Tag Archives: energy
Advanced Biofuels Industry Calls For Solid Regulations
15 May 2013 The Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels (LSB) met the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels this May at a meeting hosted by the ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy) Committee. EP VP Alejo Vidal Quadras introduced the positions of the EP ITRE Committee on the European Commission revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The Leaders sent a clear message to the EP members: ‘Second generation advanced biofuel technologies are ready to compete with conventional biofuels, with companies keen to invest in commercial projects given appropriate conditions.’ Such conditions include a long-term stable legislative framework and specific targets for the use of second generation biofuels. The European advanced biofuel Industry is recognised as one of the technologically advanced in the world via investment companies like those LSB members coupled with support from the European Commission and member states. ‘Now is the time to bring advanced second-generation biofuels to the market,’ says Guido Ghisolfi, chairman of LSB and CEO of Chemtex. ‘The industry is committed to delivering on its promise but we need stable long-term investment conditions which encourage investment while, at the same time, promoting true advanced biofuels. This will have a positive economic as well as ecological impact on the EU.’ Today the competition in this sector is on the rise and a risk for the EU is that investments will occur in other places where more favourable policies and investment conditions exist, like the US, South America and Asia. The LSB believes a minimum 2% mandate for advanced biofuels should be set as a sub-target of the RED, with a well defined pathway for growth heading toward 2030 by aligning policies with market realities, securing long-term perspectives and mobilising resources into commercial activities. ‘Certification schemes should also be further developed or adapted to respond to the specific characteristics of lignocellulosic fuel chains, particularly when produced from agricultural and forestry residues and wastes,’ the LSB adds. ‘These actions are essential if the EU wants to meet the Climate and Energy Policy targets.’ The LSB is composed by the CEOs of seven European biofuel producers and European airlines: Chemtex, British Airways, BTG, Chemrec, Clariant, Dong Energy and UPM. Continue reading
Franken And Harkin Introduce Energy Section Of 2013 Farm Bill
By Sen. Al Franken’s office | May 09, 2013 U.S. Sens. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have introduced the energy legislation to be included in the 2013 Farm Bill, which includes several provisions expected to create jobs throughout the country. Franken and Harkin’s Rural Energy Investment Act will help farmers, ranchers, and rural communities by encouraging the growth of agricultural energy technologies, including advanced biofuels, biogas, biomass, and renewable energies. “Advancing our agricultural energy technologies is good for our farmers and economy, and it improves our overall energy independence and security,” Franken said. “This legislation will create jobs and play a critical role in cutting costs for our farmers and ranchers and will help them with the adoption of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. I look forward to incorporating it into this year’s Farm Bill.” “The 2002 farm bill included an energy title for the first time to send a message that our farms, ranches, and rural communities are on the front lines of producing new energy sources such as bioenergy and windpower,” Harkin said. “These energy programs are essential for expanding clean energy supplies, which also spur rural economic development and job creation. The tradition of providing strong support for an energy title in a farm bill must continue today, so for that reason I am hopeful that this measure will serve as a marker as the 2013 bill moves through the U.S. Senate.” The Rural Energy Investment Act also contains several programs: The Rural Energy for America Program , which Franken included in the 2012 Farm Bill that passed the Senate. The program helps agriculture producers and businesses in rural areas invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects so they can cut energy bills and earn additional income by selling the energy they produce. The Biorefinery Assistance Program, which assists in the development of new and emerging technologi es for advanced biofuels through support for the construction and retrofitting of biorefineries for the production of advanced biofuels. The Biomass Crop Assistance Program, which provides financial assistance to owners and operators of agricultural land and non-industrial private forest land who wish to establish, produce, and deliver biomass feedstock to energy producers. The Biomass Research and Development Initiative , which provides competitive funding in the form of grants, contracts, and financial assistance for research, development, and demonstration of technologies and processes leading to significant commercial production of biofuels, biobased energy, feedstocks, and products—including the development of cost-competitive cellulosic ethanol. Information about other programs in the bill can be found here . Since 2009, thousands of direct and indirect jobs have been created or saved in rural areas by the Farm Bill’s energy programs that benefitted almost 12,000 rural small businesses, agricultural producers, and advanced biofuel refineries across the country. Continued growth in new agriculture, manufacturing, and high tech jobs are at great risk without continued Federal investment. A strong energy section of the Farm Bill has the support of a coalition of over 100 agriculture and energy organizations. Read their letter here . Franken and Harkin’s bill is cosponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Tim Johnson, D-S.D.; William “Mo” Cowan, D-Mass.; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. Continue reading
New Advance in Biofuel Production
May 9, 2013 — Advanced biofuels — liquid fuels synthesized from the sugars in cellulosic biomass — offer a clean, green and renewable alternative to gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. Bringing the costs of producing these advanced biofuels down to competitive levels with petrofuels, however, is a major challenge. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a bioenergy research center led by Berkeley Lab, have taken another step towards meeting this challenge with the development of a new technique for pre-treating cellulosic biomass with ionic liquids — salts that are liquids rather than crystals at room temperature. This new technique requires none of the expensive enzymes used in previous ionic liquid pretreatments, and makes it easier to recover fuel sugars and recycle the ionic liquid. “Most of our ionic liquid efforts at JBEI have focused on using enzymes to liberate fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass after pretreatment, but with this new enzyme-free approach we use an acid as the catalyst for hydrolyzing biomass polysaccharides into a solution containing fermentable sugars,” says Blake Simmons, a chemical engineer who heads JBEI’s Deconstruction Division and was the leader of this research. “We’re then able to separate the pretreatment solution into two phases, a sugar-rich water phase for recovery and a lignin-rich ionic liquid phase for recycling. As an added bonus, our new pretreatment technique uses a lot less water than previous pretreatments.” Simmons is the corresponding author of a paper describing this research that has been published in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels. With the burning of fossil fuels continuing to add 9 billion metric tons of excess carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year, the need for carbon neutral, cost-competitive renewable alternative fuels has never been greater. Advanced biofuels, produced from the microbial fermentation of sugars in lignocellulosic biomass, could displace gasoline, diesel and jet fuel on a gallon-for-gallon basis and be directly dropped into today’s engines and infrastructures without impacting performance. If done correctly, the use of advanced biofuels would not add excess carbon to the atmosphere. Environmentally benign ionic liquids are used as green chemistry substitutes for volatile organic solvents. While showing great potential as a biomass pretreatment for dissolving lignocellulose and helping to hydrolyze the resulting aqueous solution into fuel sugars, the best of these ionic liquids so far have required the use of expensive enzymes. Recent studies have shown that acid catalysts, such as hydrochloric or Brønsted, can effectively replace enzyme-based hydrolysis, but the subsequent separation of sugars and ionic liquids becomes a difficult and expensive problem can require the use of significant amounts of water. Guided by molecular dynamics simulations carried out at DOE’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), Simmons and his colleagues at JBEI solved this problem by deploying the ionic liquid imidazolium chloride in tandem with an acid catalyst. “Imidazolium is the most effective known ionic liquid for breaking down lignocellulose and the chloride anion is amenable with the acid catalyst,” Simmons says. “The combination makes it easy to extract fermentable sugars that have been liberated from biomass and also easy to recover the ionic liquid for recycling. By eliminating the need for enzymes and decreasing the water consumption requirements of more traditional ionic liquid pretreatments we should be able to reduce the costs of sugar production from lignocellulose.” Complete separation of the pretreatment solution into sugar-rich water and lignin-rich ionic liquid phases was attained with the addition to the solution of sodium hydroxide. The optimized sodium hydroxide concentration for both phase separation and sugar extraction was 15-percent, resulting in the recovery of maximum yields of 54-percent glucose and 88-percent xylose. The JBEI researchers believe these sugar yields can be increased by optimizing the process conditions and using more advanced methods of phase separation and sugar recovery. “After optimizing the process conditions, our next step will be to scale the process up to 100 liters,” Simmons says. “For that work we will use the facilities at the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit.” This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science, which also supports NERSC. Continue reading
