Entries from The Big Biofuels Blog tagged with 'Iowa'
US Biofuel farmers could benefit twice from cap and trade
I think that farmers in the US might be able to benefit twice from some carbon cap-and-trade proposals, according to this piece from the Des Moines Register. First they'd have to move to no-till planting and secondly they'd have to...
How much stover to leave
Iowa Farmer Today (I should take out a subscription I'm quoting the publication so much at the moment) has a good piece looking at how much stover should be left on the fields after corn harvesting. Stover could be good...
How to grow more corn: Plant it closer together
You might have noticed that there are a couple of conversations chuntering on in earlier posts. Mostly these deal with the ability to plant enough corn to sustain the US ethanol business and keep people fed at a reasonable price....
Miscanthus research in Iowa
The Iowa State University is looking hard at Miscanthus as a potential biofuel feedstock, says the Des Moines Register. Miscanthus, on the other hand, holds the potential to make up to 2times as much ethanol per ton as corn. A...
Ethanol is a stepping stone
This is interesting, and would be more interesting if there were a measure of how much diverting corn into ethanol (25% of the corn crop in 2007 produced 2.65% of the US total demand for gasoline in 2006) had an...
Catalyst break through for biofuels
The Ames Laboratory (at the US Department of Energy) and Iowa State University recently published a press release claiming that it should be possible to produce ethanol from all types of carbon-based biomass. This is reported on Senter Novem. The...
Now big food is using underground campaigning against ethanol
Now big food, in the shape of the US Grocery Manufacturers' Association is using underground campaigning against ethanol, according to DesMoinesRegister.com ,which is printed deep in the heart of the US cornbelt, Iowa. The website reports Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer saying "Underground...
WTO Bali meeting could help reduce biofuel tariffs
The WTO meeting in Bali from 8 December, could (theoretically) lead to a reduction in tariffs on biofuels and also support for farmers. According to the GuardianUnlimited, reporting a story from Reuters. [President] Bush said on Wednesday the United States'...
Interfaces between fuel food and the US political process
Interesting story on the connection between farming, energy and midwestern primary elections on the Des Moines Register yesterday. Good to see that there is talk of fuel efficiency in at least one of the bills. The US is going to...
Comparative econonmics of first and second generation biofuels
A study in the comparative economics of first and second generation biofuels has been published in Biofuels Bioproducts and Biorefining, a Society of Chemical Industry journal. The key finding in the paper from Mark Wright and Robert Brown, of the...
Subsidising biofuels, a view from Iowa
There's an interesting article outlining some of the conundrums involved in funding biofuels in a recent copy of the Des Moines Register, where they are wondering if they can see the end of the biofuels money train. That's going to...
US ethanol subidy could fall
The US subsidy on ethanol could fall by a nickel (that's 5 cents to the rest of the world) to 51cent/gallon from about 2010 to help fund alternative fuels made from cellulosic sources, according to the DesMoines Register. Philip Brasher,...
The economics of biofuels and more
The economics of biofuels and more is going to be covered in a nascent blog from Gerry McKiernan Science and Technology Librarian at Iowa State University Library, Ames. Called The Bioeconomy Blog, I'll watch it with interest....
Water and biofuels
OK, it seems to me that a lot of the talk about biofuels from renewable sources such as cattle waste, wheat, or cassava relies fundamentally on the amount of water available in the locations that are being farmed. My current...
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