Biofuels

What Can Biofuel Do For Me?

There is a lot of talk about alternative forms of fuel today. Biofuel is a broad term that takes in several different methods of producing fuel from various sources that could eventually replace the use of fossil fuels to run our cars and fly our planes. That all sounds nice, but what can biofuel do for me in the short term? Here are some answers to that question.

Because biofuel is made from natural elements that are renewable, there is the potential for being able to shift to a means of running the world that is dependent on a limited supply of fossil fuels to one that can look forward to new resources each year. What this means for you is that as biofuel becomes more common, the price at the gas pump will have less and less impact on your wallet. This means more money to spend on the things you want and the things that you need.

Second, biofuel could mean that the transit system in your city may be able to continue functioning without having to raise commuter prices in order to keep up with the rising cost of gasoline. For people who use city transportation to get around town, this is also a big plus. It will not cost more to get errands accomplished or even to get to work.

Last, going with renewable sources for fuel production may also mean using some of the garbage we have created and tossed to one side. Converting garbage to fuel means that what has been waste up to this point will now become raw materials that help to keep the world moving. All the way around, the idea of biofuel means better air for all of us to breathe, the elimination of many landfills and the waste of that land, and a cleaner world for us and our children.

If you want to help make the world a little better, then start checking into the availability and usage of biofuel today. You may be surprised at what you learn.

Now, here’s a biofuel story that you’ve always dreamt about, but you never thought would happen. A guy in the UK has invented a fueld mixture that is 50% water. Yes, you heard that correctly, it’s 50% H2O. That’s the same stuff that pumps out of your facet for FREE(mostly).

That’s same stuff that you put on your grass to help it grow, or pay $30 to go down a water slide in. Good old run of the mill H2o. You know, it falls out of the sky, we call it “rain”, but now it’s a biofuel.

Anyway, here a video of the guys in action with his magic water biofuel.

Do you know what the real clicker about all of this? In the video they run the “magic” biofuel mixture on a regular unmodified diesel truck. How about that? This has to be the ultimate biofuel. A biofuel that actually 50% water. I’m sure of course that the oil companies will either kill this guy or find a way to disprove him, but it’s nice to see it in action.

You can tell your grand kids about how you saw the first ever water biofuel. Of course by then water may be $10 a gallon.

In Brussels, Belgium, an International Conference on Biofuels, sponsored by the European Commission (EU), has just wrapped up. The conference focused on the impact of biofuels on food security in Europe and elsewhere.

Regular readers of this blog might wonder what its that prompts me - I customarily comment on agricultural biotechnology topics - to spotlight on these two biofuel-related events. As an African currently living in the U.S., I must confess my fascination with the ongoing mad rush for biofuels mainly in the U.S. and Brazil. Amid this biofuel jamboree, I am wondering why Africa hasnt yet joined the bandwagon.

The U.S. Congress recently promulgated a law guaranteeing the biofuel industry huge tax subsidies, the aim being to encourage more biofuel production to wean the country from foreign oil.

Agrofuel crops farming has, similarly, received massive governmental support, in form of low-rated loans, and other incentives, all tailored to boost production.

Europe has lately joined the biofuels fray. In its new Energy Policy, the European Union (EU) wants 10 percent of vehicle fuels to come from biofuels by 2020.

Spicing up all these initiatives is relentless effort by the scientific community to develop high-yielding agrofuel crops genetically modified to resist common pesticides and herbicides. Already, corn genetically engineered to resist various types of stem borers is being grown widely in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, and elsewhere.

Research into genetically engineered sugar cane and sugar beets, the other two common energy crops, is at its top gear in the U.S. and Brazil. All these GM crops and many more that might sprout out in the future are, and will remain the major force behind the biofuel industry. And since Africa, with the exemption of South Africa, has refused to embrace modern agricultural technologies such as plant biotechnology, it means it wont gain a dime from the biofuel gravy train.

Some would argue that Africa, traditionally accustomed to chronic food shortages, cant afford the luxury of biofuels. Theyre mistaken. The International Food Policy Research Institute, recently released a report, which clearly documents benefits that poor-resource farmers in a continent like Africa can accrue from biofuels. And theres ready market for biofuels.

In the Brussels conference, the EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, indicated that Europe might import the bulk of its biofuels from developing countries. I see Brazil, China, Argentina, South Africa, and other developing countries that have embraced modern agricultural technologies, scooping maximum benefits from the European biofuel market.

When justifying their reluctance to grow GM crops, African governments argue that they would not allow their people to be used as guinea pigs by multinational biotech companies. Now that the EU has indicated its willingness to buy biofuels from developing countries, shouldnt Africa consider adopting GM crops not for human consumption, but to fuel the booming biofuel industry? Africa will be denying itself another significant benefit of genetic engineering if it fails to act.

<P>James is a communication expert on agricultural biotechnology</P>

If Cleveland-Cliffs’ plans work out, the biofuel company it bought last week will soon help fuel taconite mines and power plants in Eveleth and Silver Bay, Minn. Once those plants are built, the Cleveland-based company will burn a mix of the cubes and coal to run its United Taconite Mine in Eveleth, its Northshore Mining power plant in Silver Bay and the Tilden Mine in Michigan, spokeswoman Maureen Talarico said. Dana Byrne, a Cleveland-Cliffs vice president, said Renewafuel’s technology “enables us to be proactive in addressing challenging environmental issues for us and the states in which we operate. The fuel cubes, which are about the size of a charcoal briquette, generate twice as much energy as other biofuels. The cubes were successfully tested at the University of Iowa’s power plant and in the Empire Iron Ore Mine in Michigan. Spokeswoman Talarico said Cleveland-Cliffs expects to produce 100,000 tons of the cubes per year in Battle Creek and 150,000 tons a year in Minnesota and at subsequent plants.

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Before leaving for the holidays, the state Senate passed a bill that would provide a 75-cent tax credit to companies for every gallon of biofuel they produce for the next three years. It’s not exactly what industry officials wanted — biofuel companies were asking for a $1 tax credit for every gallon produced — but it’s enough to “keep the doors” open if it passes the state House and is signed by the governor, says Ben Wooten, president of Keystone Biofuels and founding member of Pennsylvania Biodiesel Producers Group. Biofuels, what some consider a pillar of future energy production, might not have a future in Pennsylvania without help from the state government, says Wooten and others. Pennsylvania companies consume eight to 10 million gallons of biofuel a day, but Pennsylvania biofuel producers supply only 600,000 gallons of it, he adds. The market is there, he says, but in-state biofuel producers just need to be on a level playing field with those from states like Iowa and Indiana. In the three years since the federal government created tax credits for biofuels, production has ballooned from five million gallons to about 350 million, according to Wooten.

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US President George W Bush insists that the feedstock to produce ethanol from plants be the American corn, which scientists like to call Zea mays ; it’s amazing how corn goes into so many feeds of poultry & livestock, goes into so many food products that if you’re making ethanol out of your corn, you’re competing against the makers of food products who are forced to buy your expensive corn so the food makers raise their prices, and all the poor consumers can do is raise the roof and empty their pockets. The Brazilians insist that the feedstock to produce ethanol from plants be the Brazilian sugarcane, which scientists like to call Saccharum officinarum ; the plant’s saccharine promise of energy security is at the expense of the forest which the Brazilian farmers cut down the Brazilians solve a problem and create another, bigger problem. Mendoza explains that because the supply of corn is being diverted to the making of ethanol instead of feed (for poultry & livestock) or food (for people), and since the US produces 40% of the world’s corn and supplies 70% of all corn exports, whatever ethanol science the US practices on corn, that’s the dominant science that applies. I know of an ethanol science that favors the poor, and it comes from the other side of the world, the land of Mahatma Gandhi , that is, India . The science is applicable to sweet sorghum as the feedstock for ethanol; sweet sorghum science has been generated by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) under the leadership of Director General William D Dar who has headed the Institute since 2000.

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But the bill left out two major provisions that Congressional Democrats had pushed for months - over $20 billion in funding for renewable energy, paid for largely by taxes on Big Oil, and a requirement that utilities buy 15 percent of their power from renewable sources. Debate on the bill in both the House and Senate had been intense for the last few weeks. Joe Barton, R-Texas, complained that the bill will undo many of the efforts made to foster increased production of fossil fuels in an energy bill passed in 2005. Barton called the bill a “no-energy” bill and “a recipe for recession,” arguing that the conservation measures mandated by the bill would raise prices for fuel, homes and appliances for consumers. Fortune chose the absolutely dumbest of the dumb that the gods of fate and humor delivered into our laps - and yours - this past year.

The new renewable fuel standard (RFS) calling for production of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 will help accelerate development of advanced industrial biotechnology applications necessary to economically produce these volumes of biofuels, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) said today. In order to meet the new RFS we must couple advances in biotechnology with the building of a huge new energy infrastructure. The industrial biotechnology and biofuel industries are ready and able to meet the challenge of sustainably increasing production of cellulosic and advanced biofuels to accomplish the goals of the new renewable fuels standard. Industrial biotechnology companies have made extraordinary leaps in an array of applications for biofuel production, from discovery of new microbes and enzymes for cellulosic ethanol production to creation of novel ones through synthetic genomics that can actually produce hydrocarbon molecules.

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Promoters of the ethanol mandate assert that it would help the United States achieve energy independence and slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases that are driving climate change. For example, a 2006 report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development estimated that if one took into account state renewable fuel tax breaks and direct agricultural subsidies that reduce other costs, the total amount of the ethanol subsidy rises from $1. The International Food Policy Research Institute just issued a report projecting that if countries simply pursue their current biofuel expansion plans, the global price of corn will increase by 26 percent and the price for oilseeds will rise by 18 percent. The Food Policy Research Institute report notes that “The increase in crop prices resulting from expanded biofuel production is also accompanied by a net decrease in the availability of and access to food.

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