The Big Biofuels Blog

I make no promises about watching this, but he's pumped up with energy...

There's an interesting window into the Danish Biofuels debate on the Copenhagen Post. Thanks to Biofuelwatch@yahoo.com

According to the Post

'In the search for explanations, biofuels has become the scapegoat. Press coverage has been so intense that it's difficult to make head or tails of the real debate,' Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU's Danish agriculture commissioner, said at a biofuel conference in Brussels yesterday.

She may be right, but I have a feeling that heads are landing slightly more often than tails.

Its worth taking a few minutes to look at the blogosphere's view of Jatropha: Here are three.

It is very bad, according to By Sujeet Kumar writing in India eNews and may be harmful to kids, animals, plants and soils. Kumar quotes Pankaj Oudhia, a Raipur-based agricultural scientist, who makes the claims on the basis of an unattributed scientific study from 1987. He calls for more research on the plant before we go hell-for-leather into cultivation.

Certainly goats on Hati know to keep away from it, but it might be a good replacement for soya oil on the island of Hispaniola. The phyisic nut does make people physically sick, and goats being smart have probably noticed the connection for themselves. Domestic fuel thinks that it could fuel the developing world.

It could also give Mexico an in on the business. Tree Hugger suggests that Jatropha could be grown on abandoned sisal plantations in the Yucatan Peninsula.

I guess the jury's out.

Good to see big names in energy and the automotive sector investing in cellulosic biofuels in Mascoma's latest round of financing, according to Domestic Fuel.

Trees could be the biofuel of the future, according to this analysts report from Jeffries & Company which examines clean technology and industrial biotech following the BIO's Industrial Biotechnology conference in the US recently.

Key quotes for me are

Forestry

Unlike prior conferences, this conference was marked by a significant presence of companies speaking directly to the potential to use forests, rather than dedicated energy crops, as cellulosic feedstocks.

Cellulosic biofuels

Several speakers highlighted the difficulty involved in cellulosic ethanol enzyme cocktails (more than 200 different enzymes involved in reducing biomass);

We know that route is tricky, and the paper notes:

Several new technologies were discussed, included a combination pyrolysis/fermentation process that feeds the orgnanisms syngas (demo plant starts up April 2009) and one that used a catalytic process to convert C5 and C6 sugars into hydrocarbons, including aromatics, rather than ethanol.

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Cheers Doris.

Is US biofuel policy about soaking tax payers and starving the world? The Richmond Times Despatch thinks so in its InRich Blog. Barton Hinkle's piece makes the link between food aid, the ability of biofuel to lift the rural poor in developing nations out of subsistence farming and on the corruption that accompanies much food aid.
Worth reading if only because the US could gain a lot of credit overseas if it were to start promoting biofuel cash crops in the developing world. These could help elevate the poor out of poverty, and build mutual need between the rich north and the poor south.

A couple of days ago I linked to Climate Progress a blog which I mistakenly attributed to David B. Benson who regularly comments on this blog. Climate Progress is in fact Joseph Romm's blog. Apologies to both.

Check this from Al Jazeera on biofuels. Balanced interview with UK Special Rapporteur for food and European Biofuel proponent.

Its worth checking out David Benson's Blog, Climate Progress. David is a regular commenter to the Big Biofuels Blog. He takes a wider view of the US climate sicence, politics and solutions.

US farmers and ethanol firms blame oil for food costs, according to my pal Joe Kamalick on ICIS news.
(Disclosure: I work for ICIS: About ICIS)

Looks to me that

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