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August 01, 2019

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by Douglas L. Faulkner (The Cleantech Conservative/Leatherstocking LLC/ Biofuels Digest) ... (W)e first addressed bio-based plastic research needs; second, we reviewed government regulations preventing the growth of advanced biofuels, a controversial action; then we launched an effort for 2019 for an intensive look at forests of the future and their opportunities for woody bioenergy, what I dubbed “The Year of the Tree.”

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Nevertheless, despite that legacy of overall progress, modern or advanced bioenergy still remains a tiny sliver of the whole bioenergy category. In America, first generation biofuels has been a real success story: corn starch ethanol has hit the maximum allowed under the Renewable Fuels Standard mandate ....

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Meanwhile, the stated policy goal of growing the next generations of fuels, chemicals, heat and power from non-food, wastes and residue sources remains only vision of what could be. For example, there are only five facilities under design or construction in North America for converting trees to fuels. The biggest hindrance to growth is those onerous environmental regulations I mentioned earlier.

The IEA publicly projects that renewable energy development overall in the heat, electricity and transport sectors has to accelerate and soon. The shares of these renewable sources, including bioenergy, otherwise will be far lower than they could be and more importantly need to be to meet long-term sustainability and climate goals. There just ain’t yet enough bioenergy, especially advanced, in the pipeline.

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Bioenergy’s complicated story

One overlooked factor in the gap between potential and reality is the difficulty in telling bioenergy’s real story, its good news story. This has greatly contributed to the “lost decade” when for the last ten years unrelenting attacks and misinformation from bioenergy’s opponents have stalled its momentum, undermining public support, while politicians have focused more on green electricity and electric vehicles.

It’s hard to fit the story into a media soundbite or a pitch to a policymaker. Bioenergy involves a multitude of current and future feedstocks grown or thrown away on land and from the sea; they can be put through a range of industrial equipment and processes to make an incredible collection of not just transportation fuels, but also industrial products, like cement, and consumer goods. Early biofuels targeted civilian personal vehicles, but demand from airlines, ocean shipping and heavy road transport as well as from the military are growing. For example, some estimate a doubling in demand for air travel in the next twenty years. This means a complicated intersection between the agriculture, forestry, chemical, transportation and energy sectors.

Bioenergy production and use has been dominated by the U.S. and Brazil, followed by the EU.

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lobal Bioenergy Partnership, part of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, was started during the Bush Administration and finalized during Obama’s; I helped lead the early U.S. involvement, in partnership with Brazil. We insisted that bioenergy was sustainable and to prove that contention we needed metrics and indicators set by experts, not politicians, based on science, notemotion, and all publicly available, not hidden away only accessible to a few. We argued for measuring a wide range of social and economic as well as environmental factors. The final 24 indicators have been field-tested and constitute a fundamental tool for national policymakers for sustainable development. By the way, Sweden has headed this particular effort for several years. See these indicators at globalbioenergy.org

Bioenergy’s many benefits can make a lot of sense to voters, especially those in rural areas.

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But, in a world awash in oil and gas, old-style geopolitical threats to oil supplies paradoxically appear to be growing. Witness the flash points near oil fields or ocean shipping lanes in the Middle East, Venezuela and the South China Sea. Military clashes or escalated unrest at any one of these places could destabilize oil markets on which so much of the world will depend for two or three more decades, at least.

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EVs are heavily dependent on petro plastics to keep their weight down: it’s estimated that by 2020 the average EV will use over 770 pounds of plastic in hundreds of parts.

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(T)he press and voters don’t really know that biofuels are the only commercially-available alternative to oil that can reduce greenhouse gases emissions from transportation in the short–to-medium term as well as insure against catastrophic oil shocks, boost traditional industries like pulp and paper, and help modernize developing agriculture sectors.

Bio-based products also have a golden opportunity to expand production of bio-degradable plastics and other consumer good or to help recycle existing waste. Every day there is a new story about new companies or their amazing new products from plants. And, consumers, especially the young, are ready to open their pocketbooks for innovative products with demonstrably lower carbon and environmental footprints. Bioenergy’s “Back to the Future” qualities can capture the popular imagination.

But, we need a concerted, global approach: more collaborative research across the whole value chain; more encouragement of entrepreneurship; more private-public partnerships; more acceptances by environmental groups; more market growth of sustainable products, especially in developing countries; and, more global champions with consistent, clear messages. Each one of those topics are worthy of deeper discussion but are certainly achievable.

I personally believe that media communications will be the most critical task.

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Sustainability certification regimes now taking root can help in public persuasion.

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There is new interest from both Democrats and Republicans in re-examining forest management practices frozen for the last few decades, which have probably actually increased the odds of forest fires and hindered progress against invasive insects.

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Recently, Senators from Oregon, Idaho and Maine introduced a bipartisan bill to reform the current mandate to allow biomass from certain federal lands for advanced biofuels. If passed, it will change current legal roadblocks to the use of trees from federal property for those fuels. (The federal government owns almost half of Western lands.) The bill would generate new opportunities to use small diameter trees, limbs, hazardous fuels, debris and even mill sawdust to create new fuels and lower fire risks. It also explicitly protects old growth trees on federal property, a key environmental concern.

And, my advisory Committee issued a detailed set of recommendations about reforming the Renewable Fuels Standard to open up markets for advanced biofuels, with a particular focus on unleashing the woody biofuels sector. We will also devote our last meeting this year to a summary of our findings for changes in the government’s research, policies and regulations to promote woody bioenergy sustainably, as better and safer forest management starts to become a reality.

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I personally believe that we are on the verge of realizing President Bush’s dream of ending our addiction to oil and ushering in a Golden Age of Bioenergy. It’s high time to unleash our foresters, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs There’s a lot of work to do and the clock’s a’tickin’! READ MORE

The Swedish firm, Elmia AB, held a seminar on 07 June near Jӧnkӧping, Sweden, on Sweden’s role in the emerging global woody bioenergy industry. Doug Faulkner, the Digest’s own “Cleantech Conservative” and President of his firm, Leatherstocking LLC, gave the keynote address and then joined several Swedish experts for a panel discussion. The full video of both are on YouTube and linked here with Elmia’s permission. Elmia AB is a leading Nordic trade show organizer, which holds events on a wide range of business sectors. Its established international fair for the entire forest industry, Elmia Wood, is scheduled for May 2021 and will feature an expanded focus on woody bioenergy. READ MORE