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Date Published:
05 March 2012

Volume 6, Issue 2


Sales slowdown

Feature
When a government mandates an activity, there needs to be some oversight ensuring the mandate is being carried out. In the case of the US biodiesel market, it is the regulatory oversight programme that has been breached, providing market risk across the industry. A pair of cases investigated by the US EPA last year found that two companies had sold Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) –... [read more]

Assuring RINtegrity

Feature
As the UK’s leading supplier of petrol and diesel, Greenergy supplies 11.5 billion litres of fuel annually, with a turnover of $17 billion (€12.8 billion). The company sources biodiesel and bioethanol globally through offices in the US, Brazil and Europe, blending biofuel into its own road fuels and supplying other oil companies with either physical biofuel or with evidence of... [read more]

EPA approves E15

Feature
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the voluntary use of E15 in all autos and light trucks built since 2001, equalling over 70% of US on-road vehicles. An evaluation of E15’s health effects as part of Growth Energy’s three year petition to approve sales of the mid-level ethanol blend, has been issued although the EPA must approve individual fuel blends. Tom Buis of... [read more]

Looking eastwards

Feature
The biggest enlargement of the EU to date took place in 2004 when Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the Union. The majority of these were former soviet bloc states which, together with the eastern part of Germany, had been known collectively as Eastern Europe since the 1950s. They are defined more by history than... [read more]

A lack of support

Feature
Production and consumption of biofuels in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and some other former Soviet Union countries is growing at a slow pace due to the current lack of government support. Government interest in developing renewable energy use is one factor supporting greater biofuels development. The availability of large feedstock supplies in the various countries is another. Farmers are already... [read more]

The great debate

Feature
Different countries set different standards. In the EU, biofuels are covered by the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which mandates a GHG saving of at least 35%, rising to 50% in 2017 and 60% in fuel manufactured in new installations from 2018. In addition, no raw material can come from converted land with high biodiversity, such as primary forest, protected areas, biodiverse grassland or from... [read more]

Levelling the playing field

Feature
The European Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) requires biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35% compared to fossil fuels, in order to count towards mandatory biofuel market shares or to be eligible for financial support schemes. In 2017 this reduction target will rise to 50% for existing and 60% for new installations. Most biofuel production pathways are listed in annex V of the... [read more]

Industry at risk of trade war

Feature
The European Union (EU) introduced an ambitious renewable energy policy in 2003 which has been further elaborated since then. The main document of this policy is the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The directive emphasises the EU’s commitment to cut emissions by at least 20% of 1990 levels by 2020. Proposed measures include improvements in energy efficiency as well as a binding target to... [read more]

Painting the sky green

Feature
The European Commission (EC) is not popular with US and Chinese airlines at the moment. It has introduced a cap and trade scheme has introduced for planes flying into the EU, meaning airlines using the airspace are required to pay a carbon tax. However, there is hope that with this ruling, aviation biofuels could get an added push that is needed for it to further develop into a common alternative... [read more]

Plant-based enzymes

Feature
Sugars derived from lignocellulosic biomass represent an abundant feedstock resource that does not compete with food and feed supplies. Commercially viable processes for converting lignocellulosic biomass to biobased products must address two pressing issues: efficient, non seasonal feedstock supply and logistics; and cost effective deconstruction ofcellulose and hemicellulose polymers into... [read more]

Improving the economics

Feature
In the past couple of years, tremendous progress has been made to realise a process for the production of ethanol based on lignocellulose present in agricultural waste streams. However, despite all of this, it is still not technically possible to produce lignocellulosic ethanol economically without subsidies and/or mandates. To improve its economics, the production process shouldbe re-designed... [read more]

Lowering total costs

Feature
Securing the lowest total cost of producing ethanol requires the plant’s sweet spot to be found and that is not an easy task. The sweet spot is the precise point where process parameters, such as biomass conversion, enzyme dosing, total solids loading, hydrolysis time and severity of pretreatment all converge to secure the lowest total cost. Balancing these variables takes the right tools,... [read more]

Switchgrass: a productive, profitable and sustainable biofuel feedstock

Feature
Switchgrass produces large quantities o fbiomass on marginally productive cropland, requires fewer pesticides and fertilisers than traditional row crops, and provides important ecosystem services. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) site, based in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been working with switchgrass continually since 1936. Initial research was for livestock, but for more than 20 years... [read more]

Giving biofuels sex appeal

Feature
Last month, at the annual conference of the US Renewable Fuels Association, Bob Dinneen repeated a claim that has become the de rigeur pronouncement at every gathering of the biofuels industry far and wide. ‘We need to educate political leaders,’ he told the some 1,200 bioethanol leaders in attendance at the conference in Orlando, Florida .‘We have a great story to tell –... [read more]

The big question

Feature
When it comes to biofuels policy in Europe there are many conflicting views. But most stakeholders are united in their opinions that advanced biofuels are beneficial. So why is there still no deplyoment of the technology at commercial scale? Cellulosic ethanol is still only projected to play a marginal role up to 2020. According to the member states national renewable energy action plans... [read more]