Green Options » food for fuel

U.S. To Become World’s Largest Biodiesel Consumer by 2012

Adam Shake — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:10:49 +0000

The United States is headed towards being the single largest biodiesel consumer in the world, accounting for about 19% of the market by 2012.

The production and consumption of biodiesel, having grown on average by more than 50% per year for the last five years, also saw triple-digit growth rates in 2006.

Germany currently holds top honors for biodiesel consumption, using 30% of the worlds market, but with the growing need for alternative fuels, and other countries coming on line, this is diminishing.

One thing needs to be kept in mind though, production costs of biodiesel are currently higher than those of conventional diesel, meaning that biodiesel is not currently competitive without political support and tax exemptions. As a consequence, the biodiesel industry is largely driven by government legislation and regulation.

Osage BioEnergy to Open Largest Barley Ethanol Plant in U.S.

Adam Shake — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:32:44 +0000

Editor’s Note: this is a guest post by Adam Shake

Osage BioEnergy announced that it will break ground next month on its Appomattox Bio Energy plant, a 65 Mgy (Million Gallons per Year) barley ethanol plant that will be the largest in the US, using barley as a feedstock.

Barley is a winter crop that can be double cropped with soybeans, and produces a high quality meal in addition to fuel ethanol.

The Appomattox Bio Energy (ABE) facility is projected to use regionally grown barley as the primary raw material. Why Barley? Barley is a moderate to high yield winter crop and can be grown in double crop systems with other food crops such as soybeans.

In an attempt to possibly allay “food for fuel” critics, Osage BioEnergy plans on using a 3-in-one approach:

Cash crops for farmers
Animal Feedstock and
fuel for cars

Let’s Talk About the ‘C’ Word

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:22:36 +0000

Of all the solutions to climate change, dwindling resources and a degraded natural environment, one consistently seems to have all the appeal of a dirty word.

It’s the “c” word. As in “conservation.”

Now, I appreciate all the diligent researchers and inventors working so hard to create the ultimate “green” bullet, whether it’s a never-exhausting source of clean energy, cheap and printable solar panels you can put anywhere, energy from garbage or carbon-dioxide-based plastics. But unless one of these near-magic solutions can enter the mass market in the next couple of years, we’re not going to make an appreciable dent in our resource and energy demands before the proverbial dirty word starts hitting the fan.