Tag Archives: production
Boost For Biofuels Production
Friday 16 August 2013 SCIENTISTS say they have discovered a potential key to more efficient biofuel production, reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Biofuels are a source of energy created by processing fast-growing plants as opposed to matter that has taken millions of years to form. An international team of scientists from the UK, Belgium and the US has identified a new enzyme associated with lignin, a major component of plant cell walls that limits their conversion to energy by reducing the accessibility of sugar molecules necessary for biofuel production. The lignin has to be removed through an energy-consuming process, therefore plants with a lower amount of lignin, or containing lignin that is easier to break down, are ideally suited for the process. Experts in plant genetics, biochemistry and chemical analysis teamed up to identify a key enzyme named caffeoyl shikimate esterase (CSE). By knocking it out, the scientists found that it resulted in 36% less lignin per gram of stem material. The remaining lignin also had an altered structure which contributed to a more efficient conversion of biomass to energy. The findings are published online in this week’s issue of Science Express magazine. Professor Claire Halpin, of Dundee University, said: “It looks like it could be very useful in trying to manipulate plant biomass to generate biofuels and other chemicals from non-food crops.” The study was a collaboration between Dundee University, the James Hutton Institute, VIB research institute and Ghent University in Belgium and the University of Wisconsin in the US. Continue reading
Iowa Farmers Spent Nearly $27 Billion On Ag Production In 2012: USDA
Aug 13, 2013 | by Christopher Doering Iowa farmers spent $26.84 billion on agricultural production in 2012, an increase of 11 percent from a year earlier, as agricultural producers battled through the worst drought in decades, the U.S. Agriculture Department said in a report. USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said Iowa, the country’s largest corn, soybean and pork producer, had the biggest expenditures of any state in the Midwest and ranked second nationally to only California, where costs topped $31 billion in 2012. Iowa’s production costs totaled $24.2 billion in 2011. The biggest cost for Iowa farmers was feed, which increased nearly $500 million to $4.43 billion. The 2012 drought, the worst in 50 years, sharply cut crop yields and forced many livestock producers to cull their animals because of high feed costs. Farmers in the state also had $3.01 billion in livestock, poultry and related expenses, $2.55 billion in costs for fertilizer, lime and soil conditioners and $2.01 billion for seeds and plants. Rising farm land prices across the state also forced farmers to pay more to rent land. Rent for Iowa farmers increased to $3.74 billion from $3.45 billion in 2011. Farm land prices in Iowa have more than doubled since2007. Nationally, U.S. farmers spent a record $351.8 billion on agricultural production in 2012, an increase of 10.4 percent from $318.7 billion 2011, according to the USDA report. An average farm had costs of $162,743 compared to $146,653 in 2011. Continue reading
The Slow Creep Of Next-Gen Biofuels: KiOR Misses Production Targets
by Katie Fehrenbacher AUG. 9, 2013 SUMMARY: Next-gen biofuel company KiOR misses its production targets from its new biocrude making plant by 75 percent. It’s still slow going for these companies trying to scale up and compete with oil. If you’ve ever read anything about the next-generation of biofuels — the ones made from plant waste, trash, or energy crops called cellulosic ethanol — then you know that they’ve forever been trapped on the brink of commercialization. The thesis still seems to apply for the young companies that are trying to scale up. This week KiOR, a venture capital-backed startup that went public in the Summer of 2011 , revealed in its second quarter earnings that it was about 75 percent below its forecast for producing and shipping its next-gen biofuel last quarter . KiOR shipped 75,000 gallons last quarter from its Columbus, Mississippi plant, but was hoping to ship between 300,000 and 500,000 gallons in the quarter. Revenue for the quarter was of course below estimates, too, alongside the slower than expected scale up in production. As a result, KiOR’s stock dropped almost 10 percent on Thursday, rallied a bit and is now trading around $4.14 on Friday. KiOR went public at $15 per share in mid-2011. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that’s been following any next-gen biofuel startup. It takes eons to get to the scale where they can make biofuels for cheap enough to compete with oil. KiOR started producing its biocrude at the Columbus plant last November and started shipping it shortly after that. At the time KiOR CEO Fred Cannon called the first shipment “the world’s first cellulosic gasoline and diesel fuel products.” KiOR has developed technology that allows it to convert biomass (plants and bio waste) into a bio substitute for crude oil. The company emerged in late 2007 as a joint venture between Khosla Ventures and Netherlands-based biofuel startup BIOeCON . Khosla Ventures provided the early rounds of funding and BIOeCON provided the intellectual property for its “biomass catalytic cracking process,” a thermochemical process that’s been used in the oil industry for decades and which turns out can also produce biocrude from grass, wood and plant waste. Cannon has described KiOR’s technology as being able to do in seconds what has taken millions of years in nature (the natural process of how biomass has been crunched into oil). About a year ago I wrote a really long indepth piece on KiOR. Check it out here: The perils of cleantech investing: KiOR and the long term, high risk view . Continue reading
