The Standing Committee on Rural Development, in its report on the demands for grants of the land resources department, noted that the bio-fuels programme was started in 2003 and “in-principle” approval had been given for “demonstration phase” involving plantation over 300,000 hectares of bio-diesel producing non-edible oilseeds (jatropha and pongamia) on degraded forest and waste land.

…It noted that funds have not been allocated for bio-fuels programme in the current fiscal (2012-13) as the decision on its future “has been pending for long.”

…A senior official of the department told the panel that a study by TERI had found the programme to be financially unviable.  READ MORE and MORE (Biofuels Digest Asia)

Bio-ethanol can be used as petrol supplementary and it will increase the octane number of petrol as it is added to the fuel. It will lead to the decrease of greenhouse fuel production.

Bio-ethanol will be manufactured from cellulose material including wood, paper, wheat wastes and sugarcane inside the country.   READ MORE

Let’s go back 10 years ago, before the first Renewable Fuel Standard was passed, when there was 1.1 billion bushels of corn used for ethanol. Then, we’ll look at 2007-08, five years atom, when RFS had been implemented and RFS2 was on the way. And, we’ll look at the WASDE forecasts now available for the 2012/13 season.

The RFA’s Geoff Cooper reports, “USDA released its first estimate of the 2012/2013 corn crop size and it is a big one.  According to this estimate, USDA is projecting record US corn production of 14.79 billion bushels – up 1.7 billion bushels from the previous record of 13.09 billion bushels in 2009. USDA is also projecting corn for ethanol use to be 5 billion bushels for the marketing year running from September 1, 2012 to August 31, 2013. ”

…Based on USDA’s forecast, the corn available for other uses, such as export and the feed markets (which is how field corn plays into the food market, as field corn is not used for human consumption) will have increased 31 percent during the corn ethanol era.

Let’s put this in terms of corn available for other uses, per US resident. In 2002 the population stood at 287 million, and there was 30.4 bushels of corn – that’s 1706 pounds – available per US resident for all other purposes besides corn ethanol.

Where is that today, after a decade of negative press on food vs fuel? The 2012 population stands at 313, and there are expected to be 36.6 bushels of corn – that 2050 pounds, available per US resident for all other purposes besides corn ethanol.  READ MORE

“We think the model will help policy makers and forest managers make informed decisions to maintain forest productivity while minimizing the environmental impact of managed forest plantations,” says Dr. Shiying Tian, a Postdoctoral Researcher at NC State, and lead author of a paper on the model, just released in the Journal Of Environmental Quality. “It also will help us understand how these forest systems will respond if we see changes in temperature or precipitation related to climate change,” says Dr. Mohamed Youssef, Assistant Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at NC State, and co-author.

…The new model is timely, due to a number of emerging uses for forest land. One example, the national interest in identifying new means of growing biofuels crops, like switchgrass, by planting it in the space between trees in commercial forests. DRAINMOD-FOREST will help determine whether such an “inter-crop” method is viable and sustainable. Would it hinder tree growth? What would the environmental consequences be? “We could also use the model to determine the viability and environmental impact of introducing new commercial tree species,” Tian says.  READ MORE  Abstract

The study commissioned by the Ministry of Mines and Energy found that Colombian ethanol made with sugar cane emits 74% less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. Ethanol made with palm oil produces 83% less emissions.

These reductions mean that if all of the country’s existing cane sugar and palm oil facilities operated at full capacity, carbon dioxide emissions would drop by 1.8 million tonnes – 3% of the country’s CO2 emissions in 2008, the report stated.

…Though still years behind the world’s largest biofuels producers, the U.S. and Brazil, Colombia’s ethanol industry is set to benefit from the U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which takes effect May 15.

Cane sugar ethanol is not produced in the U.S., and while Brazil’s exports to the U.S. face high tariffs, Colombian fuel will avoid them as a result of the FTA.  READ MORE

OK, let’s see. A dominating position in the future of manufacturing, a structural advantage in the cost of energy, enough food security and energy security to pursue an expansionist foreign policy.

Eventually, dominance in finance when all the capital has drained out of the EU and the US and sits in mountains of cash back in China, as it did before the Age of Navigation and the Industrial Revolution eroded China’s 2000-year dominance of world trade.

Let’s look at the 20 signs.

Next generation technologies deploying in China

Lemna.  …build-out of ten commercial-scale units of approximately 5,000 hectares will be implemented step by step at locations to be determined around the world.  …

Cassava stalk.  …ethanol for less than two dollars per gallon…  commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol and butanol distillery that will produce 50,000 metric tons annually.  …

Corncobs. … corncob residues from furfural production into fermentable sugars and then into ethanol…

Pulp mill black liquor. …black liquor gasification technology – a route to 2nd generation biofuels or green power. …

Potato starch residue. …ethanol for fuel use and DDG to verify the profitability for commercialization.  …

Algae.  … 250-module algae biofuels facility …

Integrated biorefineries …

Demand for food crops, oils on rise, affecting world prices …

Aviation biofuels …

New ventures planned …

R&D …

Feedstocks …

Renewable chemicals and Materials …

Expansion to Africa …  READ MORE

The plant, developed by renewable energy firm Agri, will process used cooking oil to create biodiesel which can then be used in vehicles.

…The plant will produce up to 16 million litres of EN14214 biodiesel every year; a European specification which Agri said is not often achievable when used cooking oil is used as a feedstock.

…Eddie O’Reilly, Agri’s biodiesel plant manager, said: “By using ISO 14064 methods we can measure the carbon footprint of our biodiesel to show at least 90% less greenhouse gas emissions when compared to regular mineral diesel. This makes it the most sustainable type of biodiesel in the world.” READ MORE

The agreement provides for the construction and operation of a micro-crop scientific research program in Hainan Province, China. After the success of the research program, build-out of ten commercial-scale units of approximately 5,000 hectares will be implemented step by step at locations to be determined around the world.

…Parabel’s product platform will enhance global food and energy security, and directly address deficiencies in critical feed, food and fuel industries. The company’s protein product could qualify as the first major new plant protein source for humans since soy entered the human diet in the 1950s, while third-party tests have confirmed the value of Parabel’s animal feed applications as a local feedstock for renewable “drop-in” fuels.

“This is an exciting and unique opportunity,” said Anthony Tiarks, CEO of Parabel. “Not only does this agreement simultaneously accelerate our commercialization process and deepen our relationship with CECEP, but it also envisions the construction of commercial-scale production units outside of mainland China. We look forward to working closely with CECEP to serve critical market needs in China and beyond.”  READ MORE

…Traverse City will be home to a biodiesel fuel plant when Koucky’s Northwest Michigan Biodiesel LLC swings into full production within weeks.

…Koucky’s three-part plan begins with the Cass Road production facility, which will process locally grown canola. Koucky then plans to sell the resulting oil to local restaurants and buy back the used product. The recovered product will be processed, resulting in biodiesel fuel Koucky hopes to sell to local consumers.

He anticipates an annual yield of about 100,000 gallons.  READ MORE

…What is it with Louisiana? It seems like at-scale renewable diesel projects have never found a a better home. There’s the Dynamic Fuels project – 75 million gallons in Geismar; the 137 million gallon Diamond Green Diesel project under construction in Norco, as a JV between Valero and Darling, and now this one, clocking in at 85 million gallons.

If and when all three are completed, that’s 297 million gallons of capacity in the one state.  …All three plants find themselves in the heavy shipping corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  READ MORE and MORE (Emerald Biofuels) and MORE (Advanced Biofuels USA)