Investment in biofuel is irresponsible – UN Adviser

The biofuel debate has now got to a head, the UN has joined in the fray.

The UN’s top adviser on food security has described investments being made into biofuels by some countries as “irresponsible” and a “crime against humanity.”

Olivier de Schutter, who has recently taken over from Jean Ziegler, said these in an interview with the BBC.

Mr. de Schutter is also calling for an immediate freeze of the policy and asking for restrain on investors whose speculation he says is driving food prices higher.

Global food prices have triggered violent reactions in some parts of the world, particularly in some developing countries.

It is estimated that 100 million poor people of the world are likely to be pushed deeper into poverty if nothing is done immediately to save the situation.

And frantic efforts are being made by world organizations including the UN, World Bank and the US government to cushion the effects of the high cost of food on the poor.

The George Bush administration about two days ago asked Congress for an additional $770 million for food aid for the rest of the world.

In the thick of the biofuel wranglings is South American giant, Brazil. Brazil is leading the countries pushing for growing crops for biofuels.

The country has signed an agreement with Ghana to grow sugarcane in the country to produce bio-ethanol for export.

The 27,000 hectares of sugarcane project is for the production of 150 million litres of ethanol yearly for export to Sweden.

But de Schutter says the use of food crops for alternative sources of energy like ethanol is one of the factors behind the price hike.

He argues that, the biofuel rush was a "scandal that only serves the interests of a tiny lobby".

He criticized United States and the European Union goals for biofuel production calling it unrealistic.

Mr. de Schutter says he wanted to find ways to limit the impact of speculative investments in food commodities like wheat, which had further driven prices up.

Mr. Olivier de Schutter, who is a Belgian professor of law is calling for a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to discuss the food crisis.

He said, "nothing was done to prevent speculation in raw materials, though it was predictable investors would turn to these markets following the stock market slowdown. And we are paying for 20 years of mistakes."


By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

Biodiesel not always profitable

Biodiesel not always profitable

By Kyle Stock

The wonder-fuel called biodiesel is no longer cheap

The demand for environmentally friendly fuel and the oils that are used to make it has surged in step with the cost of crude oil and conventional gas. Much of the biodiesel now produced in South Carolina — championed for reducing U.S. reliance on foreign oil — is now shipped to Europe, where stronger currencies have more buying power and suppliers are willing to meet higher prices.

Southeast BioDiesel LLC has been cranking out the fuel for almost a year now on the old Navy base in North Charleston, chemically treating chicken fat until it can power a Mercedes. Though the factory is pumping out 18,000 gallons of biodiesel every day — 360,000 gallons a month — the plant is surviving on tiny profit margins, according to cofounder Dean Schmelter.

"The chicken guys have figured out the exact point where we stop making a profit and that's where they keep it," Schmelter said. "We're not making money, but we're not losing it either."

Every week about 1,000 gallons of Schmelter's fuel is poured into cars just down the road at the Fox Music store, where OM Fuels LLC has set up the only retail biodiesel pump in the area. The cost last week: $4.12 per gallon, roughly the same as a gallon of conventional diesel.

OM Fuels said it isn't making money on biodiesel either. Chief Executive Charles Robert Adams said the green fuel is now tightly tied to commodities markets, where restless traders push prices through volatile swings and surges.

"It's just gambling," Adams said. "They don't add one iota of value to the product going to the public."

The so-called silver bullets of the biodiesel industry — fast growing fuel sources like algae and rapeseed plants — are still at least a few years from being grown and harvested en masse.

'Food prices may drop 20 pc if biofuel production stopped'

NEW DELHI: Global food prices could ease by up to 20 per cent by 2010 if biofuel production is stopped completely across the world, a US-based think-tank has said in its latest report.

"If biofuel demand from food crops was abolished after 2007, prices of key food crops would drop more significantly. By 2010, maize prices are expected to fall by 20 per cent, wheat by 8 per cent and sugar by 12 per cent," International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) report said.

However, it maintained that the contribution of biofuel production in wheat and rice price rise is only 22 per cent, while factors like bad weather in key producing nations like Australia, higher oil prices and poor government policies had much bigger impact.

It also said, "If biofuel production was frozen at 2007 levels for all countries and for all crops used as feedstock, maize prices are projected to decline by 6 per cent by 2010 and 14 per cent by 2015."

The demand for biofuel has increased prices of wheat by 22 per cent and rice by 21 per cent during 2000-07 period, while the overall impact on all grain prices is estimated to be about 30 per cent, the report 'Biofuels and grain prices: impacts and policy responses' revealed.

However, the biggest impact was seen on maize, which rose by 21 per cent due to increased biofuel demand, IFPRI said, adding that the role of biofuel policies in the food-price hikes has become particularly controversial.

Biogas Production is all in the Mixing

Biogas Production is all in the Mixing

By Tony Fitzpatrick Apr 23, 2008

St. Louis, MO -- Engineers at Washington University, using an impressive array of imaging and tracking technologies, have determined the importance of mixing in anaerobic digesters for bioenergy production and animal and farm waste treatment. Anaerobic digesters employ reactors that use bacteria to break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen.

They are studying ways to take "the smell of money," as farmers long have termed manure's odor, and produce biogas from it. The major end product of anaerobic digestion is methane, which can be used directly for energy, converted to methanol, or, when partially oxidized, to synthesized gas, a mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Synthesized gas then can be converted to clean alternative fuels and chemicals.

The goal is two-fold; one is to have farms that grow their own energy by using readily available farm waste to power the farm, the other is to eliminate the environmental threat of methane, a greenhouse gas considered 22 times worse than carbon dioxide.

Muthanna Al-Dahhan, Ph.D., Washington University professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering; his postdoctoral fellow Khursheed Karim, Ph.D.; and his graduate students Rajneesh Varma, Mehuld Vesvikar and Rebecca Hoffman have determined that mixing is the most crucial step in the success of large, commercial anaerobic digesters that can react 15,000 gallons of manure. In addition to graduate students, numerous undergraduates have contributed to the research.

Al-Dahhan received a roughly $2.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2001 to research anaerobic digestion. Since 2004, he and various collaborators have published no fewer than 16 papers on their anaerobic digester studies, and many will follow. The most recent paper is published in Biotechnology and Bioengineering 100 (1): 38-48, 2008.

"Each year livestock operations produce 1.8 billion tons of cattle manure," Al-Dahhan said. "If it sits in fields, the methane from the manure is released into the atmosphere, or it can cause ground water contamination, dust or ammonia leaching, not to mention bad odors. Treating manure by anaerobic digestion gets rid of the environmental threats and produces bioenergy at the same time. That has been our vision."

A good mix

There are about 100 anaerobic digesters in operation in the United States, but a remarkably high percentage — 76 percent — regularly fail. Al-Dahhan and his colleagues at WUSTL, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and ultimately the Iowa Energy Center based in Ames, Iowa, studied the configuration, design, hydrodynamics and mixing parameters of reactors and their effects on the treatment performance and bioenergy production.

"A systematic study had never been done before, so we wanted to get a notion of what was behind the high failure rates reported," Al-Dahhan said. "We tested by gas injection, mechanical agitation, slurry circulation and liquid circulation and at different intensities. We found that, at laboratory scale (four liters), all of the different mixing modes performed adequately."

They then went to Oak Ridge Laboratory to a pilot plant and tested a reactor that held 100 liters.

"As size increased, we found mixing plays a very important role in successful operations," Al-Dahhan said. "Intensity of mixing also is important. We found that if intensity of mixing is reduced, failure often is a consequence."

Anaerobic digestion of manure is opaque, which means to understand the hydrodynamics of anaerobic digestion Al-Dahhan and colleagues developed a unique computer-automated, multi-particle radioactive tracking (MPRT) system, a novel dual source gamma ray computed tomography (DSCT), and computational fluid dynamic simulation. These tools allowed the researchers to see where and under what conditions biochemical stagnant — or dead — zones occurred. They also analyzed mixing systems, hydrodynamics, shear effect and reactor configuration.

"We then used all of our knowledge to redesign the commercial digester at the Iowa Energy Center to make an efficient and long-lasting operation," Al-Dahhan said. At WUSTL, Al-Dahhan and his student Rajneesh Varma collaborated with Joseph O'Sullivan, Ph.D., professor of electrical and systems engineering, on developing a new imaging reconstruction algorithm and program for the developed DSCT. With his student Rebecca Hoffman, Al-Dahhan collaborated with assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering Lars Angenent, Ph.D., on microbiology techniques and measurement of organisms' distribution.

"The research we've done provides the basis to scale up in the future, " he said. "The process is complex, but we're seeking to simplify it for use as a quick assessment and evaluation of the digester. The final goal is a simple system ready for use by farmers on site for bioenergy production and for animal and farm waste management."

Source: http://www.wustl.edu/

Waste Not, Want Not

David Bradley

Waste Not, Want Not

A fungus that can convert waste paper into an antibacterial and super-absorbent material has been discovered by researchers at Borås University College in Sweden. The discovery could provide a commercially and environmentally viable material for disposable diapers and sanitary wear. The products would not only have improved hygiene qualities but would be entirely biodegradable and so reduce the impact on landfill sites for these bulky products.

Iranian-born Mohammad Taherzadeh and his team began a search for a novel fungus that could be used in the biotech production of industrial ethanol for use as a gasoline additive. Within the order zygomycetes, they tested more than 100 different fungi and singled out a saprophyte, which grew extremely quickly and well on waste materials. Working with colleagues at Goteborg University, they demonstrated that the filament-producing fungus could "ferment" waste paper into ethanol and leave behind a porous and compostable residue.

"Today baker's yeast is used for the production of ethanol, but we have found a fungus that is more effective than baker's yeast," explains Taherzadeh. He adds that this fungus is "low maintenance, requiring hardly anything to start growing and degrading the waste. The temperature plays some role. We have tried to get it to grow in sulfite lye, but also in brush, forestry waste, and fruit rinds, and the results were equally good in all cases."

Being able to convert sulfite lye for the production of ethanol is good news, in both economic and environmental terms. Sulfite lye, which is a byproduct of the production of paper and viscose pulp, is difficult for factories to dispose of since it contains chemicals that must not be casually released in nature. From being a highly undesirable byproduct for the paper industry, sulfite lye will now be an attractive raw material for the extraction of ethanol.

"This is truly exciting. Zygomycetes in ethanol production represent an unknown area," Taherzadeh says, "We are the only scientists in the world to have presented them as ethanol-producing fungi, but we realize that the potential is huge"

Zygomycetes are not only highly effective in producing ethanol; the research team also found that the biomass that is left over in the production of ethanol can be used to extract a cell-wall material that is super-absorbent and antibacterial. What's more, it's a biological material that can be composted and recycled.

http://www.adm.hb.se/~mjt/

in University of Borås happend : Drive on your old Levis

It was explained by An Iranian Professor :Mohammad Taherzadeh

Research shows in University of Boras : It goes to drive the car up to five kilometers on a pair old jean,   ----- a way to convert cotton fabric to ethanol with the aid of fermented

The project on the college in Borås has been taking place , and now has one succeeded forward a method where textile waste to be converted to ethanol

One half 10 km on old Levis
It seems to drive three to five kilometers per pair of trousers if one converts it to ethanol, and the request where not so difficult as one first believed

Fungus discovery revolutionizes ethanol and hygiene industries

A research team at University College of Borås in Sweden, headed by Professor Mohammad Taherzadeh, has made a unique and revolutionary discovery. The discovery consists of a fungus that extremely effectively converts waste to ethanol. From the residual biomass, moreover, it is possible to extract an antibacterial and super-absorbent material that can be composted. This is good news for the paper industry and for producers of diapers and feminine hygiene items, and not least for nature.

	Mohammad Taherzadeh shows the ethanol producing fungi zygomycetes.

It was about seven years ago that Mohammad Taherzadeh and his research team started their search for a fungus for ethanol production. Together with scientists from Göteborg University, they found a group of filament-producing fungi, zygomycetes, that have proven to have interesting properties.
"Today baker's yeast is used for the production of ethanol, but we have found a fungus that is more effective than baker's yeast," says Mohammad Taherzadeh, professor of biotechnology at the School of Engineering, University College of Borås, and one of the world's leading ethanol researchers.

Easy to use

Within the order zygomycetes, more than 100 different fungi were tested, and in the end, the one with the best properties was singled out. The fungus, which is a saprophyte, is extremely easy to grow in waste and drainage.
"It is low maintenance, requiring hardly anything to start growing and degrading the waste. The temperature plays some role. We have tried to get it to grow in sulfite lye, but also in brush, forestry waste, and fruit rinds, and the results were equally good in all cases," reports Mohammad Taherzadeh.

Converts waste to raw material

Being able to convert sulfite lye for the production of ethanol is good news, in both economic and environmental terms. Sulfite lye, which is a byproduct of the production of paper and viscose pulp, is difficult for factories to dispose of since it contains chemicals that must not be casually released in nature. From being a highly undesirable byproduct for the paper industry, sulfite lye will now be an attractive raw material for the extraction of ethanol.
"This is truly exciting. Zygomycetes in ethanol production represent an unknown area. We are the only scientists in the world to have presented them as ethanol-producing fungi, but we realize that the potential is huge," says Mohammad Taherzadeh, who relates a curious anecdote that the fungi have another use in Indonesia: they are a food fungus.

Super-absorbent bonus effect

Zygomycetes are not only highly effective in producing ethanol; the research team also found that the biomass that is left over in the production of ethanol can be used to extract a cell-wall material that is super-absorbent and antibacterial. What's more, it's a biological material that can be composted and recycled.

This discovery opens an entirely new dimension for research on the fungi, according to Mohammad Taherzadeh, whose project "Production of antimicrobial super-absorbent from sulfite lye using zygomycetes" was recently awarded more than SEK 800,000 from the Knowledge Foundation to continue its research into this cell-wall material.

	The sanitary towel to the left is a possible final product. In the middle one can see the biomass during the drying process and on the right there is an example of biomass before it dries.

Reduces greenhouse effect

Super-absorbent material is used in diapers and feminine hygiene products, but also for bandages and other products for treating wounds. Today the super-absorbent in these types of products is polyacrylate, but polyacrylate is not biodegradable: it has to be burned. This combustion release carbon dioxide in the air, a compound that aggravates the greenhouse effect. On the other hand, if polyacrylate is replaced with this biological super-absorbent, diapers will not have to be incinerated, but instead can be composted, retted, and converted to biogas. This, in turn, entails a reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide into the air.

Kills bacteria and fungi

The antibacterial property of the biological super-absorbent is also advantageous in comparison with polyacrylate.
"Our cell-wall material absorbs about ten times its weight in liquid. It can also kill bacteria and fungi, which means that a diaper would not irritate the skin and would last longer before any unpleasant odors arise. We have experimented with adding e-coli bacteria as well, an aggressive sort of bacteria, and the cell-wall material manages to neutralize them," says Mohammad Taherzadeh. Equally good results are reported from experiments with other bacteria types, such as Klebsiella pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus, as well as the fungus Candida albicans.
"The research will continue on ethanol production as well, but our focus is now on developing the cell-wall material further. Since this is an unknown field, a great deal of work will be needed for us to fully understand the potential of this material," says Mohammad Taherzadeh.

In stores soon?

This research is also tied to product development work, being carried out in close collaboration with Rexcell AB (formerly Duni) and Medical Equipment Development AB.
"Together with these two companies we are trying to add this cell-wall material to paper in a process called 'airlaid non-woven'." The aim is to develop a commercial product that can be used in many industries, according to Mohammad Taherzadeh. "Our experiments have been promising thus far, and our collaborative partners are looking into the possibility of patenting the method."

The research team includes:

• Mohammad Taherzadeh, professor at the School of Engineering, University College of Borås, project director of "Production of antimicrobial super-absorbent from sulfite lye using zygomycetes"
• Mikael Skrifvars, professor at the School of Engineering, University College of Borås
• Hans Björk, head of the School of Engineering, University College of Borås
• Akram Zamani, doctoral candidate, School of Engineering, University College of Borås
• Anneli Wadenfalk, doctoral candidate, School of Engineering, University College of Borås

The team also comprises several students at the School of Engineering who are writing their master's theses.

A further doctoral candidate will be employed on the project.

Text and photo: Eva-Lotta Andersson