Burning Bio News

Study shows that increases in crop production technology from 1961 to 2005 have lowered GHG emissions. While emissions from factors such as fertilizer production and application have increased, the net effect of higher yields has avoided emissions of up to 161 gigatons of carbon (GtC) (590 GtCO2e) since 1961. Each dollar invested in agricultural yields is estimated to have resulted in 68 fewer kgC (249 kgCO2e) emissions relative to 1961 technology ($14.74/tC, or ∼$4/tCO2e), avoiding 3.6 GtC (13.1 GtCO2e) per year. This analysis indicates that investment in yield improvements compares favorably with other commonly proposed mitigation strategies.

The U.S. ethanol industry continues to see improved efficiency, according to a new report released by USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist. Nitrogen use measured on a per bushel basis has declined by about 20% since the mid-90s. Similarly, all direct energy components have declined by about 50% since the mid-90s. Together, the nitrogen and direct energy reductions result in a 30% decline in the energy required to produce a bushel of corn. Recent energy use estimates show that the ratio of energy in ethanol to the external energy used to produce ethanol is about 1.4, even without allowing for the processing component of the byproduct credit. After fully allowing for heat used to produce byproducts, the energy ratio is between 1.9 and 2.3. If biomass is used at the plant for some of the power, the energy balance ratio increases to 2.8, even using the lower byproduct credit from the regression results.

According to the new Rabobank U.S. Farm & Ranch Survey, 72 percent of U.S. agricultural producers report that they have taken a range of measures on sustainable ag practices. “U.S producers understand that to be in the ag business for the long term means taking care of the land,” said Rabobank Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory Vice President Sterling Liddell. The most significant steps are using direct seeding (64 percent), minimizing use of chemicals (42 percent), crop rotation or diversification (39 percent) and reduced energy inputs (39 percent).

“In an effort to conserve water and provide even greater sustainability our company has achieved the status of zero liquid discharge (ZLD)”, says Patriot Renwable Fuel LLC’s President and CEO Gene Griffith (Annawan, IL). Rick Vondra, Patriot plant manager, went on to say, “the short definition for this process is that we fully utilize use all of the water that enters the plant, therefore using less overall, and the production wells are less impacted. More importantly, it means that no wastewater is discharged into the environment.”

A new University of Illinois at Chicago study of facilities that produce most of the nation’s ethanol found that the energy needed to make a gallon of the corn-based fuel decreased on average by about 30 percent within the past decade. Steffen Mueller, principal research economist at UIC’s Energy Resources Center, surveyed the nation’s 150 “dry mill” ethanol plants. He said his survey shows that adoption of new technologies reduces energy production needs.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has reduced water use by 8.5 percent, energy use by 7 percent and CO2 emissions by 8.5 percent in 2009, all per hectoliter of production, according to the company’s 2009 Global Citizenship Report. In 2009, AB InBev emitted 4.55 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, of which 65.1 percent were direct emissions and 34.9 percent were indirect. AB InBev has reduced its water use by nearly 32 percent since the end of 2004.

Dominion Virginia Power today asked the State Corporation Commission for permission to reduce customer rates, effective July 1, as a result of a fuel rate adjustment. The company uses a diversified mix of fuel to run its power stations to generate the electricity used by its customers. According to rate provided by Dominion the residential rate has declined from an average of 10.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in March 2009, to 9.9 cents per kWh with this new rate request. – mj: not too common to hear about rate decreases these days.

The Department of Energy announced $106M in funding for 37 experimental projects that could radically change the ways that we think of “alternative energy.” These projects encompass 17 states. More than half of the recipients are universities. Funded via the “Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy” (ARPA-E), the projects focused on three areas: 1) Electrofuels (DOE also calls this direct solar fuel), 2) Advanced generations of batteries for energy storage, and 3) Innovative materials and processes for advanced carbon capture technologies.

The Dearborn-based company’s vehicles are now on average 85 percent recyclable by weight. That means they are made of everything from recycled metal to soy and bio-based seat cushions and seatbacks. Such advances mean more than green bragging rights for big corporations to impress the tree hugging crowd. Ford saved approximately $4.5 million by using recycled materials in 2009.

The Center for Climate Strategies analyzed climate actions plans and proposals created in 16 states by teams of stakeholders — leaders of businesses, industries, environmental groups, local governments and others. In a report being announced on Capitol Hill today, it narrowed down the more than 900 policy options to 23 that it dubs the “super options.” The two of the more popular options are federal renewable portfolio standards for power generation and nuclear power. All 23 are summarized.

Using productive farmland to grow crops for food instead of fuel is more energy efficient, Michigan State University scientists concluded, after poring over 17 years’ worth of data to help settle the food versus fuel debate. Other studies have looked at energy efficiencies for crops over shorter time periods, but this MSU study is the first to consider energy balances of an entire cropping system over many years. The results are published in the April 19 online issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology. – mj: This is an interesting academic analysis, but some of the popular press conclusions I have seen like growing corn for food (instead of fuel or feed) and growing alfalfa for fuel (instead of feed) are not consistent with the economics (supply and demand) for these products.

The EPA awarded $2.38 million to 34 enterprises under the Small Business Innovative Research program, including four awards for R&D firms working on tech related to biofuels. IntAct Laboratories of Cambridge, MA, won $46,770 to work on bio-electrochemical systems for treatment of wastewater from ethanol production. Bryan, TX-based, Lynntech, was awarded $70,000 to help the company develop a better heterogeneous catalyst for the transesterification of triglycerides to biodiesel. TDA Research of Wheat Ridge, CO, won a $70,000 award to research a thermochemical process for producing diesel fuel from biomass waste materials. And Eltron Research & Development of Boulder, CO, was awarded nearly $70,000, to work on a low-cost retrofit system for controlling emissions from off-road sources.

General Mills has used oats for its high-energy cereal Cheerios for nearly 70 years, but the food giant is now preparing to put the grain to work as a source of energy for itself. Construction is under way this spring on a biomass steam boiler at the Golden Valley-based company’s milling plant in Fridley, MN, where it produces oat flour for Cheerios, Lucky Charms and other cereals. The boiler, scheduled to go online early next year, will burn oat hulls left over from the milling process. It replaces natural-gas boilers, making the mill partially self-sustaining, said John Hellwig, the project’s manager. It will also cut the mill’s carbon footprint by 21 percent, he added.

A white roof reflects heat and cools a building; a dark one absorbs it. But until now there hasn’t been a material that could do both. But a new ’smart’ roof coating - rather amazingly, made from waste cooking oil from fast food restaurants - can ‘read’ a thermometer and switch between roles. The coating is produced by processing waste cooking oil into a liquid polymer that hardens into a plastic after application. Tests on the new coated asphalt shingles showed that they could reduce roof temperatures by up to 80 percent in warm weather - and warm it by the same amount when the weather is cold.

A recent USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) analysis shows that energy use in the food production and processing industries increased. Using the two most recent U.S. benchmark input-output accounts and a national energy data system the report shows that in the US, use of energy along the food chain for food purchases by or for U.S. households increased between 1997 and 2002 at more than six times the rate of increase in total domestic energy use. –mj: This is certainly interesting from an analytical view of the challenge of modeling economic and technical change. It takes years to get complete data sets (1997,2002) and then before the analysis is completed, life-altering economic shocks like we had in 2007/2008 occur that change our habits.

New York Gov. David Paterson says the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money will support 118 energy conservation projects. Local governments, public schools, colleges, hospitals and others across New York will get help conserving energy and cutting costs thanks to $40 million in stimulus funds.

Bloom Energy launched its 100,000 kW fuel cell last week which sells for $700,000 to $800,000 - That is about $7,500/kW. Price per kWh without subsidies: Lux writes that: “Without incentives, we calculate electricity would cost $0.13/kWh to $0.14/kWh, with about $0.09/kWh from system cost and about $0.05/kWh coming from fuel cost. Note that this is high compared to average retail U.S. electricity costs of roughly $0.11/kWh.”

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced today a $1.6 M investment in clean energy economic development and job creation, marking another step forward in Maryland’s goal of building a vibrant clean energy sector. These awards mark the first round of the Clean Energy Economic Development Initiative (CEEDI), with applications for the second round of funding being accepted until April 30, 2010.

American Process Inc. is ready to begin small-scale production of ethanol at its new Thomaston, GA plant. The American Process technology ferments sugar byproducts from the paper production industry into ethanol. With this technology, a medium-sized pulp mill could produce about 14 million gallons of ethanol.

AUSTRALIAN red meat production is much more carbon-efficient than often reported in the media, says an important study by the University of New South Wales (NSW). The three-year Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of production systems in Victoria, NSW and WA showed carbon emissions from sheep and cattle meat production were among the lowest in the world.
It showed sheepmeat produced 7-8kg of CO2-equivalent per kg of meat (carcase weight) while for beef, values ranged from 8-11kg. Based on figures from the research, eating red meat three times weekly results in 164kg to 258kg of CO2 emissions a year - vastly different to claims of emissions up to 1.5 tonnes. Most cattle and sheep are grazed in Australia.