Finland: EU Bio Fuel Project Will Study Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Waste to Produce Biofuel

VTT Technological Research Centre of Finland (VTT) coordinates a new European project, which focuses on studying anaerobic digestion of organic waste and developing its control. Anaerobic digestion process can be optimized to produce either biogas or volatile fatty acids that are even more valuable products than biogas.

The produced volatile fatty acids can be converted further to raw materials with which it’s possible to produce oil-replacing biobased products, such as bioplastics.

During the anaerobic digestion process, which contains four main steps, the organic matter is degraded by bacteria to biogas in the absence of oxygen. Controlling the digestion process is one of the most important ways of making the biogas production process more efficient. A prototype for process monitoring and controlling system will be developed during the OPTI-VFA project. This system enables more efficient control of both volatile fatty acids and biogas production. It also improves the profitability, efficiency and reliability of the process.

Anaerobic digestion of biowaste also promotes the green society, due to the fact that anaerobic digestion process has many positive environmental impacts. After digestion, waste has considerably less odor problems, reduced acidity as well as reduced pathogen and pesticides content. Fossil fuels can be compensated by biogas and thus the amount of emissions can be decreased.

 Also the methane emissions will be decreased, when the methane produced as a disintegration product during anaerobic digestion process will be utilized as energy in a closed process.

The total budget of the two-year OPTI-VFA project is EUR 1.15 million of which the share of VTT is approximately one third. VTT is responsible for the planning, building and calibration of the prototype for monitoring and controlling system.

The project group consists of nine partners: Attero (the Netherlands), Optomeasures (France), Rikola (Finland), MTT Multantiv (Finland), MSI (Spain), Maris Projects (the Netherlands), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (Finland), TUDelft (the Netherlands) and CEIT (Spain).

Read more: Project Will Study Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Waste to Produce Biofuel | The Daily Fusion

Alternative Energy: Qantas makes first commercial biofuel flight

Australia’s Qantas Friday launched the nation’s first commercial flight using a mixture of refined cooking oil, saying it would not survive if it relied solely on traditional jet fuel.

The Airbus A330 left Sydney for Adelaide using a 50-50 blend derived from recycled cooking oil and regular jet fuel in what the airline hopes will be the first step towards a sustainable aviation fuel industry in Australia.

Qantas said the biofuel, which has been certified for use in commercial aviation, has a “life cycle” carbon footprint about 60 percent smaller than that of conventional jet fuel.

“We need to get ready for a future that is not based on traditional jet fuel or frankly we don’t have a future,” Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said.

EU to Probe U.S. Biodiesel Tariffs - by Matthew Dalton

The European Commission said Thursday it would investigate whether U.S. biodiesel is being shipped through third countries to avoid tariffs placed last year on direct shipments from the U.S. to the European Union.

The commission, the EU's executive arm, also said it would examine whether U.S. producers are shipping their product in blends that contain less than 20% pure biodiesel to avoid the tariffs, which only apply to blends containing more than 20%.

The investigation was requested by the European Biodiesel Board, the EU industry's main lobby group, in its long-running effort to fight a subsidy the U.S. government gives to its producers. The EU industry says the subsidy—a $1 tax credit for each gallon of biodiesel blended with petroleum-based diesel—has caused the U.S. industry to flood the European market with exports, depressing prices and threatening the viability of European producers. The tariffs were put in place to counter the advantage of the subsidies.

For more: EU to Probe U.S. Biodiesel Tariffs - WSJ.com

The Search for a Sustainable Future: Europe's Biofuels Conundrum

SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

"THE SEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Europe's Biofuels Conundrum

By Charles Hawley

The European Parliament may be backing away from its targets for crop-based biofuels, but the EU is still hoping that it can create a certification scheme that will ensure that biofuels are produced in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way."

Domestic Fuel :EU Asking Biodiesel Questions - by John Davis

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EU Asking Biodiesel Questions - by John Davis

EU Asking Biodiesel Questions - by John Davis

The European Union wants more information about U.S. subsidies on biodiesel. The inquiry stems from a European Biodiesel Board (EBB) complaint at the end of April that American subsidies were unfair trade practices. “The Commission is in contact with the United States to clarify certain details regarding U.S. production,” an European Union diplomat said on Monday. “This is an initial prerequisite to any move the Commission may take in this area,” the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. European biodiesel producers in April asked the Commission to impose duties on biodiesel imports from the United States on the grounds they broke international trade rules.

Biofuel Review - The future for sustainable energy - by Vivienne Cox Chief Executive of BP Alternative Energy

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The future for sustainable energy - by Vivienne Cox Chief Executive of BP Alternative Energy

Two issues – climate change and security of supply – have become powerful twin drivers for accelerating the development of energy that reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while also providing dependable supplies. Fortunately many technologies serve both these goals – including solar and wind power, biofuels, clean coal technologies and hydrogen fuelled power with carbon capture and storage. In BP, we’ve brought all of our low-carbon activities together in a business called BP Alternative Energy – now two years old - pledging to invest around $8 billion over a decade.

EU-Digest: For immediate low cost solutions to solving your alternative energy needs contact Morren Mondial Associates, Inc. at: mma@europehouse.com

Autos Insider:Bio Fuels - Rash claims, poor fuel efficiency likely to stymie ethanol in Europe

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Bio Fuels: Rash claims, poor fuel efficiency likely to stymie ethanol in Europe - Neil Winton

Europe's car manufacturers, led by Saab and closely followed by Ford, are endangering their credibility with buyers as they exaggerate the environmental benefits of ethanol and hide its disadvantages in a desperate scramble to catch up with the need to appear green.

After soft-pedaling the problem for years, Europe's automotive manufacturers have been caught out by a sudden sea change in public opinion, which now wants more attention paid to the need to conserve fuel and protect the environment.

Skepticism on biofuels is coming from some unlikely sources, including global warming activists like the Brussels-based European Federation for Transport and the Environment. "We have a series of concerns about biofuels, and there are signs that policy makers are now realizing that they are not a straightforward solution," said Dudley Curtis, communications officer for Transport & Environment. He points out that a jump in the cost of some staple food in Mexico recently caused riots because U.S. demand for corn to make ethanol squeezed out crops for food.

In these Times: Biofuels: Promise or Peril? -- by David Moberg

Ethanol Plant
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Biofuels: Promise or Peril? -- by David Moberg

Biofuels: Promise or Peril? -- by David Moberg

When Matt Hawkinson started growing corn in the rich farmland of western Illinois nearly a decade ago, he sold the grain for $2 a bushel, 50 cents less than the cost him to produce it. Recently, buyers have been paying him $4.35 a bushel. It’s a welcome profit—even if it raises the cost of the hogs he feeds—and eliminates his need for government subsides.

Biofuels—energy sources produced from dedicated crops and agricultural waste—have suddenly won wide support. The biofuel craze has been fueled by high oil prices, Mideast political turmoil, global warming fears, concern about low agricultural prices and high government subsidies, and the prospect of making money on the next big thing. Biofuels seem to promise a quick fix for worries about oil prices and supplies without the need for major technological changes. Is oil for the auto-industrial complex too expensive or fraught with problems? Just fill ‘er up with biofuels.

But skeptics—on both the left and the right, including many environmentalists—argue that biofuels can’t solve the world’s energy problems. What’s more, they argue, the biofuel solution threatens both the environment and the world’s poor. In Mexico, the doubling of global ethanol production and quadrupling of biodiesel production in the past five years has led to protests over high prices for corn tortillas. And in Southeast Asia and Latin America it has raised concerns that rainforests are being cleared to cultivate crops for fuel.

Report EU Directorate- General for Energy and Transport: Biomass: An Energy Resource for the European Union

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Biomass: An Energy Resource for the European Union

Worldwide, millions of people rely on biomass as an energy source. However, much of this is used in fairly simple, and sometimes polluting, combustion systems that are not very energy efficient. Use of available technology and biomass currently contributes around 3%, some 45 million tonnes oil equivalent ( Mtoe), of the energy needs of the EU. However, as set out in the White Paper: Energy for the Future: Renewable Sources of Energy, COM(97)599, the goal is to significantly increase the use of biomass, adding a further 90 Mtoe by year 2010. If these targets were achieved, biomass would provide around 50% of the energy derived from Renewables.

In the longer term, it is anticipated that biomass could contribute 20% of the current EU primary energy demand, with more than 20 million hectares used for fuel crops. In order to reach these targets, there is a need to understand the present position and to identify the main areas where further research and development can lower costs and improve efficiencies throughout the complete chain of production and use. By contributing to the costs of such developments, through the RTD Framework Programmes the EU encourages co-operation between Member States and between the public and private sectors.

Checkbiotech.org: Michael Pragnell : "Without biotechnology C02 and bio fuel targets EU and USA will be impossible to attain - by Markus Städeli

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Michael Pragnell : "Without biotechnology C02 and bio fuel targets EU and USA will be impossible to attain - by Markus Städeli

Michael Pragnell is not a man to indulge in rhetoric. But when it comes to the issue of bio fuels, the English CEO of the Swiss agrichemical business is suddenly willing to speak his mind: "Without green biotechnology, the C02 and bio fuel targets of the EU and those laid down by the USA will be impossible to attain," Pragnell comments. He adds: "People in Europe too will be obliged to acknowledge that fact."

Next year, Syngenta plans to launch a genetically modified maize called maize amylase. Pragnell promises an efficiency gain in ethanol manufacture. He is not prepared to quantity this gain as yet, because approval of the dossier is still pending with the health authorities. We will have to wait for large scale production of ethanol with the new crops to begin to see just how great the gain in fact is. "The world population is expected to grow from the present figure of 6.5 billion to more than 9 billion in the year 2050. But farmland is a finite resource." In addition, there is competition with the bioethanol producers for the scarce crops. "New technologies are needed to increase yields."