What are Bio Fuels?

[natalie]

Biofuels are solid, liquid or gaseous fuels obtained from living or lifeless biological material. These are similar to fossil fuels with the difference that fossil fuels are derived from long dead biological material. The biggest advantage of biofuels is that, it assists remediate green house gas & climate change problems. Most often biofuels are used to heat homes, power vehicles as well as for cooking. I have heard that biofuels can be categorized as first, second & third generation biofuels, but I haven’t found any details on it. Would appreciate if someone can look into this?

[ryan]

1) The products and land are currently devoted to food production. Converting them to fuel production will drive up food costs.

2) There is limited bio fuel production facilities. They cost money and have some financial risk to produce. Likely they will be rewarded with the present pricing of gas encouraging production.

3) There is not an instantaneous mandate that could force everyone to buy a bio car. Only GM really makes them now. Is everyone buying GM? Not really. When there is enough pain the wallet, people will buy bio cars. Government mandate won;t do it....and shouldn't

4) Who puts farmers to work growing bio fuels? Do you? Does government? They must be motivated with pricing to do it.

5) The fueling stations are not yet there completely. Once again, only the current gas stations can support this and will only do it when movitated by money.

My prediction is that when we have the next fuel shortage and gas is $7 a gallon, those that invested in bio fuel will make money and be rewarded. Those that bought the bio cars will be rewarded by ability to travel.

[sueerassmus]

Here is an article about a recent symposium regarding biofuels:

Symposium stresses biofuels for better future

Experts in the bioenergy field gathered Monday and Tuesday at Purdue for a symposium focused on changing the way energy is produced.

The symposium, “Frontiers in Bioenergy,” was hosted by the Center for Direct Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels, also known as C3Bio. While this bioenergy symposium has been at Purdue for the past five years, this is the first year C3Bio hosted the gathering. In the past, the Purdue Energy Center hosted it.

C3Bio is funded by a $20 million grant made up of stimulus dollars from the U.S. Department of Energy. According to Maureen McCann, director of C3Bio, the center is conducting high-risk research for the future deployment of advanced liquid transportation fuels.

Carl Huetteman, project manager for the symposium, said the goal of the gathering is to conduct some use-inspired research.

“We are bringing industry people together with those from academia to speak about a common interest,” he said. “Most of the high-impact work is done with these collaborations.”

He explained that Purdue is the ideal place to host such a symposium because of its diverse research strengths.

“Purdue is unique in the sense that we have a broad base of energy. We have traditional strengths and agricultural and economic strengths,” he said.

McCann opened the symposium by asking audience members to think about the price of a gallon of gas here, which is roughly $3 a gallon, in comparison to what the military in Iraq pays, which is $13 a gallon.

“We have to start thinking about independence from foreign oil,” she said.

The symposium featured a keynote speaker, Bruce Dale, who talked about making useful comparisons between petroleum alternatives. Dale, a Purdue alumnus and professor of chemical engineering at Michigan State, explained that biofuels are the most visible near-term alternative to petroleum.

Dale urged audience members to think about the consequences of current energy choices, such as burning more fossil fuels instead of looking at alternatives. He argued that we are living in a transition to a sustainable society.

“Will our (grandchildren) thank us for our current choices? Our choices have consequences,” he said. “We are choosing for them, not for us.”

Dale proposed that we look toward ethanol, specifically sugar cane ethanol. In his research on evaluating cellulosic biofuels, Dale found that it is cheaper to produce sugar ethanol than gasoline. Another solution proposed at the end of his presentation was to become more land-efficient.

“We need to think about the whole system and use land efficient animal feeds to boost total biomass output per acre,” he said.

The symposium included sessions on “The Biofuel Landscape,” “Sustainable Agriculture and Biomass Biology,” and “The New Wild West: Advanced Bioproducts and Bioproduction,” among others. It concluded Tuesday with C3Bio and other experts in the field of Bioenergy looking toward the future of energy sustainability.

“We brought some of our emphasis to the table here,” Huetteman said. “We are changing the way energy is produced.”

[go.green887]

Here's an article about investments in new second-generation biofuels:

"A new, improved outlook for biofuels"
Martin Mittelstaedt
Globe and Mail Update Published on Thursday, Jun. 10, 2010 6:43AM EDT Last updated on Thursday, Jun. 10, 2010 11:05AM EDT

The mania over ethanol as fuel didn’t play out so well for investors last time, but there might be a new way to profit from the renewable energy industry as companies rush to commercialize what is being dubbed second-generation biofuel production.

The big winners are expected to be enzyme makers, forest companies, and the agricultural sector.

That’s the view of a team of analysts at investment bank UBS, who have picked a handful of firms they believe will benefit if, as they expect, ethanol and biodiesel from new technologies become the predominant renewable source of energy for transportation by 2020.

The call by UBS for investors to take a plunge back into biofuels is one of the first by a major investment firm since a disastrous crash in the sector two years ago. The shares of many companies that were trying to make ethanol from corn, for blending into gasoline, have plunged, and scientific critics have assailed the idea of using food as fuel, saying it had few environmental benefits.

UBS analysts are selecting as investments companies such as forestry giant Weyerhaeuser Co., which might be able to turn trees no longer needed for paper in the digital era into fuel, and enzyme makers, such as Novozymes and Danisco, whose products make it possible to break down tough plant fibres into ethanol.

Its picks are bigger, more-established companies whose businesses will receive an overall boost from biofuels, rather than the more speculative entities that captivated investors in the previous biofuel boom. Typical of that era was Biofuel Energy Corp., a former high flier that is still losing money. Its stock has been hovering around $1.65 (U.S.) a share, a fraction of the $10.50 the shares fetched at its IPO in 2007 at the height of the last craze over renewable fuels.

But UBS analysts believe it’s safe to shake the dice with the sector again because companies are developing new technology to derive ethanol from the biomass of leftover crop residues and trees, rather than using foods like corn.

That previous approach is known as first-generation technology, and has fallen out of favour because it crimps the food supply and has modest greenhouse gas emission benefits. Because the new technology is still in its early days, there is skepticism about it, although UBS believes it is misplaced.

“It’s almost been on the level of hypothesis and fantasy, if you like, so some people are still wondering what the balance of rhetoric to reality is,” said Shirley Morgan-Knott, a U.K.-based analyst at UBS who is a co-author of the report.

The idea that second-generation biofuels will approach commercialization over the next five to 10 years is shared by some independent experts, although more research needs to be done to ensure that these techniques deliver environmental benefits.

“We really strongly believe in the potential of second-generation biofuels, but we also believe that there need to be tests along the way,” says Alice McKeown Jasperson, a researcher associated at Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

Biofuels production, as a winning investment theme, also has the benefit of many governments pushing for its use as a way to boost their farm sectors and to reduce reliance on foreign oil.

In the U.S., for instance, the Environmental Protection Agency is increasing the amount of renewables required to be blended into transportation fuel fourfold from 34 billion litres in 2008 to 136 billion litres by 2022. Only about 40 per cent of the total in 2020 can come from corn-based ethanol.

UBS projects that worldwide output of bioethanol from trees, agricultural residues, and non-food plant residues could have a value of $80-billion (U.S.) by 2022, up from virtually nothing currently.

Among specific companies, UBS says Weyerhaeuser will benefit because the supply of biomass will be the limiting factor in this type of fuel production, and the company, as a large timberland owner, “will ultimately command a position of strength.” Sweden’s SCA is the largest forest owner in Europe and will likewise benefit.

Novozymes and Danisco, two Denmark-based companies, are the world’s only two large enzyme-technology companies of any consequence, with about 90 per cent of the market for the chemicals, which are needed in ethanol production.

Linde, a German engineering firm, is developing practical ways of extracting biofuels from algae. Syngenta was given the nod because it is the world’s largest seller of crop protection chemicals and also has a large seed operation.



[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/a-new-improved-outlook-for-biofuels/article1598835/]A new, improved outlook for biofuels - The Globe and Mail[/url]

[littlegreenfairy]

Here is an article about Chinese investment in biofuels:

China plans biofuels industry



The project will look at all phases of sustainable aviation biofuel development including agronomy, energy inputs and outputs, life cycle emissions analysis, infrastructure and government policy support.

Potential plant sources being considered are only ones that don't distort the global food-chain, compete with fresh water resource or lead to unintended land use change.

Boeing China president David Wang commented: "Sustainable biofuels can help reduce carbon emissions while offering the potential to lessen aviation's dependence on fossil fuels."

In a related move, Boeing Research & Technology and the Chinese Academy of Science's Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology have agreed to include other research institutions and aviation supply chain participants as part of their efforts in algae-based aviation biofuel development.

[jonyboyy]

I dont think the biofuels we have as of now produce enough efficient energy to power all the different things we need. Hopefully in time we will find one that can.