More to biofuel production than yield

Michigan State University


Published: Jan. 13, 2014

Perennial energy crops could provide environmental benefits

University of Wisconsin - Madison News

Nov. 26, 2013

by Margaret Broeren

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BIO Tells House Energy Committee Biofuels Environmental Benefits Growing

Biofuels Journal

Date Posted: May 24, 2013

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Wastewater May Decrease Environmental Impact of Cellulosic Ethanol Production

TriplePundit.com
By Leon Kaye
March 13th, 2013   Read more

Red Tractor Crops and Sugar Beet Scheme finally approved by European Commission.

Biofuels Digest
Meghan Sapp
July 17, 2012

In Brussels, the Red Tractor Scheme has finally been approved by the European Commission. This official status will ensure crops with the badge of Red Tractor Assurance can access all European markets without the need for additional audits or paperwork and will prevent the need for multiple schemes for different markets. The Red Tractor Crops and Sugar Beet Scheme standards incorporate small changes to existing environmental impact standards in order to fulfill the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive requirements, which aim to protect high-carbon and highly-biodiverse land areas. Relevant information and proof of land use is checked and recorded as part of the annual farm inspection.

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Is Bioenergy Expansion Harmful to Wildlife?

ScienceDaily
Apr. 3, 2012

Despite the predicted environmental benefits of biofuels, converting land to grow bioenergy crops may harm native wildlife. Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig have developed a way to study the effects of increased energy crop cultivation on farmland bird populations.

"The Skylark is an indicator species for agricultural areas because it occupies many habitats of the wider countryside around the globe, breeds on the ground within fields and feeds mostly on insects" notes lead researcher, Jan Engel. "Improving the habitat suitability for Skylark, accordingly, would improve conservation of natural vegetation, insects, and other ground breeding farmland bird species."

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Are Biofuels Ethical?

Buildings
05/09/2011

The race to develop biofuels is on, and an article in the current issue of Global Change Biology Bioenergy is taking a look at ethical issues and questions surrounding the rapid rise of this emerging energy.

Professor Joyce Tait, Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Party on Biofuels, and Scientific Adviser to the Innogen Centre at Edinburgh University, reports on the Council's proposed development of a comprehensive ethical standard for biofuels.

The standard would address six ethical principles surrounding production of biofuels, including the protection of human rights, environmental sustainability, greenhouse gas reduction, and fair trade.

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Are Biofuels Ethical?

Buildings
05/09/2011

The race to develop biofuels is on, and an article in the current issue of Global Change Biology Bioenergy is taking a look at ethical issues and questions surrounding the rapid rise of this emerging energy.

Professor Joyce Tait, Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Party on Biofuels, and Scientific Adviser to the Innogen Centre at Edinburgh University, reports on the Council's proposed development of a comprehensive ethical standard for biofuels.

The standard would address six ethical principles surrounding production of biofuels, including the protection of human rights, environmental sustainability, greenhouse gas reduction, and fair trade.

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Biofuel Grasslands Better For Birds Than Ethanol Staple Corn

RedOrbit.com
Posted on: Friday, 7 January 2011, 18:35 CST

Developing biofuel from native perennials instead of corn in the Midwest’s rolling grasslands would better protect threatened bird populations, Michigan State University research suggests.

Federal mandates and market forces both are expected to promote rising biofuel production, MSU biologist Bruce Robertson says, but the environmental consequences of turning more acreage over to row crops for fuel are a serious concern.

Ethanol in America is chiefly made from corn, but research is focusing on how to cost-effectively process cellulosic sources such as wood, corn stalks and grasses. Perennial grasses promise low cost and energy inputs – planting, fertilizing, watering – and the new study quantifies substantial environmental benefits.

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The Real Promise Of Advanced Biofuels

Forbes.com
Alan Novak, 11.18.10, 06:00 AM EST

Advanced biofuels production does face challenges, but they are far from insurmountable.

As the United States seeks national energy security and more environmentally friendly fuel sources, the opportunity for the nation's advanced biofuels industry is clearly extraordinary. The U.S. has the scientific lead in this industry; it has experience with processes, technologies and various nonconsumable feedstock to convert biomass to fuels and energy.

Indeed it already has more than 100 companies at work in the field--pioneering the conversion of algae, municipal solid waste and widely available biomass such as wood waste and crop residues into renewable fuels. It also has a useful federal mandate: In accordance with the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, the country must triple its use of biofuels to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

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Biofuels and birds: perennial crops beat annuals

EnvironmentalResearchWeb.com
Oct 28, 2010

Proposed as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels, biofuels have not yet proved themselves the easy solution that many were hoping for. There have been concerns about the net saving of carbon emissions that biofuels provide, rising food prices as agricultural land is converted to fuel growth and replacement of tropical forests with displaced food crops.

Now, researchers in the US have modelled how growth of crops for bioenergy – fuel, heat and electricity production – in the Upper Midwest is likely to affect bird populations. They believe that this is the first study to look at the biological impact of different strategies for growing bioenergy crops.

“Our results suggest that expanded reliance on first-generation bioenergy crops, such as corn and soybeans, will lead to meaningful decreases in the number of bird species (7 to 65%) across 20% of the region where there is currently a large amount of grassland and pasture on marginal farmland,” Tim Meehan of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Centre told environmentalresearchweb.

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Coalition opposes boosting ethanol mix in gas to 15%

USA Today
Jul 22, 2010

An odd coalition of environmental and business groups is banding together to head off a move to increase the amount of ethanol in gasoline to 15%, up from 10% in most places now.

A spokeswoman, Abbey Franke, says that the government may decide whether to allow the higher blend by September, if not sooner.

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Energy crops impact environmental quality

EurekaAlert.com
American Society of Agronomy

What happens to the soil when you remove the plants?
MADISON, WI, April 5, 2010 -- Crop residues, perennial warm season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops are potential biomass sources for cellulosic ethanol production. While most research is focused on the conversion of cellulosic feeedstocks into ethanol and increasing production of biomass, the impacts of growing energy crops and the removal of crop residue on soil and environmental quality have received less attention. Moreover, effects of crop residue removal on soil and environmental quality have not been compared against those of dedicated energy crops.

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Groups debate MU's future without coal

The Maneater
By Megan Donohue
Published Feb. 26, 2010

Alternative energy is cleaner but less cost effective.

The MU power plant burns 130,000 tons of coal annually to provide utility for more than 14 million square feet of facilities on the university's main campus.

Student groups such as Coal Free Mizzou and Sustain Mizzou are concerned with coal's effect on the environment, Coal Free Mizzou spokeswoman Melissa Vatterott said.

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Cornell University Researchers Warn...

Biofuels Journal
Date Posted: February 15, 2010

U.S. Biofuel Policy Will Fail to Achieve Intended Environmental, Energy, and Ag Goals

Milwaukee, WI—US biofuel policies will fail to achieve the intended environmental, energy and agricultural goals, warns an article in the journal Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy (AEPP).

“A key feature of biofuels policy is the combination of mandate and subsidies that cause severe adverse effects,” said Harry de Gorter, co-author of the article and Professor in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University.

“The analysis of biofuel policies is shown to be unique compared to all other environmental policy analysis and has implications for biofuels policy worldwide and also for renewable electricity policy.

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Questions About Biofuels’ Environmental Costs Could Alter Europe’s Policies

The New York Times
By JAMES KANTER
Published: February 11, 2010

BRUSSELS — A top European farm official has suggested that yet-to-be-released studies by the European Commission could be used to “kill” heavily promoted and subsidized biofuels by focusing on their total environmental impact.

The suggestion, written in the margins of internal correspondence seen by The International Herald Tribune, could foreshadow a further retreat from the biofuel-friendly policies that the commission once called crucial in the fight against climate change.

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EPA ethanol rules good news for farmers

The Witchita Eagle
Posted on Sun, Feb. 07, 2010
BY DAN VOORHIS

The EPA’s conclusion that growing, harvesting, making and transporting corn-based ethanol generates less greenhouse gas than producing gasoline is good news for ethanol producers.
Ethanol producers are claiming a significant victory after the federal government last week bolstered their long-standing claim that ethanol is friendlier to the environment than gasoline.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules and targets for biofuels called the National Renewable Fuel Standard.

The EPA concluded that growing, harvesting, making and transporting corn-based ethanol generates 20 percent less greenhouse gas than producing gasoline.

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Ethanol Group Critical of Biofuels Policy Paper

DomesticFuel.com
Posted by Cindy Zimmerman – January 8th, 2010

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is calling the new policy paper by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy released this week a continuation of “the orchestrated campaign to limit, and ultimately eliminate, the use of biofuels to displace foreign oil.”

The report, which was funded by Chevron Technology Ventures, concludes that “the current U.S. biofuels program that promotes corn-based ethanol is far from environmental sustainability and should be dramatically revamped.” Policy recommendations made by the institute are to revise the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to make it “more achievable,” eliminate the tariff on imported ethanol, get rid of the blender’s tax credit and “avoid defining corn-based ethanol as a ‘low-carbon fuel,’ a move that would be based only on political expediency and not on scientific analysis.”

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GPI conference: Biomass creates opportunities for wildlife, agriculture

Biomass Magazine December 2009
By Lisa Gibson

There could be a balance in managing land for energy and wildlife simultaneously, creating several opportunities for both sectors, according to Dave Nomsen, vice president of governmental affairs for Pheasants Forever.

Nomsen spoke at the Great Plains Institute’s Nov. 2 conference. “There are some intriguing possibilities,” he said of that balance. Prescribed burning, while limited in many parts of the country, can ensure plant residual is removed and recycled to keep the land productive. Harvesting biomass removes vegetation and keeps it in an early plant successional stage rotation, he said. Removing exotic, invasive plant species such as reed canary creates a better habitat and those plant species might be beneficial for biofuels production, he added.

Also speaking at the conference was Robert Bonnie, senior environment and climate advisor to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Enormous opportunities exist for the agricultural sector in climate change legislation, Bonnie told attendees. “If we do it right; if we get the incentives right,” he said.

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UPDATE: Yet another concern about biofuels: Invasive plants

The Dallas Morning News - Energy and Environment Blog
6:36 PM Sat, Nov 14, 2009
Elizabeth Souder/Reporter

Another issue with biofuels: Most of the grass species biofuels companies are considering using to make into gasoline feedstock are invasive.

Add it to the list of concerns scientists, politicians, energy officials and consumers often have about biofuels. Fuels such as ethanol can be costly, they can consume food (such as corn), and they sometimes require special infrastructure to get to the pump.

Researchers are finding ways to use grasses to make biofuel. Some say grasses can solve each of those common concerns: They are cheaper than other biofuel crops, they aren't food, and, in some cases, the resulting feedstock can be added to fuel at the refinery, requiring no extra infrastructure. However, the companies planning to plant grasses for biofuels haven't addressed the concern that they could be planting predatory weeds.

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