Green Options

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) are shacking up in hopes to better develop and commercialize biofuels

Great Britain hopes that algae-based biofuels can reduce automotive and aviation emissions by 2030, and cut overall emissions by 80% by 2050.

While food-based biofuels are taking the heat for rising food prices, other solutions - like algae - are gaining a more serious following. For example, the UK’s Carbon Trust has announced plans for a project to make algae bio-fuels a commercial reality by the year 2020

But the situation is much more than some “food vs fuel” finger pointing. The fact that transport accounts for one-quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions is major driving factor - pun intended: it’s also the fastest growing cause of carbon emissions in the UK. If the government’s target to reduce overall emissions by 80% by 2050 is to be met, then initiatives like this are crucial.

Corn-based ethanol might not be such a great idea (bad for the environment and a waste of food), but what about waste-based ethanol? It’s hard to see a downside to making fuel from stuff we’d be throwing out anyway (and that, if left to decompose naturally, would probably generate lots of greenhouse gases).

That’s what U.S. Agricultural Research Service scientists in Albany, California, are investigating right now: how to take household garbage and agricultural waste and process it so the end product is clean and renewable ethanol.

As the global market for biofuels heats up, much of the demand for biodiesel is being satisfied by clearing virgin rainforests to create oil palm plantations. But, as it turns out, these plantations are an awful substitute for rainforests.

A group of British, German and Danish researchers has found that the biodiversity of oil palm plantations is far lower than that of tropical rainforests and that no amount of plantation management changes could ever possibly make them come close to replicating rainforest diversity.

Editor’s Note: This post was provided by one of our paid sponsors, the Ethanol Promotion Information Council (EPIC). EPIC is a nonprofit alliance of ethanol industry leaders who have come together to grow consumer demand for ethanol energy through targeted marketing.

The Ethanol Promotion Information Council (EPIC) is working to get the word out that ethanol is actually helping to keep gas prices lower. The following is from an interview with Toni Nuernberg, executive director of EPIC.

If you’ve been exposed to the media lately you’ve probably heard the phrase “renewable fuels.” What exactly are renewable fuels? According to Wikipedia, “renewable fuels are alternative fuel sources such as biofuels (ethanol, biodiesel -e.g. soy, vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases-) or hydrogen.” Texas Governor Rick Perry recently petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lower ethanol mandates, saying that the production of ethanol was causing food and fuel prices to go up. The EPA rejected Gov. Perry’s request in August, saying that the Renewable Fuels Standard “remains an important tool in our ongoing efforts to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and lessen our dependence on foreign oil.”

In what he describes as misplaced behavior, Nikola Davidson, program director for the Northwest Biofuels Association, has raised a good point in a Seattle Weekly article — why is it that biofuels are becoming the ire of green activists while petroleum appears to be getting a free pass?

The issue stems from activist and Green Party candidate for Washington governor Duff Badgley’s attempts to drive customers away from a new biofuel station in northwest Seattle. Allegedly Badgley and his group, One Earth, have been harassing customers by taking pictures of their license plates and passing out leaflets that proclaim biofuels as a “scourge on humankind.”

Biofuels certainly have a hard row to hoe in terms of reaching sustainability, and the activists have some valid concerns, but a “scourge on humanity”? Really? It’s almost laughable.

A professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology claims to have developed a catalyst that can cut the cost of making non-food based cellulosic ethanol — “celluline,” as I like to call it — by 30%.

Just for grits and shiggles, let’s say that when celluline’s finally produced in commercial amounts it will cost consumers $3.00 per gallon. If the cost savings associated with this catalyst were passed on to consumers, that would mean the same celluline would cost $2.10 per gallon.

Professor Michikazu Hara says the carbon-based catalyst can be made cheaply, and works by breaking down cellulose and creating sugar when mixed with water and heated to 100° C. Using the current celluline production methods, this step in the process uses a large amount of energy, time and chemicals.

In concert with the opening of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) has announced their endorsement of Barack Obama for President of the United States.

This marks the first endorsement by a major biofuels trade association in the 2008 US presidential campaign, and only the second time in the ACGA’s twenty-one year history that they have ever endorsed any presidential candidate.

The American Corn Growers Association represents 14,000 members in 35 states. Keith Bolin ACGA president and a corn and hog farmer in Obama’s home state of Illinois issued a simultaneously glowing endorsement of Obama and blistering critique of McCain.

When it comes to the production of crude oil, America does takes the bronze. But it’s a slighted accomplishment, considering that the top oil producers - both Russia and Saudi Arabia - out produce the U.S. by a factor of 2 to 1. In reality, the U.S. only contributes to about 10-percent of the world’s oil supply.

The Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance (SBA) is a non-profit organization created to promote cradle-to-grave biodiesel practices for verifying that all points in the production and distribution chain are sustainable.

And now they want your input on what those sustainable practices and standards should be — they’ve released the first draft of their “Principles and Baseline Practices for Sustainability” (PDF) to the public under a 45-day comment and review period.

So, if you’ve ever questioned the wisdom of growing our own fuel, or you’ve wondered how biofuels can be considered sustainable at all given other seemingly cleaner options like solar, wind and geothermal, now’s your time to speak up.

Under a new research directive at Ames National Laboratory, scientists are honing in on a way to use a process called gasification to create cheap ethanol from almost any carbon source without fermentation. If they’re successful, crops, agricultural waste, lawn clippings, raked leaves, sewage sludge and garbage could all be turned into ethanol using the same efficient process, in the same facility, under one roof.