Food fight: White Castle vs biofuels

Read the full story at Smart Planet.

U.S. chain restaurants and a group of congressmen are launching an assault against biofuels on the grounds that fuel produced from crops like corn are pushing up food prices.

At a press conference on Capitol Hill this Thursday, the president of burger chain White Castle will join the owner of a Wendy’s franchise and other meat movers to demand the repeal of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

The RFS requires transportation fuels to contain a minimum complement of renewables. That includes ethanol which is produced from corn, a crop that has long fed the cattle that the food industry turns into burgers and steaks that groups like White Castle and Wendy’s sell.

 

New synthesis could make biofuel more appealing for mass production

Read the full story in R&D.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) chemical engineers have devised a cheaper way to synthesize a key biofuel component, which could make its industrial production much more cost effective.

The compound, known as gamma-valerolactone (GVL), is attractive because of its versatility, says Yuriy Román, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and leader of the research team. It has more energy than ethanol and could be used on its own or as an additive to other fuels. GVL could also be useful as a “green” solvent or a building block for creating renewable polymers from sustainable materials.

 

Molecular switch for cheaper biofuel

Read the full story in R&D Magazine.

Biofuel is often obtained from starchy plants—but this places fuel production in competition with food production. At the Vienna Univ. of Technology, genetically modified mold fungi are created, which have the ability to break down long cellulose and xylan chains into smaller sugar molecules. This could make the production of biofuel a lot cheaper.

 

University of Illinois to build $23 million biofuel research lab

Read the full story in The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette.

The University of Illinois-Urbana will begin construction this fall on a new bioprocessing laboratory to research biomass-derived biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol.

 

Scientists develop ‘green’ pretreatment of miscanthus for biofuel

Read the full story in Biomass Magazine.

Two University of Illinois scientists have developed an environmentally friendly and more economical way of pretreating miscanthus in the biofuel production process.

 

Cleaner energy, warmer climate?

Read the full story in R&D Magazine.

The growing global demand for energy, combined with a need to reduce emissions and lessen the effects of climate change, has increased focus on cleaner energy sources. But what unintended consequences could these cleaner sources have on the changing climate?

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) now have some answers to that question, using biofuels as a test case. Their study, released in Geophysical Research Letters, found that land-use changes caused by a major ramp-up in biofuel crops—enough to meet about 10% of the world’s energy needs—could make some regions even warmer.

 

NASA Clears Biofuel-Powered Jets for Takeoff

Read the full story in Environmental Leader.

NASA researchers say commercial airlines can safely fly using plant-based biofuel, following successful test flights in California.

 

The Trouble with Biofuels: Costs and Consequences of Expanding Biofuel Use in the United Kingdom

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Biofuel use in the United Kingdom is set to increase significantly despite continued sustainability concerns

• In the current financial year (2013/14) UK biofuel use will increase to 5 per cent of transport volumes, the highest level ever.
• An earlier government-commissioned review of UK biofuel policy recommended that biofuel use not surpass this level unless major sustainability issues are addressed. However, EU targets for 2020 would see this exceeded several times over.

Current biofuel standards do not ensure biofuel use is sustainable

• Agricultural biofuel use increases the level and volatility of food prices, with detrimental impacts on the food security of low-income food-importing countries.
• Agricultural biofuel use also indirectly drives expansion of agriculture into areas of high carbon stock such as rainforest or peatland, resulting in indirect land-use change, the emissions from which may outweigh any greenhouse gas savings the biofuels are able to offer.
• Biodiesel from waste products such as used cooking oil or tallow offer the most favourable sustainability characteristics; however, the risk of indirect emissions increases at higher levels of use and may already be material.
• Neither indirect land-use change nor food security is addressed in UK sustainability criteria. In the absence of such safeguards, increasing biofuel consumption could have significant environmental and social consequences outside the United Kingdom. It is unclear whether such safeguards will be agreed at the EU level.

Biofuels are not a cost-effective means to reduce emissions from road transport

• The current generation of biofuels provides an expensive means of reducing emissions from road transport. Carbon abatement costs, excluding emissions from indirect land-use change, are broadly in the range of $165–$1,100 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). This compares unfavourably with an appraisal price of around $87 per tonne.
• Accounting for emissions from indirect land-use change increases abatement costs for agricultural biofuels to between $330 and $8,500 per tonne of CO2e depending on the feedstock used. Biodiesel from vegetable oils is found to be worse for the climate than fossil diesel.
• The 5 per cent biofuel target is likely to cost UK motorists in the region of $700 million (£460 million) in the current financial year (2013/14).
• If the UK is to meet its EU obligations, the annual cost to UK motorists is likely to rise to around $2 billion (£1.3 billion) a year by 2020.

 

 

Energy Department Announces New Innovative Projects to Develop Advanced Drop-in Biofuels for Military Jets and Ships

As part of the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, the Energy Department today announced nearly $18 million in four innovative pilot-scale biorefineries in California, Iowa and Washington that will test renewable biofuels as a domestic alternative to power our cars, trucks, and planes that meet military specifications for jet fuel and shipboard diesel. These projects build on the Obama Administration’s broader efforts to advance biofuels technologies to continue to bring down costs, improve performance and identify effective, non-food feedstocks and processing techniques.

“Advanced biofuels are an important part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above strategy to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, improve our energy security and protect our air and water,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “The innovative biorefinery projects announced today mark an important step toward producing fuels for our American military and the civil aviation industry from renewable resources found right here in the United States.”

Domestic oil and gas production has increased each year the President has been in office. At the same time, we continue to take additional steps to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. As part of this effort, the Department is helping to speed the development of hydrocarbon-based biofuels that are more compatible with today’s infrastructure and engines, including heavy vehicles and other applications. According to the Energy Department’s Billion Ton Study, advanced biofuels have the potential to displace approximately one-third of the nation’s current transportation petroleum use.

The pilot-scale biorefinery projects selected today will use a variety of non-food biomass feedstocks, waste-based materials, and algae in innovative conversion processes to produce biofuels that meet military specifications for jet fuel and diesel. The projects will demonstrate technologies to cost-effectively convert biomass into advanced drop-in biofuels and assist these organizations to scale up the processes to commercial levels. Recipients are required to contribute a minimum of 50 percent matching funds for these projects.

The projects selected for negotiation are:

Frontline Bioenergy LLC (up to $4.2 million; Ames, Iowa):  Building on prior commercial-scale gasification success, Frontline BioEnergy, along with its project partners SGC Energia, Stanley Consultants, and Delphi Engineering and Construction LLC, will build and integrate an innovative new pilot scale TarFreeGas™ reactor and new gas conditioning processes with an existing Fischer Tropsch (FT) unit capable of producing 1 barrel per day of FT liquids from woody biomass, municipal solid waste and refuse derived fuel at the Iowa Energy Center’s Biomass Energy Conversion Facility in Nevada, Iowa.  These liquids will be upgraded to produce samples of biofuels that meet military specifications.

Cobalt Technologies (up to $2.5 million; Mountain View, California):  Cobalt Technologies will operate a pilot-scale integrated biorefinery to convert switchgrass to bio-jet fuel.  Together with its partners, including the Naval Air Warfare China Lake Weapons Division, Show Me Energy Cooperative, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Cobalt intends to build a pilot-scale facility to purify and convert butanol to jet fuel. Cobalt will operate the integrated pilot-scale biorefinery to evaluate scalability of the process and assess the facility’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Mercurius Biorefining, Inc. (up to $4.6 million; Ferndale, Washington):  For its project, Mercurius will build and operate a pilot plant that uses an innovative process that converts the cellulosic biomass into non-sugar intermediates, which are further processed into drop-in bio-jet fuel and chemicals.  Several organizations are participating in this consortium led by Mercurius Biorefining, including Purdue University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Incitor.

BioProcess Algae (up to $6.4 million; Shenandoah, Iowa)  The BioProcess Algae project will evaluate an innovative algal growth platform that will produce hydrocarbon fuels meeting military specifications using renewable carbon dioxide, lignocellulosic sugars and waste heat.  The proposed biorefinery will integrate low-cost autotrophic algal production, accelerated lipid production, and lipid conversion. While the primary product from the proposed biorefinery will be military fuels, the facility will also co-produce additional products, including other hydrocarbons, glycerine, and animal feed.

 

Online Map Shows Algae Biomass Facilities, Projects Worldwide

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

The Algae Biomass Organization has published an online map showing algae production facilities and research projects worldwide.

The map shows algae — which can produce a wide variety of products including renewable fuels, feeds, fertilizers and chemicals — can grow in wide range of climates and provide economic benefits without producing harmful effects on land or freshwater, says Mary Rosenthal, executive director of the ABO.