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Posts Tagged ‘Biofuels’

The US is the second largest producer of biodiesel in the world, producing 17.7% of the world’s biodiesel in 2009. The biodiesel market in the US is expected to reach 2,822 million liters in 2010 and 3,662 million liters in 2015. The US biodiesel market is driven by the US’ desire to achieve greater energy independence and security. The country depends heavily on imports to fulfill its transportation and industrial fuel requirements. The US is currently importing about 65% of its oil consumption and this figure is expected to increase even further. This dependence on imported oil can be reduced by increasing the production and use of domestically produced biofuels. The biodiesel industry in the US is very young and is gradually picking up speed due to large financial incentives at the federal as well as the state level. The biofuel production in the US was around 37,403 million liters in 2009. Of this, 92.5% was bioethanol and the remaining 7.5% was biodiesel.

The US ethanol industry has also seen an unprecedented expansion due to its favorable market conditions and supportive policy incentives. The federal renewable fuels standard (RFS) has helped the expansion of the US ethanol industry by setting goals for the production of renewable fuels. Seven states (Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Missouri and Washington) have enacted renewable fuel standards that require the use of ethanol-blended fuel. Currently, there are around 200 ethanol plants in the US with a production capacity of more than 48,000 million liters. The country’s bioethanol production increased from 7,080 million liters in 2001 to more than 34,609 million liters by the year 2009, at the CAGR of 20.4% during 2001-2009. Further during 2009-2015, bioethanol production growth in the US is likely to come down to 2% and the production is likely to be around 38,924 million liters by the year 2015.

This analysis was taken from a research paper published by GlobalData, to download the full Research Paper for free, click below:

http://www.researchviews.com/energy/clean-technology/biofuels/Viewpoints.aspx?sector=Biofuels&DocID=10674

Access the latest Biofuels analysis for free at www.researchviews.com

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Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has announced approval for an agricultural project that will develop biofuel from rotting dates.

According to Reuters, “Iraq has the world’s third largest oil reserves but its crumbling farm sector, which has suffered from decades of sanctions, isolation and war, is the country’s leading employer.”

The dates-to-biofuel program, being developed by an unnamed company based in the United Arab Emirates, is seen as a way to encourage growth in the farming sector which Iraqi officials hope will ultimately lead to greater agricultural productivity.

Iraqi officials also hope it will reinvigorate their once vibrant date export industry. The country, which produced 900,000 tons of dates prior to the U.S. invasion, now produces only 350,000 tons. By giving farmers a way to profit from dates that are starting to rot, they help to minimize the risk.

And the oil rich country plans to use the biofuel domestically at first, with the possibility of future export.

In another oil exporting country, Oman, Oman Green Energy Company (OGEC), has been testing the development of biofuel from the date palm for some years. In the case of OGEC, they claim to use cellulosic biomass extracted from around the date palms and in a way that doesn’t interfere with the date crop.

In a 2008 study, desert dates were also found to be an excellent source of biofuel stock, especially for arid regions. The study focused particularly on the Arava desert in Israel and its potential to develop cost-effective biodiesel production.

While biodiesel production in oil poor Israel makes sense, biofuels might be seen as a gamble in a country like Oman which exports 700,000 barrels of oil a day, and derives 90% of its export revenue from oil.  Likewise a biofuel program in Iraq, where the country’s financial stability has been put in the hands of its oil industry, may seem out of place. And yet, biofuels are seen as delivering additional value. In Iraq, they may be the key to bringing back a devastated agricultural sector.

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Biofuels from Engineered Tobacco Plants?

A biofuel is tricky to define because the usual fossil fuel we use, is in a way biofuel too. But we can safely say that most of the biofuels don’t add up their quota of carbon dioxide to the environment. The biofuels are therefore considered to be “CO2 neutral.” Researchers from the Biotechnology lenovo thinkpad x61 battery Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University have developed a new method to increase the quantity of oil in tobacco leaves. So that oil in tobacco leaves can be utilized as biofuels in future. Their paper was published in Plant Biotechnology Journal which is an online journal.

Vyacheslav Andrianov is a Ph.D. and assistant professor of Cancer Biology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. According to him tobacco can produce biofuel more efficiently than other agricultural crops. But there is a hitch. When we try to extract oil lenovo ideapad y430 battery, most of it is available in tobacco seeds. Statistics say that tobacco seeds are composed of about 40 percent oil per dry weight. Another snag is tobacco plants don’t produce seeds in copious amounts. It is about 600 kg of seeds per acre. Dr. Andrianov and his colleagues aim to find ways so that the tobacco leaves produce more oil.

A usual tobacco plant leave has 1.7 percent to 4 percent of oil per dry weight. The researchers modified two genes of the plant. They are the diacyglycerol acytransferase (DGAT) gene or the LEAFY COTYLEDON 2 (LEC2) gene. The plants were engineered to over express one of the two genes. The alteration of DGAT gene resulted in about 5.8 percent of oil per dry weight in the leaves. It is around twice the amount of oil produced by and large. When the researcher went for the LEC2 gene modification it yielded around 6.8 percent of oil per dry weight.

According to Dr. Andrianov, “Tobacco is very attractive as a biofuel because the idea is to use plants that aren’t used in food production. We have found ways to genetically engineer the plants so that their leaves express more oil. In some instances, the modified plants produced 20-fold more oil in the leaves.”

Dr. Andrianov opines, “Based on these data, tobacco represents an attractive and promising ‘energy plant’ platform, and could also serve as a model for toshiba satellite a215 battery the utilization of other high-biomass plants for biofuel production.”

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Homes and businesses are not the only establishments upon which to apply the technologies of alternative energy. The environment can also benefit through the use of renewable energy in vehicles, most often in the form of biofuels. Australia has studied the advantages of biofuels and the impact the industry has on the country.

Currently, there is a general consensus amongst the public that there is a deficient supply of vehicles compatible with E10 fuel. E10 refers to blends of fuels containing 90% unleaded petrol and 10% ethanol. According to Heather Brodie, CEO of the Biofuels Association of Australia, the misconception by many citizens in Australia that too few cars exist which are compatible with E10 is that they are unaware that the most of the vehicles manufactured in Australia are compatible with E10 fuel and the majority of imported vehicles are as well.

It is possible that the public is unaware of this due to Australia’s somewhat slow start in embracing other forms of renewable energy. Biofuels have been used for a number of years in places such as the US, Europe, and Asia, so the technology is proven. Australia has been on board with biofuels for awhile now, but the citizens still remember the times when it was not readily available and the compatible vehicles were in the developmental stages. Ms. Brodie compares the reluctance to accept biofuels as a viable energy source to a time when unleaded petroleum fuels were shunned in favor of super blends. She claims that it is just a matter of getting used to a new method of powering our vehicles.

Australia currently maintains three commercial ethanol plants. All of them are located on the east coast of the country. Although biofuel technology has been utilized for decades, there are still growing pains as far as public perception and expansion of use; therefore, E10 is most readily available near its points of production. In order to encourage biofuel production to spread to other areas of Australia, Federal Government exempts domestically produced ethanol from excise tax until July of 2011. Additionally, Premiers in New South Wales and Queensland have debated the requirement that all petrol fuel be blended with ethanol in these states.

As with any renewable energy source, there will be skepticism toward biofuel because it is a relatively new technology. People tend to fear change, but biofuels are a change for the better, in Australia and the rest of the world.

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There is a growing concern these days for the environment, and several countries have taken the initiative to promote the use of renewable energy to lessen humanity’s impact on the planet.  Canada is one such country taking the lead in green technologies, and using biofuels is one of the steps they have taken in becoming one of the world’s leaders in the consumption of environmentally friendly fuels.

Biofuels are simply liquid fuels manufactured from plant and animal materials.  Because this matter is biodegradable, it is not only capable of powering vehicles and heating homes, but the waste is then absorbed once again into the earth, nurturing new life able to provide future renewable energy sources.

Bioethanol, commonly referred to as just ethanol, is the most common biofuel currently in production.  Canada’s federal government has taken note of ethanol’s potential as an alternative renewable energy and created a plan requiring gasoline to contain 5% ethanol by the end of this year.  The plan would also require diesel fuels to contain at least 2% ethanol by the end of 2012.  As a matter of fact, the provincial government of Manitoba has taken a leadership role in the biodiesel industry by creating mandates requiring similar percentages as those devised by the federal government that will go into effect in 2010.  This precedes the federal mandate by two years.  Manitoba is known for its prairie lands, the crops that grow there, and the animals that graze upon these crops.  The amount of plant and animal materials available for the production of biofuels is great.  Manitoba has inspired the provincial government of British Columbia to adopt similar strategies.

The corporation of Raven Biofuels Limited was established to research and develop technologies conducive to efficient and prolific use of biofuels throughout Canada, and they have identified British Columbia as a starting point.  Joining Raven Biofuels International Corporation (RBIC), their goal is to pay RBIC a fee providing them exclusive rights to biofuel development in Canada.  Their intent is to build the first commercial biorefinery and place it in Kamloops, British Columbia.  Though it may seem as though a monopoly or trust would emerge from this partnership, the goal is to set an example and to provide guidance to other potential commercial endeavors.  Municipalities have partnered with British Columbia’s provincial government to create the BC Bioenergy Strategy, which has already garnered million to fund a Biofuel Network focused on furthering biofuel energy technology not just in British Columbia, but throughout Canada.

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Involvement in the algae biofuels industry shot up by companies 550% between 2005 and 2007, driven by environmental concerns and high crude oil prices. However, oil prices have since declined, and the recent global financial crisis stymied many industries. Currently there seems to be continued interest in algae biofuels, but the industry is also plagued by excessive hype… So what is the near-term outlook for the algae biofuels production technologies market? 

One of the great benefits of algae as a feedstock is that it can be used to produce an array of biofuels: algal oil, biodiesel, renewable diesel, aviation biofuel, renewable jet fuel, biogasoline, ethanol, butanol, biomethane, and even hydrogen. Algae biofuels production also involves a wide array of technologies, from genetically engineered diatoms, green algae, and cyanobacteria; to open ponds or photobioreactors for cultivation; centrifuges and presses for extraction; and refineries, fermenters, and digesters for processing into fuels. 

Because the market for algae biofuels production technologies is diverse, it is helpful to break it down according to subsets of production technologies: cultivation technologies, harvesting and extraction technologies, and algae biofuels production facilities. Through 2015, cultivation technology sales are expected to hold most of the total algae biofuels production technologies market. The remaining market segments will be held by a combination of harvesting and extraction and fuels production facilities, for a total projected market value of over .6 billion in 2015. Starting at an estimated 1 million market size for 2010, this increase is significant and underscores that this is a quickly changing and evolving industry, expected to show an annual growth rate of nearly 43 percent. 

Algae biofuels production technologies are currently undergoing substantial development and scaled testing. As demonstration and commercial implementation move forward, emerging algae biofuels production technologies will garner up to about a third of the total market by 2015, as some current technologies are rendered obsolete or underperforming in terms of cost and production efficiency.

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Biofuels are when we use organic matter as fuel by converting it into power for use. By producing biofuels, this is an alternative energy source as we depend on fossil fuels. The ethanol products include under its aegis, derivatives of plants like sugar cane, and also corn and vegetable oils, all part of the biofuels umbrella. Not all of them are designed for use as gasoline, although the International Energy Agency (IEA) say that by 2025, 10 % of the world’s gasoline could be made up of ethanol products, and by 2030, it could be up to as much as 30%. At the moment, the percentage stands at just 2%.

A lot of research is going into biofuels, and it will be some time before we can refine them to make them more economic and practical enough to use. Oregon State University have done a study to prove this. Biofuels have not yet been developed which are as energy efficient as petroleum which makes up our gasoline. To put it simply, energy efficiency is how we measure the usable energy that is derived from the input energy by a certain amount. (Up till now we have not come up with any product where the output energy exceeded that of what was input). What is most important is the end product energy that has been converted and its usefulness for our society’s needs, the effort involved is what we put into the input energy so as to produce which is the end-product. A study by the OSU found that ethanol which is corn-derived was only 20% energy efficient (compared to gasoline that is 75% energy efficient and made from petroleum). Biodiesel fuel had a recorded energy efficiency of 69%. Out of the study came one positive thing: higher than nuclear energy which is effectively efficient, was cellulose-derived ethanol charted as 85% efficient.

The New York Exchange has marked a change in oil for the future, with analysts from many countries having predicted surges in the availability of biofuels, which would offset oil prices, seeing crude oil drop to prices of about per barrel on the international market. On the Chicago Stock Exchange there is more investment activity in future markets on grain, making a “steal” on the oil futures of New York, with investors expecting much better profitability from biofuels to come. By 2030, a consensus of analysts have predicted that biofuels will account for 7% of transportation for all round the world. Demand for and diesel and gasoline will slowly fall dramatically according to one energy market analyst, as government supports the use of the more eco-friendly biofuels and subsidise the manufactures of this fuel.

Many nations support the use of biofuels and its production in developement.

Brazil is the biggest in the production of ethanols that are derived from sugars. Approximately three and a half billion gallons of ethanol is produced in a year.

The greatest oil user is the United States, who already come second behind the largest producer, Brazil, in biofuels.

The European Union now have an excess of four million (British) tonnes in biodiesel production capacity, of which 80% is derived from rapeseed oil. The remaining 20% of the EU’s biodiesel fuels is marginally from palm oil and the rest comprised of soybean oil.

Biofuels have become talk of the town these days. These are obtained from biomass and utilize many renewable energy sources. These fuels also use plant matter as the raw material. Solid biomass is known to be the most common types of bio-fuels. The consistent rise in the price of fossil fuel has affected the world economy. The introduction of biofuels has come as a rescue to this problem. In fact, these have acted as a complete replacement for most of our energy requirements. However, prior to completely trusting this renewable energy source, it is important to know about the pros and cons of using biofuels. Stated below are some of the significant biofuels pros and cons.

Biofuels Pros and Cons:

The most obvious pros of using biofuel is the independence it allows from oil that can be bought from outside the United States. The best part is that the emissions coming from direct usage in automobiles is far lesser as compared to those from conventional fuels such as gasoline.

Other benefits:

Biofuels are extracted from the plant oils or animals. This facilitates recycling. This in turn, turns the trash into something resourceful.
Biofuels are cost-effective. In fact, these are considered to be the only fuel available at affordable price.
The best thing about biofuel is that they are safer and can be easily transported from one place to another sans posing any potential risk on the health of consumers.
When using biofuel, there is no peculiar gasoline stench. It is also sulfur-free. Additionally, it aids in eliminating acid rain.
Bio fuel can be used by all vehicle engine types.

Cons of using biofuels:

The traditional petroleum products produce more energy than biofuel. This may result in power loss in engines.
It is true that biofuel can function with most engines but there are just a few specifically designed for this type of fuel.

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