to introduce a new dimension of cost reduction by replacing petroleum-based plastic solar cell components with durable bio-based materials.Already, BioSolar’s first product offering has authenticated the company’s mission. The revolutionary BioBacksheet is a 100% bio-based material that forms
the bottom layer of most crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells – a layer traditionally comprised of petroleum-based plastics. Not only do BioSolar’s BioBacksheets decrease dependency on petroleum, but they also are expected to cost substantially less than petroleum-based traditional backsheets. This savings will reduce the final cost per watt of solar electricity by allowing cell manufacturers to lower the cost of their finished product.
Beyond BioBacksheets, the BioSolar’s development vision encompasses a complete line of bio-based products, which will include BioSolar Thin Film Substrate, BioSolar Superstrate, and BioSolar Plastics to be used for injection molding in various solar panel housing and packaging components.
With the market for solar power already in explosive growth mode, BioSolar is singularly positioned to lead the development of truly sustainable and cost-effective solar technology.
In short, when it comes to solar energy, BioSolar is changing the way “green” is done.

Planting more trees, maintaining greenery is the policy of the office of sustainable climate in POM,PNG. This office has alot of real responsibilities if the office is not profit oriented. one of the potential promotion is rural biogas production and processing for ruarl use. Trees cannot be continued to cut down neither shrubs which is not healthy for climate change.
Rural family biogas is widely harness and used in China, infact mre than 80% use biogas for all energy requirement and many found it sustainable , feasible and economically very important.

My current research in biogas indicated very interesting results and high yields in which i also formulated biofertilizer. For instance, if a local PNG rural farmer wishes to look after 1000 chickens would account for 60 kg of chicken feces is enough to produce 3 gallons of fuel in ten days and 35 kg of fertilizer. That should give the farmer 5-7 days free energy and give him/her 10 fold greens and vegetables for market or consumption. Directly the farmer can sell his /her chicken meat at lower price giving rural dwellers balance high protein meals at lower price. The good news is that government will not tax the biogas.

Below is a story on biogas and its widening popularity as it appears(http://www.panda.org/wwf_news/features/?95320/Biogas-saving-nature-naturally-in-Nepal)

“One day I woke up and told my husband that I wasn’t going to risk my life by collecting wood from the forest any more and that we were going to get a biogas stove, even if we had to take a loan,” recalls Jari Maya Tamang, 41, as she stands proudly next to the first biogas system in her village in Badreni, Nepal.

Since Jari Maya took out a micro-credit loan to install the energy-efficient stove, others have quickly followed. Today, 80 per cent of the 82 households in the village — about a four-hour drive south-west from the capital, Kathmandu — have similar systems in their homes.

Sitting on the edge of Nepal’s Chitwan National Park — home to some of the largest surviving populations of Bengal tigers and greater one-horned rhinos — Badreni has earned the distinction of being the first biogas village in Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape.

Located in the shadow of the Himalayas, the Terai Arc covers 5 million hectares from Nepal’s Bagmati River in the east to India's Yamuna River in the west.

A role model for alternative energy
As part of WWF Nepal's Terai Arc Landscape Programme, some 7,500 biogas plants are to be installed in villages like Badreni over the next three years.

“With more than 9.3 million head of cattle and over 6.7 million people, there is a future for biogas in the Terai Arc, but this technology is still out of reach for the majority of people who cannot afford it without micro-finance schemes that WWF funds through grassroots forest users groups,” says Basu Dhungana, Chairman of the Mirgakunj Buffer Zone User Committee in Chitwan.

“Badreni is our model. The people understand there is a direct link between our actions and impacts on the environment.”

With a dense population, high biodiversity and fragile ecosystems, deforestation is a major issue facing the Terai Arc. Unsustainable fuelwood extraction affects both community and government-managed forests.

Sixty-one per cent of all households in the Terai Arc Landscape in Nepal currently rely on fuelwood for cooking, and 49 per cent source their wood from nearby government-managed forests. A family uses an average of between 1.3–2.5kg wood everyday. Evidence suggests that this is not sustainable.

Reliable and efficient
More and more people are turning to biogas in Nepal, especially as the technology is relatively simple, reliable, accessible and risk free.

“The advantages of a toilet-attached biogas plant are numerous,” says Jari Maya. “The village’s reliance on forest fuelwood has decreased dramatically, and health and sanitation conditions have improved.”

Cooking with firewood causes chronic respiratory diseases, especially as there are no chimneys in traditional rural houses in Nepal. Installing a biogas system in the house often improves the health of the familly, especially that of women and children, who spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Not only has research shown that an average-sized biogas plant can save 4.5 metric tonnes of firewood annually, but woman like Jari Maya don’t have to go as often to the forest to collect wood where they are vulnerable to wildlife attacks.

Biogas and climate change
Biogas also has a direct positive impact on climate change, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. According to WWF, a single biogas plant reduces carbon emissions by 4.7 tonnes per year.

Alternate energy promotion is an important priority for WWF’s work in Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape. In 2006, WWF Nepal partnered with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre and Biogas Sector Partnership–Nepal, signing a tripartite working arrangement to install the 7,500 biogas plants.

“We are actively promoting biogas installation through microfinance schemes in 13 sites in the Terai Arc, particularly for the poorer, more marginalized communities,” said WWF Nepal Country Representative Anil Manandhar.

“There is a great potential for biogas villages like Badreni to be replicated throughout Nepal.”

While in German;
• Lünen to use cow and horse manure for sustainable power• Biogas network could provide 30-40% of town's needsA German town will become the first in the world to be powered by animal waste when it launches a biogas network this year.Lünen, north of Dortmund, will use cow and horse manure as well as other organic material from local farms to provide cheap and sustainable electricity for its 90,000 residents.Biogas is already used around the world – it will power buses in Oslo from September – but Lünen claims to be the only town to build a dedicated biogas network.Material such as animal slurry and spoiled crops from local farms will be fed into heated tanks, where natural fermentation will break it down into methane and carbon dioxide – the same basic ingredients as natural gas. This biogas can then be burned to generate electricity and heat in a combined heat and power plant (CHP) before the heat is distributed across the town through a new biogas pipeline, which is being built underground.The plant can produce 6.8MW, enough to power and heat 26,000 houses. According to Peter Kindt, director of Alfagy Ltd, which distributes CHP plants, the Lünen network could provide 30-40% of the town's heat and electricity needs.The benefits of biogas are clear, say its developers. "This sustainable technology allows local production of local power, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and fuel imports," said Kindt.The CHP plants are camouflaged as decorative installations featuring wood and plants.Kindt admits that because of the smell, anyone near the CHP plant in Lünen will know it's there. But he insists that residents will not find their living rooms scented with slurry every time they turn the heating on

Recent developments in Biofuels worldover,Biofuel increasing linearly with time.

2009-06-06T01:51:00.000-07:00

EIA: World energy demand, biofuels use will grow:

Worldwide demand for energy is expected to nearly double by 2030 and will be driven largely by developing countries, according to the Energy Information Administration. The agency recently released its annual International Energy Outlook, which stated that while short-term energy demand is dampened due to economic recession, long-term consumption is expected to return to levels anticipated prior to the recession

The partnership between BP and DuPont to accelerate its next generation clean renewable fuels has successfully tested biobutanol over 1.5 million miles in an ordinary car.

In an exclusive interview for the June issue of Biofuels International magazine BP's Philip New says typical blends of around 16% were used without the need for modifications.

Like ethanol, biobutanol can be produced from feedstocks such as corn, wheat and sugarcane, but has the advantages of greater energy density, more miles per gallon and can be transported in existing pipelines.

Finland-based Neste Oil laid the foundation stone for Europe’s largest renewable diesel plant last week, coinciding with the second annual Biofuels International expo & conference in the Netherlands.

The provincial government in Saskatchewan, Canada, has signed an agreement with biotechnology company Iogen to develop the province’s first cellulosic ethanol plant.It will be commercial-scale expansion of its wheat straw ethanol demonstration plant in Ontario. The Canadian government has also recently announced it would provide a federal repayable contribution of up to $1.6 million for a $6 million waste-to-energy project in Ontario. The funds will be distributed through the Agri-Opportunities Program, a $134 million initiative launched in January 2007 and designed to increase market opportunities for the Canadian agriculture industry. The program provides a maximum repayable contribution of $10 million per project and per recipient regardless of the number of projects over the life of the program, which ends in March 2011

The city of Lünen, Germany, has begun building a new biogas distribution network, which will be powered by agricultural waste, including cow dung and horse manure.

It is thought that approximately 90,000 residents will benefit from the development, and will make the town the first in the world to build and manage a biogas network.

Local farms will deliver animal waste, corn, wheat and grass as the feedstock is converted into biogas in anaerobic digesters.
The gas will be distributed over the city through a new biogas pipeline network being built underground.
The plant is expected to produce 6.8 MW, which will be enough energy to supply 26,000 houses with heat and electricity.

Peter Kindt, the chairman of local heat and power provider Alfagy said: ‘What makes this project exiting is the combination of Cogeneration with renewable energy in an urban environment.’
The network is expected to deliver heat and electricity to customers by December 2009.

Swedish company Chemrec has entered into an agreement with The Stella Group to support the company’s efforts to raise awareness of Chemrec’s integrated biorefineries at pulp and paper mills.

The European Commission has submitted a proposal to extend the temporary tariffs imposed on imports of US biodiesel for up to five years. Biomass, wind and hydro are the most important technologies to generate jobs under the EU's Renewable Energy Directive, according to a study recently conducted on behalf of the European Commission's Directorate-General Energy and Transport. In general, the study assessed the economic effects of supporting the RES, looking at jobs in the RES sector as well as its impact on all sectors of the economy. The report found that more than 60 percent of total RES sector employment generation is due to biomass technologies

The US’ 2,000th E85 fuelling station opened in the community of Davie, Florida, at the U-Gas retail station on 28 May. Meanwhile, algae and microcrop pioneer and market leader PetroAlgae announced that it was expanding its international sales force, adding nine representatives in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The company has grown to an employee base of 115, up 28 percent from the 90 staff that company has on the payrolls in December.
Meanwhile algae production unit Italy, the European Algae Biomass Association officially launched yesterday with a decidedly pessimistic outlook for commercial-scale algae bioenergy production.

New EABA Executive Director Raffaello Garofalo said that it will take 10 to 15 years for algae to reach industrial-scale production, and that, at present, making biodiesel from algae costs 10 to 30 times the cost of making biodiesel from traditional feedstocks.

Garofalo told Reuters that the new association has 54 members and that he saw a price of $500-$550 emerging for the algal fuel market, in the long-term, after other fractions of algae biomass were sold for animal feed or to the nutraceutical markets. Garofalo referred to pilot projects in Portugal and Italy but cautioned against expectations of quick breakthroughs in the path towards algae commercialization

In the US, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is requesting more transparency over the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Renewable Fuel Standard Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
Scientists in Wales, UK, are looking into a research project aiming to turn grass into a green transport fuel.

Biomass plant specialist Helius Energy has announced that it has seen profits for the last six months to 31 March 2009, and has projected expansion plans to add a third multi-million-pound plant to its portfolio.

Industrial enzymes maker Novozymes has reported that Brazil could produce up to 8 billion litres of biofuel from sugarcane residues (bagasse) by 2020, representing additional export revenue for Brazil of up to US$4 billion (€4.6 billion).While Petrobras confirmed that it will invest US$2.8 billion in biofuel production including ethanol from sugar cane: a total of US$174.4 billion for the period 2009-2013.," writes Al Costa in a Biofuels Digest special report from the 2009 Ethanol Summit in Sao Paulo.

US-based Baystate Biofuels' terminal in North Andover, Massachusetts, is to come online next year and begin delivering a green energy, petroleum alternative to the region.

The EU has launched a biogas project as a solution to the mounting agricultural waste on farms in the continent.

Food giant Cargill has started production at its new glycerine refinery in Frankfurt, Germany.

Virgin Galactic, a subsidiary of the Virgin Group, is constructing space ships that are designed to run in part on alternative fuels.

A report by the European Environment Agency has found that European Union (EU) emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) declined for the third consecutive year in 2007.

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) have published recommendations on analytical test methods for the testing of corn distillers dried grains (DDG) and corn DDG with solubles (DDGS) in the Journal of AOAC International.

Two Philippines-based firms have signed separate deals with two South Korean companies for biofuel production ventures worth $600 million (€422 million) in total.

Six new ethanol projects in Columbia this year will add 1.37 million litres a day of new production.

In Ghana, Gold Star Farms said that it has obtained jatropha-growing commitments from farmers holding 5 million acres, and will commence biodiesel production this year at its plant in Nkawkaw in the eastern region of the country. Last year, Gold Star formed a joint venture with US FuelTech deploy small biodiesel producing units in Chile that will use locally-grown jatropha as feedstock.

Australia-based agriculture technology company Glenvar has developed a direct baling system which it said could be beneficial to the biomass and cellulosic ethanol industries

In Ethiopia, Ardent Energy Group announced today an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MOARD) of Ethiopia to transfer 15,000 hectares, approximately 37,000 acres, to AEG for the purpose of cultivating jatropha and castor. The resultant crop will be refined into usable biodiesel fuel

In the Philippines, South Korean biodiesel producer Eco Solutions and Eco Global Bio-Oils announced that they will invest $175 million in a 9.6 Mgy biodiesel plant in South Cotabato that will utilize jatropha grown by Eco Solutions from an 11,000 hectare plantation that will be expanded to 100,000 hectares.

In New Zealand, Air New Zealand announced that the engines running B50 blended biofuels in a December flight test saved 1.2 percent on fuel use as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60-75 percent, or 4.5 tons. The airline said that it could save 1.43 tonnes of fuel on a 12-hour flight using a 50/50 blend of jatropha and conventional Jet A1 fuel.