Spanish company Ferry Group is to invest €42/US$55.2 million in a project for the production of biomass fuel pellets in Bulgaria.
The 3-year project consists of establishing plantations of paulownia trees near the city of Tran. Paulownia is a fast-growing tree used for the commercial production of fuel pellets.
Dnevnik - Feb. 20, 2007.
Hungary's BHD Hõerõmû Zrt. is to build a 35 billion Forint (€138/US$182 million) commercial biomass-fired power plant with a maximum output of 49.9 MW in Szerencs (northeast Hungary).
Portfolio.hu - Feb. 20, 2007.
Tonight at 9pm, BBC Two will be showing a program on geo-engineering techniques to 'save' the planet from global warming. Five of the world's top scientists propose five radical scientific inventions which could stop climate change dead in its tracks. The ideas include: a giant sunshade in space to filter out the sun's rays and help cool us down; forests of artificial trees that would breath in carbon dioxide and stop the green house effect and a fleet futuristic yachts that will shoot salt water into the clouds thickening them and cooling the planet.
BBC News - Feb. 19, 2007.
Archer Daniels Midland, the largest U.S. ethanol producer, is planning to open a biodiesel plant in Indonesia with Wilmar International Ltd. this year and a wholly owned biodiesel plant in Brazil before July, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The Brazil plant is expected to be the nation's largest, the paper said. Worldwide, the company projects a fourfold rise in biodiesel production over the next five years. ADM was not immediately available to comment.
Reuters - Feb. 16, 2007.
Finnish engineering firm Pöyry Oyj has been awarded contracts by San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. to provide services for the first bioethanol plant in the Philippines. The aggregate contract value is EUR 10 million. The plant is to be build in the Province of San Carlos on the north-eastern tip of Negros Island. The plant is expected to deliver 120,000 liters/day of bioethanol and 4 MW of excess power to the grid.
Kauppalehti Online - Feb. 15, 2007.
In order to reduce fuel costs, a Mukono-based flower farm which exports to Europe, is building its own biodiesel plant, based on using Jatropha curcas seeds. It estimates the fuel will cut production costs by up to 20%.
New Vision (Kampala, Uganda) - Feb. 12, 2007.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided to use 10% biodiesel in its fleet of public buses. The world's largest city is served by the Toei Bus System, which is used by some 570,000 people daily.
Digital World Tokyo - Feb. 12, 2007.
Fearing lack of electricity supply in South Africa and a price tag on CO2, WSP Group SA is investing in a biomass power plant that will replace coal in the Letaba Citrus juicing plant which is located in Tzaneen.
Mining Weekly - Feb. 8, 2007.
In what it calls an important addition to its global R&D capabilities, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is to build a new bioenergy research center in Hamburg, Germany.
World Grain - Feb. 5, 2007.
EthaBlog's Henrique Oliveira interviews leading Brazilian biofuels consultant Marcelo Coelho who offers insights into the (foreign) investment dynamics in the sector, the history of Brazilian ethanol and the relationship between oil price trends and biofuels.
EthaBlog - Feb. 2, 2007.
The government of Taiwan has announced its renewable energy target: 12% of all energy should come from renewables by 2020. The plan is expected to revitalise Taiwan's agricultural sector and to boost its nascent biomass industry.
China Post - Feb. 2, 2007.
Production at Cantarell, the world's second biggest oil field, declined by 500,000 barrels or 25% last year. This virtual collapse is unfolding much faster than projections from Mexico's state-run oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos.
Wall Street Journal - Jan. 30, 2007.
Dubai-based and AIM listed Teejori Ltd. has entered into an agreement to invest â¬6 million to acquire a 16.7% interest in Bekon, which developed two proprietary technologies enabling dry-fermentation of biomass. Both technologies allow it to design, establish and operate biogas plants in a highly efficient way. Dry-Fermentation offers significant advantages to the existing widely used wet fermentation process of converting biomass to biogas.
Ame Info - Jan. 22, 2007.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited is to build a biofuel production plant in the tribal belt of Banswara, Rajasthan, India. The petroleum company has acquired 20,000 hectares of low value land in the district, which it plans to commit to growing jatropha and other biofuel crops. The company's chairman said HPCL was also looking for similar wasteland in the state of Chhattisgarh.
Zee News - Jan. 15, 2007.
The Zimbabwean national police begins planting jatropha for a pilot project that must result in a daily production of 1000 liters of biodiesel.
The Herald (Harare), Via AllAfrica - Jan. 12, 2007.
In order to meet its Kyoto obligations and to cut dependence on oil, Japan has started importing biofuels from Brazil and elsewhere. And even though the country has limited local bioenergy potential, its Agriculture Ministry will begin a search for natural resources, including farm products and their residues, that can be used to make biofuels in Japan. To this end, studies will be conducted at 900 locations nationwide over a three-year period.
The Japan Times - Jan. 12, 2007.
Chrysler's chief economist Van Jolissaint has launched an arrogant attack on "quasi-hysterical Europeans" and their attitudes to global warming, calling the Stern Review 'dubious'. The remarks illustrate the yawning gap between opinions on climate change among Europeans and Americans, but they also strengthen the view that announcements by US car makers and legislators about the development of green vehicles are nothing more than window dressing. Today, the EU announced its comprehensive energy policy for the 21st century, with climate change at the center of it.
BBC News - Jan. 10, 2007.
The new Canadian government is investing $840,000 into BioMatera Inc. a biotech company that develops industrial biopolymers (such as PHA) that have wide-scale applications in the plastics, farmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Plant-based biopolymers such as PHA are biodegradable and renewable.
Government of Canada - Jan. 9, 2007.
For our project, it is crucial that we learn more about the best biofuels and bioenergy crops for the subtropics and the tropics. It seems Sorghum is a great candidate, as it grows in relatively dry regions (the Sahel) and does not in the least like rainforest zones (an often heard critique made by uninformed people is that all bioenergy crops destroy tropical rainforests).
Even though Sorghum is already being grown by millions of African farmers in the Sahel, an interesting test case with a new variety comes from the Philippines.
The sweet sorghum hybrid — called SSH 104 — is rich in sugar that can be easily converted into ethanol. Combined with petrol or diesel, ethanol can be used as 'gasohol' — a fuel that is considerably less polluting than conventional ones.
What's more, once ethanol has been extracted, sorghum can be used as a nutritious animal feed.
These are not the only benefits, says William Dar, director-general of the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which developed the new sorghum variety.
Research by ICRISAT scientists has shown that the sorghum is easier to grow than sugarcane — another source of ethanol — and matures in just four months, compared to 12 to 16 months for sugarcane. This means sorghum needs only about one-fifth of the water required by sugarcane.
During a recent visit to the Philippines, Dar told officials at the country's Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) that the hybrid can tolerate drought, water logging, and high soil salinity.
DA-BAR's director, William Medrano, says the use of sorghum as a biofuel fits with the Philippine government's current energy conservation efforts, which involve the development and use of biologically derived alternatives to expensive oil imports.
Medrano told SciDev.Net that the first sweet sorghum seeds will arrive in the Philippines in December and field trials will take place in central Luzon and parts of Mindanao, where the landscape suits the cereal's requirements. Regional agricultural research centres funded by DA-BAR will conduct the research.
"If these field trials bear positive results, we will intensify our research efforts to make the technology sustainable so that later we could mass-produce it for distribution and commercialisation," says Medrano.
"It is high time to include sorghum in the Philippine government's list of priority commodities for research and development because of its numerous uses aside from food."
Victoria Abrera, head of Environmental Policy and Planning at the Environmental Management Bureau in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources told SciDev.Net: "We have been very supportive of the government programme to promote use of ethanol".
Abrera says the department will advocate use of sorghum, if the trials show it is efficient.
International research effort underway to sequence cassava genome, which may result in increased starch yields - USDA Agricultural Research Service - Aug. 30, 2006
Cassava has one of the highest rates of CO2 fixation and sucrose synthesis for any C3 plant. With this in mind, researchers from Ohio State University develop transgenic cassava with starch yields up 2.6 times higher than normal plants by increasing the sink strength for carbohydrate in the crop. This means cassava makes for a 'super crop' when it comes to both CO2 fixation and carbohydrate production, i.e. sugars, the feedstock for ethanol - Plant Biotechnology Journal - Volume 4/Issue 4 - July 2006
Vietnam's Institute of Tropical Biology to invest in Jatropha research - Le courrier du Vietnam - Sept. 6, 2006
Genetic study proves humans have pushed orangutans to the brink of extinction; genetic decline coincides with establishment of oil palm plantations in Malaysia/Indonesia since the 1950/60s- Public Library of Science / BiologyVolume 4/Issue 2 - February, 2006
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania, develops sorghum and millet processing technologies suitable for local conditions in effort to empower small farmers - IPP Media - Sept. 6, 2006
South Africa blocks GM Sorghum project for fears over contamination of local wild sorghums - Kruger Park - Aug. 26, 2006
Brazilian state of Acre intends to make cattle ranchers reforest land which they have cleared for grazing. The sustainable forestry policy is based on replanting economic tree crops such as mahogany, acai, Brazil nut and palms - BBCNews Sept. 27, 2006
Illegal deforestation of acacia for charcoal is becoming a serious problem in Kenya's Naivasha area. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement re-afforests with acacia but needs more support to win fight against illegal loggers - Kenya Times Sept. 5, 2006
Australian scientists are conducting a 'time-machine' experiment to see how eucalyptus trees cope with increased levels of CO2 and global warming. - University of Western Sydney Aug. 28, 2006
Bamboo planting can slow deforestation, scientists from the International Center for Research in Agroforestry in Nairobi, Kenya, say. Bamboo rapidly becoming economically beneficial crop with large potential for energy, bioremediation, and afforestation - Chosun (S.Korea) Aug. 30, 2006
"The beauty of miscanthus is that you only have to sow it once...Because of the way it grows, there is no need for fertilisers or chemicals", an English entrepreneur talks about his experience with Miscanthus as an energy crop - Grantham Today Aug. 8, 2006
Friday, October 22, 2004
Sorghum, a source of ethanol for biofuel production - Philippines test case
Even though Sorghum is already being grown by millions of African farmers in the Sahel, an interesting test case with a new variety comes from the Philippines.
The sweet sorghum hybrid — called SSH 104 — is rich in sugar that can be easily converted into ethanol. Combined with petrol or diesel, ethanol can be used as 'gasohol' — a fuel that is considerably less polluting than conventional ones.
What's more, once ethanol has been extracted, sorghum can be used as a nutritious animal feed.
These are not the only benefits, says William Dar, director-general of the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which developed the new sorghum variety.
Research by ICRISAT scientists has shown that the sorghum is easier to grow than sugarcane — another source of ethanol — and matures in just four months, compared to 12 to 16 months for sugarcane. This means sorghum needs only about one-fifth of the water required by sugarcane.
During a recent visit to the Philippines, Dar told officials at the country's Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) that the hybrid can tolerate drought, water logging, and high soil salinity.
DA-BAR's director, William Medrano, says the use of sorghum as a biofuel fits with the Philippine government's current energy conservation efforts, which involve the development and use of biologically derived alternatives to expensive oil imports.
Medrano told SciDev.Net that the first sweet sorghum seeds will arrive in the Philippines in December and field trials will take place in central Luzon and parts of Mindanao, where the landscape suits the cereal's requirements. Regional agricultural research centres funded by DA-BAR will conduct the research.
"If these field trials bear positive results, we will intensify our research efforts to make the technology sustainable so that later we could mass-produce it for distribution and commercialisation," says Medrano.
"It is high time to include sorghum in the Philippine government's list of priority commodities for research and development because of its numerous uses aside from food."
Victoria Abrera, head of Environmental Policy and Planning at the Environmental Management Bureau in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources told SciDev.Net: "We have been very supportive of the government programme to promote use of ethanol".
Abrera says the department will advocate use of sorghum, if the trials show it is efficient.
SciDev.Net.
Article continues
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