Tag Archives: industry
E2 Report: Biofuel Industry Will Produce up to 2.6bn Gallons by 2015
September 10, 2012 E2 Report: Biofuel Industry Will Produce up to 2.6bn Gallons by 2015 click to enlarge Biofuel production capacity has increased from 437 million gallons in 2011 to more than 685 million gallons in 2012, according to a new report from Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). By 2015, the industry has the potential to produce 1.6 billion to 2.6 billion gallons of renewable fuel, the report forecasts. According to E2, standards like California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) create an incentive for investors and biofuel companies to continue to innovate and increase biofuel production, which in turn will drive down costs and carbon emissions. The EPA’s RFS2 requires US fuel companies to ensure that about 9 percent of their gasoline is made up of ethanol this year. The California LCFS, part of the state’s AB 32 climate change legislation, requires a reduction of 10 percent in the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuels by 2020. It provides an incentive to produce advanced biofuels, which come from non-food based sources. E2 reports that California uses about 18 billion gallons of transportation fuel each year, and transportation fuels produce about 40 percent of the state’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. At least 27 new or retrofitted biofuel refineries are expected to come online by 2015 to meet potential demand from the LCFS and the RFS2, according to the E2 report. Three of these will be located in California, with an additional two demonstration facilities in the state. California is already home to eight advanced biodiesel facilities. Nationally, between 18,407 and 47,700 new jobs could be created by the growth in the biofuels industry if the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, along with standards in California and other states, are implemented as planned, the report says. Advanced biofuel production costs will continue to decrease as well, the organization says. According to the report, at capacity companies will produce at $0.60 to $3.50 per gallon, depending on the feedstock and technology. E2 says it’s difficult to compare advanced biofuel production costs directly to petroleum production costs, but says it expects this price range to be competitive. In August, eight biofuels groups formed the Biofuels Producers Coordinating Council , in reaction to calls to limit the RFS2 because of this year’s drought . The coalition aims to defend the renewable fuel standard. Continue reading
MEPs To Vote On Biofuels As Study Points To Hunger, Deforestation
Published 10 July 2013 As MEPs prepare to vote on a proposal to curb EU support for biofuels, new research has found that growing fuel crops in place of food automatically creates either hunger or deforestation. According to new research by Tim Searchinger , a Princeton University research scholar and acknowledged biofuels expert, a tragic equation is buried in existing modelling data used by the EU to establish the effects of indirect land use change (ILUC) – the increased CO 2 emissions that displaced agricultural activity may create. When agricultural land that had been used to grow food is given over to growing biofuels, someone somewhere will go hungry – unless previously uncultivated land is taken to grow the displaced food, or yields from existing crops increase commensurately. But “there is extremely little evidence that you will get additional yield gains,” Searchinger said over the phone from New Jersey yesterday (9 July), “and without that you get two bad responses: You have some land expansion, and people eat less.” Searchinger’s reading of one key report produced for the EU by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) found that of every 100 calories from wheat or maize diverted to food tanks by bioethanol production, 25 calories were not replaced. “If you step back, take the broader view and see that people are going to have to produce 60% more food by 2050 [to feed a growing world population] that we’re not going to be able to feed entirely from yield gain, biofuels will just compound that problem.” European Parliament vote The new analysis, which was number-crunched with the help of the EU’s Joint Research Centre, is being released by Friends of the Earth as the European Parliament’s environment committee prepares to vote on a proposal to curb EU support for biofuels. Friends of the Earth’s biofuels campaigner Robbie Blake called it a “game-changer” Corrine LePage MEP, who is presenting the report to the committee, wants to augment a proposed 5% cap on ‘first generation’ biofuels’ (link) share of the 2020 transport mix with ILUC factors written into statute that distinguish between the best and worst-performing biofuels, for greenhouse gas emissions. Several amendments have been added to the text though, one of which would raise the cap to 6.5%, and the outcome of the vote is thought too close to call. After the vote, it will go to a plenary session on 10 September, before final negotiations with member states begin. LePage sent EurActiv a written reponse to Searchinger’s research, saying: “If these results are validated, they would confirm that the EU demand for biofuels can have very detrimental impacts not only on the environment, but also on people.” She added: “I hope this will convince MEPs who are still hesitant to support at least the 5% cap and the inclusion of ILUC factors and to support the proposed compromises on the table, rather than merely take into account the economic interests at stake.” “If MEPs vote on Thursday to increase levels of biofuels, they will be casting a vote for hunger, and mandating that some of the world’s poorest people eat less food,” Blake added. “That is totally unacceptable.” Industry aggrieved However, reactions from the bioethanol industry in Brussels were fierce, personal and uncompromising. Although Searchinger is a respected economist, affectionately known as ‘the godfather of ILUC’ by environmentalists, his academic work has raised hackles. “I wouldn’t expect anything good to come out of Searchinger,” said Rob Vierhout, the secretary-general of ePure, the European Renewable Ethanol Association told EurActiv. “Whatever he says, he is biased. He is not even a scientist. He is a lawyer and could defend any position you want him to.” Before coming to Princeton, Searchinger was an attorney for the Environmental Defence Fund, where he wrote a prize-winning book on wetlands and led work to protect the Everglades and Mississippi river. “My concern is that he is illiterate in social sciences and wouldn’t get through first year social sciences grade,” added Eric Sievers, the CEO of Ethanol Europe Renewables Limited. “His work is sensationalist and works against responsible policymaking by perpetuating misinformation.” But Princeton University says that Searchinger’s works on ILUC “generally have been credited with reshaping the world debate on bioenergy.” Professor Detlef Sprinz, the former chairman of the European Environment Agency, told EurActiv that Searchinger’s work was “rather important” and “published in some of the best journals that we have.” Damaging implications But the implications of his work are highly damaging to the bioethanol industry’s case. For instance, the IFPRI study – which the industry criticises – also predicts a large reduction in food quality due to fuel crops, and that 60% of every hectare of maize planted for ethanol will come at the expense of using that land to grow food crops. Vierhout stoutly rejected such claims. “We don’t use that much maize for making ethanol,” he told EurActiv. “Most of what we use is [animal] feed wheat – not food wheat – and, sugar beet that was also never intended for food purposes, so I don’t see how you could say it is jeapordising food availability.” He added: “We don’t import wheat or maize for that purpose. We only use European crops and we always have too much land laying idle.” Searchinger though said that land used to produce animal feed for biofuels would require more land to be used elsewhere to produce feed for animals. This displacement effect was already accounted for in the studies, he argued. “The industry is trying to give the impression that there is this surplus land out there and there just isn’t,” he said. World increases in grain yields, which have tripled since 1950, are thought to be approaching a plateau, with only 1.3% annual growth in global grain yields since 1950, according to US scientists . NEXT STEPS: 1 July 2014: New biofuels installations must meet a 60% greenhouse gas saving threshold 1 Dec. 2017: Biofuels installations in operation before 1 July 2014 must meet a greenhouse gas saving threshold of 35% 31 Dec. 2017: The Commission will submit a review of policy and best scientific evidence on ILUC to the European Parliament and Council 1 Jan. 2018: Biofuels installations in operation before 1 July 2014 must meet a greenhouse gas saviong threshold of 50% 1 Jan. 2020: Deadline for 10% of EU’s transport fuels to be sourced from renewable energies. 2020 : European Commission will not support further subsidies to biofuels unless they can demonstrate “substantial greenhouse gas savings” Arthur Neslen Continue reading
"Biofuels Should Deliver Greenhouse Gas Emission Cuts And Not Compete With Food"
Transport / Environment − 10-07-2013 – 15:31 Corinne Lepage Fuel from food crops have been pitched as a way to reduce carbon emissions from transport, however questions have been raised about how green these biofuels really are. The EU has supported them for the last 10 years, but last year the Commission proposed to limit the amount of food-based biofuels. We asked Corinne Lepage, a French member of the ALDE group in charge of steering the fuel quality and renewable energy directives through EP, about the challenges posed by biofuels. According to Ms Lepage,the promotion of the first generation of biofuels from food crops such as rapeseed and palm oil affected developing countries by pushing up food prices. In addition land needed to be converted for biofuels production, leading to the destruction of forests and wetlands. As a result these biofuels actually generated more CO2 than they saved. “The cap on first generation biofuels is needed, but not in an indiscriminate way as the Commission proposed,” Ms Lepage said. She urged to distinguish between better and worse–performing food–based biofuels by including emissions related to the change of land use in the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions savings attributed to biofuels. This would stimulate the production of biofuels such as ethanol that do provide substantial benefits for the climate. She reminded that Parliament had already called in 2008 for these factors to be included in the calculation. “Ignoring this problem risks undermining the EU’s credibility in the fight against climate change and legitimacy of financial support [of about €10 billion per year from EU member states’ budgets ] to the industry,” she said. Ms Lepage said the current insistence on austerity might make it difficult to justify high subsidies until 2020, but added: “The existing investments should be protected and the industry should have several years to continue producing first generation biofuels to recoup investments and prepare for the swtich to advanced biofuels.” These advanced biofuels could come from non–food sources, such as waste or residue feedstock. The environment committee will vote on the proposals on 11 July and the plenary vote is due to take place on 10 September. REF. : 20130708STO16803 Continue reading
