Study Shows Sugarcane Ethanol Production Causes Air Pollution

HealthCanal.com
15/12/2011 17:15:00

UC Merced researchers show burning of sugarcane fields prior to harvest can create more pollution than previously thought, detracting from benefits of the alternative fuel source

The burning of sugarcane fields prior to harvest for ethanol production can create air pollution that detracts from the biofuel’s overall sustainability, according to research published recently by a team of researchers led by scientists at the University of California, Merced.

UC Merced graduate student Chi-Chung Tsao was the lead author on the paper and was aided in the study by UC Merced professors Elliott Campbell and Yihsu Chen. The study — published online this week in the Nature Climate Change journal —focused on Brazil, the world’s top producer of sugarcane ethanol and a possible source for U.S. imports of the alternative fuel.

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Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says Sign in to Recommend

The New York Times
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: October 19, 2009

WASHINGTON — Burning fossil fuels costs the United States about $120 billion a year in health costs, mostly because of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution, the National Academy of Sciences reported in a study issued Monday.

The damages are caused almost equally by coal and oil, according to the study, which was ordered by Congress. The study set out to measure the costs not incorporated into the price of a kilowatt-hour or a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel.

The estimates by the academy do not include damages from global warming, which has been linked to the gases produced by burning fossil fuels. The authors said the extent of such damage, and the timing, were too uncertain to estimate.

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Feds, Mayors Group Announce Plans for Clean Cities

Reuters
Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:32pm EDT
By GreenBiz Staff

City infrastructure, from transit to recreation, is the focus of two new greening initiatives announced last week.

Both the federal government and the National Conference of Black Mayors offered ideas, goals and, in the case of the feds, hefty sums of money, dedicated to making urban areas in the U.S. cleaner, healthier and more environmentally sustainable.

Vice President Joe Biden last week detailed the latest spending plan from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: $300 million in stimulus funds that will be dedicated to improving public transit and city vehicle fleets across the nation.

"From advanced battery cars to hybrid-electric city buses, we're going put Recovery Act dollars to work deploying cleaner, greener vehicles in cities and towns across the nation that will cut costs, reduce pollution and create the jobs that will drive our economic recovery," Biden said.

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Can biomass clean China’s air?

BioMass Magazine
May 2008
By Jerry W. Kram
Web exclusive posted May 19, 2008 at 5:37 p.m. CST

An article in the journal AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment outlines the challenges and possibilities as the world’s most populous country plots its energy future. Through the use of biomass energy, China could reduce pollution by 40 percent to 60 percent, according to the paper’s authors, Hai Ren, Zhi’an Li, Qinfeng Guo and Quan Wang.

China has the highest sulfur dioxide emissions in the world and ranks second in carbon dioxide emissions. Imports of crude oil increased from 30 million tons in 1993 to 120 million tons in 2004. By 2010, there is an expected deficit of 100 million tons of petroleum and 4000 million cubic meters of natural gas. For comparison, in 2001 the U.S. spent 7 percent of their gross domestic product on energy, while China spent 13 percent.

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Small biomass is not necessarily beautiful

Sustainable Futures: EnvironmentalResearchWeb (UK)
by: Liz Kalaugher, editor of environmentalresearchweb
Mar 27, 2008

Burning biomass to produce electricity creates airborne pollutants not just as a result of the combustion but also during the growth, transport and processing of the biomass. With that in mind, UK researcher Patricia Thornley from the University of Manchester has carried out a whole-system modelling study of emissions from power generation systems based on burning willow and the perennial grass miscanthus.

"Bioenergy has huge potential to reduce carbon emissions but this can be at the expense of increasing other environmental impacts," Thornley told environmentalresearchweb. "In particular, many facilities in the UK have struggled with objections related to traffic and transport of biomass material."

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