Tag Archives: conditions
Farmland Values and Credit Conditions
AUGUST 21, 2013 By: News Release CHICAGO–Acording to the latest AgLetter published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, for the second quarter of 2013, “good” farmland values were up 17 percent from a year ago in the Seventh Federal Reserve District, which consists of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin. However, agricultural land values registered no gain in the second quarter relative to the first quarter of 2013, according to a survey of 211 agricultural bankers. The last time there was no quarterly increase in agricultural land values was in 2009. Generally, the stellar year-over-year gains in farmland values across the five District states masked the comparative weakness of the quarterly results. Moreover, the percentage of survey respondents anticipating farmland values to fall during the third quarter of 2013 was the same as the percentage predicting them to rise (7 percent); 86 percent of responding bankers expected farmland values to be stable. The District’s agricultural credit conditions were generally better in the second quarter of 2013 than a year earlier. The availability of funds for lending by agricultural banks was up relative to a year ago; the banks’ deposits were enhanced not only by high crop prices but also by payments for insured losses due to last year’s drought. Repayment rates for non-real-estate farm loans were higher than a year ago, with 94 percent of the respondents’ agricultural loan portfolio having no significant repayment problems. Renewals and extensions of non-real-estate farm loans declined from the level of a year earlier. The responding bankers perceived that non-real-estate loan demand for the April through June period of 2013 was below that for the same period last year. For the second quarter of 2013, the District’s average loan-to-deposit ratio edged up to 64.6 percent—12.6 percentage points below the average level desired by survey respondents. Finally, interest rates on farm loans rose for the first time since early 2011. Looking forward Crop producers will face tighter cash flows as their revenues decline (especially if crop prices slide further). Yet, the responding bankers did not expect agricultural loan volumes to rise for the July through September period of 2013 relative to the same period last year. In fact, some categories, including operating loans and livestock loans, were anticipated to shrink in the third quarter of 2013 relative to their levels in the same quarter of 2012, according to the survey respondents. Falling crop prices should bring relief to livestock producers, whose profits have suffered on account of the high feed costs in recent years. Continue reading
Rapid And Effective Oxidative Pretreatment Of Woody Biomass At Mild Reaction Conditions And Low Oxidant Loadings
One route for producing cellulosic biofuels is by the fermentation of lignocellulose-derived sugars generated from a pretreatment that can be effectively coupled with an enzymatic hydrolysis of the plant cell wall. While woody biomass exhibits a number of positive agronomic and logistical attributes, these feedstocks are significantly more recalcitrant to chemical pretreatments than herbaceous feedstocks, requiring higher chemical and energy inputs to achieve high sugar yields from enzymatic hydrolysis. We previously discovered that alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) pretreatment catalyzed by copper(II) 2,2 -bipyridine complexes significantly improves subsequent enzymatic glucose and xylose release from hybrid poplar heartwood and sapwood relative to uncatalyzed AHP pretreatment at modest reaction conditions (room temperature and atmospheric pressure). In the present work, the reaction conditions for this catalyzed AHP pretreatment were investigated in more detail with the aim of better characterizing the relationship between pretreatment conditions and subsequent enzymatic sugar release. Results: We found that for a wide range of pretreatment conditions, the catalyzed pretreatment resulted in significantly higher glucose and xylose enzymatic hydrolysis yields (as high as 80% for both glucose and xylose) relative to uncatalyzed pretreatment (up to 40% for glucose and 50% for xylose). We identified that the extent of improvement in glucan and xylan yield using this catalyzed pretreatment approach was a function of pretreatment conditions that included H2O2 loading on biomass, catalyst concentration, solids concentration, and pretreatment duration. Based on these results, several important improvements inpretreatment and hydrolysis conditions were identified that may have a positive economic impact for a process employing a catalyzed oxidative pretreatment. These improvements include identifying that: (1) substantially lower H2O2 loadings can be used that may result in up to a 50-65% decrease in H2O2 application (from 100 mg H2O2/g biomass to 35–50 mg/g) with only minor losses in glucose and xylose yield, (2) a 60% decrease in the catalyst concentration from 5.0 mM to 2.0 mM (corresponding to a catalyst loading of 25 mumol/g biomass to 10 mumol/g biomass) can be achieved without a subsequent loss in glucose yield, (3) an order of magnitude improvement in the time required for pretreatment (minutes versus hours or days) can be realized using the catalyzed pretreatment approach, and (4) enzyme dosage can be reduced to less than 30 mg protein / g glucan and potentially further with only minor losses in glucose and xylose yields. In addition, we established that the reaction rate is improved in both catalyzed and uncatalyzed AHP pretreatment by increased solids concentrations. Conclusions: This work explored the relationship between reaction conditions impacting a catalyzed oxidative pretreatment of woody biomass and identified that significant decreases in the H2O2, catalyst, and enzyme loading on the biomass as well as decreases in the pretreatment time could be realized with only minor losses in the subsequent sugar released enzymatically. Together these changes would have positive implications for the economics of a process based on this pretreatment approach. Author: Zhenglun LiCharles H ChenEric L HeggDavid B Hodge Credits/Source: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2013, 6:119 Continue reading
Forestry Investments in Emerging Markets
the Netherlands – 30 May, 2011 Investments in forestry have many desirable features. Under certain conditions, forestry investments yield attractive returns to investors and can contribute substantially to the economic, social and environmental development of countries. Environmentally and socially conscious investors are actively exploring the “ins and outs” of forestry opportunities, motivated by opportunities that are profitable, but also in line with their core values. Between the 17th and 19th of May 2011, about 50 participants attended the meeting “Forestry Investments in Emerging Markets.” About one third of the participants were socially and environmentally conscious investors and investment advisors. Another one third of the participants jointly represented 17 investment opportunities in the tropical hemisphere, together worth over 95 million of investments in responsible forestry. The meeting took place in the Netherlands, a country with significant expertise in tropical forestry and a history of public and private investment in forestry in developing countries. The meeting was organized by FAO , the NFP Facility and Tropenbos International with support of the Business in Development Network , and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation of the Netherlands. The meeting was attended by institutional investors, investment advisors, timber funds, forest business developers, and forestry specialists. Selected NFP Facility partner countries attended the meeting. Participants from these countries included forest finance professionals that have worked domestically to identify promising business opportunities. Objectives of the meetings were to: Share perspectives on challenges and opportunities regarding the greater involvement of investors in forestry (REDD+, biodiversity, forestry) in emerging markets Showcase and discuss a variety of forestry-based business cases and fund structures as a basis to better understand the requirements and potential of such business cases and for collaborative work between potential investors and promising forest business initiatives in emerging markets. Contribute to an action plan to narrow the gap between investors and forestry opportunities. The interactive programme – consisting of plenary, panel and group sessions – provided and informal platform for exchange and engagement among participants. Seventeen businessfact sheets from seven countries provided the basis to discuss in concrete terms the risks and opportunities to invest in forestry in emerging and frontier markets. The cases included plantation forestry, natural forest management, processing and alternative businesses. In addition, several participants shared short notes on their work, which were contained in the information package. Publications Documents Presentations Contact Media Report: Forestry Investments in Emerging Markets Information package Business Factsheets Programme: Forestry Investments in Emerging Markets List of participants to the Forestry Investments in Emerging Markets event Continue reading
