UC Davis researcher says Brazilian palm expansion could be worse than diesel

Biofuels Digest

Meghan Sapp | November 19, 2013

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ADM reports water, energy, emissions reductions

Ethanol Producer Magazine

By Erin Voegele | October 15, 2013

 

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New study: Algae biofuel cuts CO2 emissions by up to 68 percent

Biodiesel Magazine

By The Algae Biomass Organization | September 23, 2013

 

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EPA 3-year carbon emissions exemption vacated by US Court of Appeals

Biofuels Digest

Isabel Lane | July 15, 2013

 

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Bloomberg

Chevron Defies California On Carbon Emissions

By Ben Elgin & Peter Waldman - Apr 17, 2013 11:01 PM CT

 

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The "Dark Side" of Sugar-Cane Ethanol Production

CO2 Science
Reviewed 4 July 2012


Reference
Tsao, C.-C., Campbell, J.E., Mena-Carrasco. M., Spak, S.N., Carmichael, G.R. and Chen, Y. 2011. Increased estimates of air-pollution emissions from Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol. Nature Climate Change 2: 53-57.

Background
The authors write that "accelerating biofuel production has been promoted as an opportunity to enhance energy security, offset greenhouse-gas emissions and support rural economies." However, they indicate that "air-pollutant emissions from biofuel production and combustion may have significant impacts on climate and air quality," and that "the change in vehicle emissions that would result from a large-scale conversion from gasoline to E85 (a blend of up to 85% ethanol with gasoline or another hydrocarbon) in the United States could have significant health consequences, by increasing tropospheric ozone concentrations," citing Jacobsen (2007). And they add that Hill et al. (2009) have also demonstrated that "the use of corn ethanol has higher health costs than gasoline."

What was done
Noting that that sugar-cane ethanol is one of the most widely used biofuels, and that Brazil is its largest producer, Tsao et al. developed a set of spatially and temporally explicit estimates of air-pollutant emissions - including volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter less than 10 and 2.5 µm in diameter, sulfur oxides and carbon monoxide - over the entire life cycle of sugar-cane ethanol as produced in Brazil.

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UCD researchers say that GHG forest emissions must take into account forest history

Biofuels Digest
Meghan Sapp
May 22, 2012

In California, researchers from the University of California at Davis say that the GHG emissions from cutting down forests can vary depending on how the trees were used in the past and where they were grown. Emissions can vary significantly if the forest was used to produce wood for construction or if it was produced for paper production from pulp.

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University of Leicester (UK) Study Finds EU Biodiesel as Carbon Intensive As Petroleum Diesel

Biofuels Journal
Date Posted: November 4, 2011

A new study on greenhouse gas emissions from oil palm plantations has calculated a more than 50% increase in levels of CO2 emissions than previously thought – and warned that the demand for 'green' biofuels could be costing the earth.

The study from the University of Leicester was conducted for the International Council on Clean Transportation, an international think tank that wished to assess the greenhouse gas emissions associated with biodiesel production.

Biodiesel mandates can increase palm oil demand directly (the European Biodiesel Board recently reported big increases in biodiesel imported from Indonesia) and also indirectly, because palm oil is the world's most important source of vegetable oil and will replace oil from rapeseed or soy in food if they are instead used to make biodiesel.

The University of Leicester researchers carried out the first comprehensive literature review of the scale of greenhouse gas emissions from oil palm plantations on tropical peatland in Southeast Asia.

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NAFO refutes OSU biomass study conclusions

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Anna Austin October 26, 2011

The authors of a study recently published by Oregon State University’s College of Forestry says that the production of bioenergy from U.S. West Coast forests would increase carbon dioxide emissions by at least 14 percent over the next 20 years, with the exception of forests in high-risk zones weakened due to insect outbreaks or drought.

“Regional Carbon Dioxide Implications of Forest Bioenergy Production,” which was published on Oct. 24 in Nature Climate Change, examined 80 forest types in 19 regions in Oregon, Washington and California, ranging from temperate rainforests to semiarid woodlands. Four basic scenarios were used, which were business as usual, forest management primarily for fire prevention purposes, additional levels of harvest to prevent fires but also make such operations economically feasible, and significant bioenergy production while contributing to fire reduction.

David Tenny, president of the National Alliance of Forest Owners, said the study’s findings are based on wild assumptions. “One of the common threads of studies like this one is that the outcome all depends on these up-front assumptions,” he said. “In this case, they look at the potential of treating 5 percent of the forests in the region, for a 20-year rotation of treatments, adding that on top of what they call ‘business as usual’ forest management practices.”

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EU to establish full carbon emissions

iol scitech
October 13 2011 at 10:20pm
By Gerard Wynn
REUTERS

In a world of limited land and a growing population decisions taken in Europe can cause farmers to wield chainsaws in a tropical rainforest.

London - The European Union's efforts to establish the full carbon emissions from burning bio-energy is an all but impossible task which illustrates the difficulty of trying to cut humankind's environmental impact, which first has to be measured.

The complexity of trying to link energy crops including corn for ethanol on one side of the planet with carbon emissions on the other is a tangled web of cause and effects which might recall an equation in atmospheric physics.

But a fuller measure of carbon emissions is important, even an inaccurate number beats ignoring the issue, especially given the lessons from a related food versus fuel battle which sparked a global backlash against liquid biofuels three years ago.

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New method to account for CO2 emissions from biomass combustion in bioenergy systems

http://www.7thspace.com/
Published on: 2011-03-22

CO2 emissions resulting from bioenergy production have traditionally been excluded from most emission inventories and environmental impact studies because bioenergy is carbon- and climate- neutral as long as CO2 emissions from biofuel combustion are sequestered by growing biomass. Its climate impact has not therefore been considered.

Cherubini and coauthors propose that CO2 emissions from biomass combustion for bioenergy should no longer be excluded from Life Cycle Assessment studies or be assumed to have the same global warming potential as anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Carbon dioxide is emitted when biomass is burnt and the sequestration in the new vegetation can be spread for up to several decades in the case of slow-growing biomass, like forests.

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EPA to delay CO2 permits for biomass for 3 years

Westlaw News & Insight
3/15/2011

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed on Monday to delay for three years rules requiring biomass-fired boilers to have permits for emitting carbon dioxide emissions. The EPA's decision affects facilities that emit CO2 from burning forest or agricultural products for energy, wastewater treatment, livestock management facilities, landfills and fermentation processes for ethanol production.

The agency will take public comments on the proposal for 45 days.

The delay could cool some of the criticism EPA has received from many U.S. lawmakers, who accused the agency of trying to go around Congress to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. They claim such EPA rules will hurt the economy.

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Biofuels: More Bang -- or Is it Baggage? -- for the Buck

C02Science.org
Volume 13, Number 33: 18 August 2010

In an article recently published in Ecological Applications, Bouwman et al. (2010) assessed the global consequences of implementing first- and second-generation bioenergy production in the coming five decades, focusing on the nitrogen cycle and utilizing "a climate mitigation scenario from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) Environmental Outlook, in which a carbon tax is introduced to stimulate production of biofuels from energy crops." In doing so, they calculated that "the area of energy crops will increase from 8 Mha in the year 2000 to 270 Mha (14% of total cropland), producing 5.6 Pg dry matter per year (12% of energy use) in 2050." They also found that "this production requires an additional annual 19 Tg of N fertilizer in 2050 (15% of total), and this causes a global emission of 0.7 Tg of N2O-N (8% of agricultural emissions), 0.2 Tg NO-N (6%), and 2.2 Tg of NH3--N (5%)." In addition, they say that "2.6 Tg of NO3--N will leach from fields under energy crops."

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World’s largest ethanol firm sees negative emissions at pilot plant

BrighterEnergy.org
Published: June 18, 2010
By James Cartledge

One of the largest ethanol producers in the world has said it has developed a process to produce cellulosic ethanol that has negative emissions.

POET, the company based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said its Project LIBERTY has produced a biofuel that actually offsets more greenhouse gas emissions than it generates.

The fuel from POET’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in Scotland, South Dakota, reduced carbon emissions by 111% compared to gasoline.

The results came from an analysis carried out by Air Improvement Resource, Inc., of Novi, Michigan.

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How ‘green’ are industrial carbon emissions?

AlphaGalileo.com
17 March 2010
University of Groningen

There are various kinds of CO2. Emissions of fossil CO2 that result from the burning of fossil fuel affect the environment. Biogenic CO2 resulting from the burning of wood or biofuels, however, is 'climate neutral'. Scientists at the University of Groningen have developed a method of accurately determining the ratio of these two types of CO2 in industrial emissions, using carbon-14 analysis. The method has proven to be so successful that the University will conduct a follow-up project, financed by RWE.

Because of ‘pay for your pollution’ policies, it is becoming increasingly important for industrial companies and power plants, as well as the government, to be able to determine how much fossil CO2 and how much biogenic CO2 is being emitted into the atmosphere. In accordance with European guidelines, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels must be paid for to an increasing extent. Emissions from biofuels, however, are exempt.

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Biomass-Coal Mix May Be Key to Cutting CO2, EcoSecurities Says

Bloomberg Business Week
February 15, 2010, 09:01 AM EST
By Catherine Airlie

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- EcoSecurities Group Plc, the emissions investor acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co., said mixing biomass with coal may prevent “tens of millions” of tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the air.

The United Nations approved EcoSecurities’s so-called co- firing process last December for mixing coal and biomass, organic matter such as wood-chip, straw and sugar cane waste, said Paul Soffe, associate director at EcoSecurities, in a telephone interview on Feb. 12. That means EcoSecurities can earn tradable emissions credits for what he called one of the most important ways for reducing CO2 emissions.

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Ethanol Groups React to California LCFS Approval

DomesticFuel.com
Posted by Cindy Zimmerman – January 13th, 2010

Ethanol advocacy organizations challenging California’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) are disappointed with approval for implementation this week by the state’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL).

“Pursuing this strategy runs counter to the stated goals of Governor Schwarzenegger and the State Assembly to reduce carbon emissions from motor vehicles,” said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen. “As crafted, the LCFS would virtually eliminate domestic ethanol,the only viable low-carbon alternative to gasoline, from the California marketplace in favor of imported ethanol and futuristic fuel technologies such as hydrogen and the electric car.”
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Using waste-derived biofuel can cuts emissions, claims report

NewEnergyFocus
Wednesday 06 January 2010

A DECC report said producing biofuels from waste, residues and by-products can cut greenhouse gas emissions

Producing biofuels from waste, residues and by-products can cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report commissioned by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). However, the study claims that if the material has other end markets such as in animal feedstock - is likely to have negative indirect effects associated with it and could see a rise in emissions.

DECC and the Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA) - the UK's independent sustainable fuel generator reporting to the UK Government - commissioned Edinburgh-based analysis firm Ecometrica to produce a methodology quantifying the indirect greenhouse gas effects of using wastes, residues and by-products for biofuels or bioenergy.

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Are booming bioplastics here to stay?

CNN
By Nicolai Hartvig, for CNN
December 21, 2009 -- Updated 0219 GMT (1019 HKT)

(CNN) -- As world leaders and their delegates trod the carpet thin at the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen last week, one environmental solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was literally under their feet.

The 215,000-square-feet carpet at the Bella Center that hosted most of the U.N.'s official events was made using Ingeo, a bio-fibre derived from corn sugars.

According to French manufacturer Sommer Needlepunch and Natureworks LLC, the provider of Ingeo, in shunning oil-based products the carpet saved the emissions equivalent of driving an average car 68,869 miles (110,834 kilometers).

It is one small step in a bioplastics and biofibers industry that is fast developing new alternatives to oil-based polymers and turning them into everything from food packaging to fashion outfits, cell phone casings and medical implants that dissolve inside the body.

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UN seen backing biofuels in carbon mechanism

The Economic Times
6 Dec 2009, 0016 hrs IST, REUTERS

RIO DE JANEIRO: A United Nations panel has approved the inclusion of biofuels in a global scheme to reduce carbon emissions, a move that should
boost investments in such projects, a Brazilian government official said on Friday.

“The United Nations has just approved liquid biofuels methodology as a basis for the CDM. Projects that include liquid biofuels for transport can be included,” Andre Amado, the Brazilian foreign ministry’s subsecretary for biofuels and technology, told Reuters in an interview. The CDM, or Clean Development Mechanism, part of the UN’s Kyoto protocol, promotes investments in emission-reducing projects in the developing world by companies and governments in rich nations.

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