Genera Energy, University of Tennessee Team Up on IBSS Program

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Press Release
PRWeb.com newswire
Vonore, Tnn.
June 12, 2014


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Setting the standard for sustainable bioenergy crops

e! Science News

Published: Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - 22:05 in Earth & Climate

 

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5 Biofuels Trends for 2013

Biofuels Digest
Mackinnon Lawrence
January 4, 2013   Read more

USDA Supports Sustainable Bioenergy Production

DomesticFuel.com


Posted by Joanna Schroeder – December 19th, 2012

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NRC says algae biodiesel isn’t sustainable at scale

Biofuels Digest


Meghan Sapp
October 29, 2012   Read more

3rd Pan American Congress on Plants and Bioenergy ... July 15-18 ... Champaign, IL

Biofuels Journal
Date Posted: June 7, 2012
Urbana—Scientists from over 12 countries in South and North America will come together to discuss progress toward sustainable fuels from a federal and industry perspective.

The 3rd Pan American Congress on Plants and Bioenergy encompasses genomics, genetics and plant breeding, advances in plant biology and biochemistry for improved bioenergy and biofuels production and quality, and mitigating the environmental impacts of bioenergy production.

Many of the major public and private initiatives in biofuels are represented.

The conference will be held July 15-18 at the I-Hotel and Conference Center of the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., U.S.

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LS9, Novozymes, Boeing, Abengoa, Dupont among the winners in 2012 Sustainable Biofuels Awards

Biofuels Digest
Jim Lane March 16, 2012

In the Netherlands, World Biofuels Markets Congress & Exhibition 2012 announced the winners of the 2012 Sustainable Biofuels Awards. The 4th annual awards, which recognize innovation and achievement in the development of truly sustainable and renewable fuels, were presented to winners at a special ceremony during the 7th annual World Biofuels Markets.

“We had thousands of nominations from around the world and across the entire biofuels value chain,” said Claire Poole, Event Director, Green Power Conferences, organizer of the awards and conference. “The winning companies demonstrated a layer of achievement and promise above their peers that bodes well for themselves as well as the industry as a whole.”

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Biofuel said a sustainable fuel source

UPI.com
Published: Feb. 24, 2012 at 6:33 PM

TSUKUBA, Japan, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Growing crops for fuel as opposed to refining fossil fuels and substituting bioethanol for gasoline is a sustainable energy strategy, Japanese researchers say.

In a study published in the International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy, researchers analyzed the overall life-cycle impact on raising fuel crops and the energy required to process and exploit biomass compared with fossil fuels.

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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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Introducing Bioenergy for a Possibly More Sustainable Agriculture

JustMeans.com
Posted On: September 11

To make agriculture truly sustainable, the United States would need to overhaul several factors in energy consumption, but probably any effort at all is good effort. According to the ERS (Economic Research Service) a department under the USDA, ethanol is the leading bioenergy fuel used in commercial agriculture. Derived from corn, ethonol is produced through industrial fermentation, chemical processing and distillation. While that doesn't sound very sustainable, neither is processing crude oil, so it's a step in the right direction.

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Breaking the Chains: 6 Solutions for Ending Dependence on Foreign Oil

PoliticsDaily.com
Lewis Reynolds

America doesn't have to depend on overseas sources for one of its most vital national needs. A move toward energy independence, aside from creating as many as 14 million new jobs, can help rebuild our nation's industrial base and provide one of the most stable and secure energy supplies in the world. Best of all, this new domestically produced energy can be both renewable and sustainable. Here are a half-dozen ideas on how to start:

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Bioenergy Insight launch

Bioenergy Insight
20 July 2010

A new quarterly magazine will launch in September, targeted at companies producing biomass, biopower and biogas.

BIOENERGY INSIGHT magazine is a brand new international publication borne out of extensive research and a market demand for information. Using a totally up to date circulation list, the magazine will provide the inside track on issues surrounding pellet/briquette biomass production technologies, biogas and biopower production, anaerobic digestion, biorefineries, gasification technology, dedicated energy crops, biological conversion processes, sustainability, biomass harvesting, storage and transport.

Initially published on a quarterly basis, BIOENERGY INSIGHT’s readers will include pellet plants, electricity utilities, biogas producers, plant constructors, feedstock suppliers and growers, food/beverage processors, animal processing facilities, pulp and paper manufacturers, landfill sites, waste collection companies, technology providers, saw milling companies investors and bioethanol and biodiesel producers.

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Answers to Your Questions about Biofuels

Biofuels Digest
July 19, 2010 Jim Lane

“Dinosaurs were biological creatures. So how come oil isn’t a biofuel? I’ll take my answer off the air.”

Although the above question comes from a good friend, the comedy writer Greg Thompson, its provides an opportunity to open up the vault of reader questions, collected at industry events, and provide answers to real questions posed by enthusiasts, policymakers, producers and researchers in the field.

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Report links policy with sustainability

Biomass Magazine
July 2010
By Lisa Gibson
Posted July 1, 2010, at 2:24 p.m. CST

Policy goals for renewable biofuels and bioenergy could be achieved, but policymakers must take steps to protect the sustainability of the nation’s forests in the face of increasing demands for woody biomass, according to “Forest Sustainability in the Development of Wood Bioenergy in the U.S.,” a recently released report by the Pinchot Institute for Conservation and the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment.

National goals of achieving greater energy security and mitigating climate change together have created rapidly expanding demands on U.S. forests for wood-based bioenergy, according to the two-year study.

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General Mills to power Fridley plant with oat leftovers

TwinCities.com (Pioneer Press)
By Leslie Brooks Suzukamo
Updated: 04/07/2010 10:02:40 PM CDT

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, 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.

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Sugarcane Ethanol: Sweet Solution or Bitter Issue?

The Cornell Daily Sun
March 3, 2010 - 2:00am
By Daina Ringus

Some hail ethanol as the methadone needed to wean Western countries off fossil fuels. Others deplore it as environmental sabotage.

The effects of Brazil’s growing sugarcane industry have prompted scientists to ask the question: are biofuels sustainable?

Prof. Luiz Martinelli, ecology, University of São Paulo in Brazil, presented his assessment of Brazilian biofuels on Friday.

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Palm Oil, Sugar Cane Most Sustainable Energy Crops, Study Shows

Bloomberg Business Week
February 19, 2010, 04:09 AM EST More From Businessweek
By Rudy Ruitenberg

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Sugar cane grown in Brazil and palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia rank as the most sustainable of the current generation of biofuel crops, according to researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Researchers at the university’s plant-science department compared nine crops on criteria including soil erosion, water use for each unit of energy produced and nitrogen usage, according to Sander de Vries, author of the comparative study.

“In terms of net energy, sugar cane has the best score of all energy crops,” Wageningen University’s De Vries said by telephone yesterday. “A crop like corn, which scores poorly, is at 10 percent of that.”

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Sustainability Certification: Welcome to the Maze

Ethanol Producer Magazine March 2010
By Robert Vierhout

After a long struggle to get the European law on renewable energy in place, the biofuels industry is now approaching the second hurdle: implementation. European laws are called directives because they do not regulate in great detail and are clarifed through implementation rules called decisions. Thus, the Renewable Energy Directive leaves many details open for development.

One issue that will cause headaches and uncertainty for the industry will be delivering proof that biofuels comply with sustainability criteria no matter where on the globe the crops are cultivated or the biofuel is produced.

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ISO Standard To Make Bioenergy Sustainable

PowerOnline.com
January 11, 2010

ISO will develop an International Standard to address sustainability issues linked to bioenergy. The standard will be produced by a new ISO project committee, ISO/PC 248, Sustainability criteria for bioenergy.

ISO/PC 248 will bring together international expertise and state-of-the-art best practice to discuss the social, economic and environmental aspects of the production, supply chain, and use of bioenergy, and identify criteria that could prevent it from being environmentally destructive or socially aggressive.

The decision to develop the standard responds to the growing international interest in bioenergy, and the current lack of globally harmonized sustainability criteria.

Already some 29 countries are involved as participants or observers, including large markets such as China and the USA. Brazil (ISO member ABNT) and Germany (ISO member DIN) will provide the secretariat and leadership of the committee under a twinned arrangement.

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Prof. discusses biofuel technology

TheDartmouth.com
By JOY CHEN
Published on Monday, October 19, 2009

Students must not be daunted in their attempts to improve sustainability in the world, despite the challenges associated with the task, Dartmouth environmental engineering professor Lee Lynd said in his lecture, “Sustainable Biofuels: A Personal Odyssey,” held at the Thayer School of Engineering on Friday.

Lynd — director and chief scientific officer of the Lebanon, N.H.-based biofuel company Mascoma — is well known for his research on the production of energy from plant biomass.

“There are only two resource transitions in the course of human history,” he said. “The first is from hunting and gathering to preindustrial agricultural society, and the second is from the preindustrial agricultural society to the industrial, non-sustainable resource base. The third transition, that from the non-sustainable to the sustainable industrial society, has yet to happen.”

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