Biofuels galore - Gwbor Gas is one of them. I remember the efforts in India in
the sixties and seventies to ferment Gwbor in tanks to produce methane and make
each village self sufficient in lighting and cooking fuel. What happened to it?
This article told me why Jatropha diesel is preferred over ethanol from corn.
The Jatropha plants can grow where food crops like rice or corn will not. I am
glad that some researchers are looking at the ecological big picture in stead
of going whole hog for ethanol.
Also I saw a clear picture of Jatropha nut for the first time. What is
Jatropha called in Assamese?
Dilip
=================================================================
Latest News
July 9,
2007
Boon For Biofuels New projects seek to create energy from a range of renewable
feedstocks Michael McCoy CHEMICAL and biotechnology companies have announced
a flurry of initiatives aimed at creating fuels and other forms of energy from
a wide variety of biomass sources.
Dreamstime Proponents of jatropha say the oilseed doesn't compete with
food crops for land.
The projects seek to turn everything from algae to manure to oil seeds into
sustainable energy that can supplement traditional fossil fuels. At least one
scientist watching the energy sector, however, is deeply skeptical that crops
can be grown for their energy content without dire environmental consequences.
British companies BP and D1 Oils have formed a joint venture called D1-BP
Fuel Crops to accelerate the planting of Jatropha curcas, a drought-resistant,
oilseed-bearing tree, as a raw material source for biodiesel.
The companies say they will invest around $160 million over the next five
years to cultivate jatropha in Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, Central and
South America, and India. They say the oilseed is a desirable biodiesel
feedstock because it does not compete with food crops for good agricultural
land or adversely impact the rainforest.
Honeywell's UOP subsidiary, meanwhile, has embarked on a project to convert
vegetable and algal oils into military jet fuels. With the help of $6.7 million
in funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the company
hopes to come up with renewable fuels that meet strict military specifications.
Jennifer Holmgren, director of UOP's renewable energy and chemicals business,
says her unit is focused on helping standard refineries accept a broader range
of feedstocks. The jet fuel effort, she adds, will build on a recent agreement
with oil company Eni to convert vegetable oils into diesel fuels in an existing
Italian refinery.
Finally, the Danish biotechnology companies Novozymes and Xergi are teaming
to develop microorganisms that efficiently convert manure into electricity,
heat, fuels, and fertilizer. Novozymes, the world's largest enzymes producer,
cites a Danish government estimate that the energy stored in Danish manure
could supply 25% of the country's transportation energy needs.
Tad W. Patzek, a professor of geoengineering at the University of California,
Berkeley, is critical of such biofuels initiatives. He takes issue with the
basic proposition that "fresh plants produced in real time used as fuel can
replace old plants, whose remnants have accumulated over the last 460 million
years." Attempts to do so, Patzek warns, will rapidly bring on global ecosystem
exhaustion.
But John M. Deutch, a chemistry professor at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology who was director of energy research and undersecretary at the
Department of Energy in the Carter Administration, is more sanguine. He sees
the projects as evidence of corporate and government excitement about new
technology that helps meet the world's future energy needs.
"It is the nature of this high spirit of innovation that some of the ventures
will sound good and not succeed, while others will sound bad and succeed,"
Deutch tells C&EN. "Individuals and investors will make their judgments and
participate accordingly."
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2007 American Chemical Society
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