The Big Biofuels Blog

The environmental credentials of biodiesel are impeccable. The use of biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared with the use of fossil fuels. This has made it attractive to national governments seeking to meet their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. Biodiesel also has a favorable energy balance and can be made sustainably from renewable oilseed resources.

So says SRI Consulting in its new report Biodieselsel which continues

Used as a replacement for fossil diesel, the success of biodiesel hinges on government support through subsidies and tax relief. Without such subsidies, biodiesel would not be competitive with fossil diesel.

SRI continues:

Biodiesel is the methyl ester product of natural fatty acids, produced by the transesterification of fats and oils. It is miscible with petroleum-based diesel in all proportions. This makes it compatible with existing fuel infrastructures without major modifications. It can be used either in its pure form (referred to as B100) or admixed with conventional diesel as a 2–30% blend (“blended”). For example, B5 is a 5% biodiesel blend with conventional diesel

So how fast will it grow and how big will it get?

How rapidly the biodiesel industry will grow will be determined largely by government legislation and regulation. In general, governments use a variety of subsidies and tax breaks to stimulate demand growth. In doing so, governments have three major concerns that influence their biofuel policy: Securing energy supply and reducing dependence on fossil fuel imports Obtaining environmental benefits, including cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but also reducing sulfur emissions compared with those of fossil diesel Creating jobs in rural regions and boosting the agricultural sector

Technorati Tags: biodiesel, biofuel, economics, global, Report

Ethanol Fuel Markets are studied in a new report from researchandmarkets based in Dublin, Ireland. It can be yours for Euro 2831 as a PDF.

A whole raft of United Nations statistical data became available free on 1 May 2007. Enjoy yourselves.

ChemSytems, a petrochemical consultancy has published a biogasoline report.

Increasing production of biofuels to combat climate change will release between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years than fossil fuels, according to the first comprehensive analysis of emissions from biofuels in today's Guardian Unlimited.

The original work is in Nature, so its hard to read unless you subcribe. But the reserchers make the point that clearing forests for biofuel production dramatically increases the amount of carbon in trees and soil which is available to the atmosphere.

The article concludes with

The researchers say the emphasis should be placed on increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel use and moving to carbon-free alternatives such as renewable energy.

Argue with that and stay fashionable.

"Current policies tend to favour producers in some developed countries over producers in most developing countries. The challenge is to reduce or manage the risks while sharing the opportunities more widely."The FAO puts the total share of the world fuel market supplied by biofuels at 2%. It also makes a point that this blog has made on numerous occassions in the past that

If developing countries can reap the benefits of biofuel production, and if those benefits reach the poor, higher demand for biofuels could contribute to rural development. "Opportunities for developing countries to take advantage of biofuel demand would be greatly advanced by the removal of the agricultural and biofuel subsidies and trade barriers that create an artificial market and currently benefit producers in OECD countries at the expense of producers in developing countries,"

Burried at the end of chapter 1 of the State of food  is this gem...

The potential for current biofuel technologies to replace fossil fuels is also illustrated by a hypothetical calculation by Rajagopal et al. (2007). They report  theoretical estimates for global ethanol production from the main cereal and sugar crops based on global average yields and commonly reported conversion efficiencies.

The results of their estimates are summarized in Table 3. The crops shown [wheat, rice, maize, cassava,sugar cane, sorghum and sugar beet] account for 42 percent of total cropland today. Conversion of the entire crop production to ethanol would correspond to 57 percent of total petrol consumption. Under a more realistic assumption of 25 percent of each of these crops being diverted to ethanol production, only 14 percent of petrol consumption could be replaced by ethanol. The various hypothetical calculations underline that, in view of their significant land requirements, biofuels can only be expected to lead to a very limited displacement of fossil fuels. Nevertheless, even a very modest contribution of biofuels to overall energy supply may yet have a strong impact on agriculture and on agricultural markets.

My emphasis. Biofuels can only make a marginal difference to the world's energy demands using current technology, and as I wrote earlier today, second generation technologies around cellulose will become increasingly costly in future.

Should we be downhearted?

No!

There is real scope for biofuels to make a difference, providing that we use the right combination of technologies, we use the right feedstocks and we trade them in the right way. That is fairly across borders using a genuine free market without hidden subsidies or corruption. 

I'm going to say it once again, we as a society must  get to grips with fuel econonmy in all of its guises, from better home insulation and higher building standards to building cars with greater fuel efficiency.

Hattip to c-questor.