[Gasification] BIOFUELS THREATEN

Mon Mar 10 18:18:46 CDT 2008

 Greetings Greg and April, Form another Greg.....

 I couldn't agree with you more...

 They should rename "The Times' to 'Fear Mongering at it's finest'.

 This is the 3rd or 4th article in as many weeks that bashes biomass as a
fuel (not food as a fuel).

 Switchgrass is a fine example of a non-food energy crop that can be planted
in marginal soil (where food crops do not do well) and the harvest is a
perennial source, even 4 -5 % of Canada's crop land would provide so much
fuel, it would be a win-win.....

But what do I know.... I live in "Dumb-Ass" Canada...... (excuse my
expressive nature)

Greg Manning
A proud citizen of
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada

-----Original Message-----
From: gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org]On Behalf Of Benjamin
Domingo Bof
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 3:58 PM
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
Subject: Re: [Gasification] BIOFUELS THREATEN

http://nariphaltan.virtualave.net/sorghum.htm
  Solar ethanol distiller

Greg and April <gregandapril at earthlink.net> escribió:
  Benjamin,

Look to the source of the worry, people who only deal with food - of course
they are going to complain when they can not give away food for free.
They can never remember that food is never free.

Most of the time I never even see these folks supply creditable numbers,
that back up their fear mongering - and when I do they rarely take into
account that in many cases biomass for energy CAN come from sources that
grow in area's that are inhospitable to farming.

The rest of the time, all they are looking at is modern conventional crops -
wheat, corn, potatoes ect, with no regard for more unconventional crops like
millet, amaranth, sorghum ect for human consumption.

Unconventional crops can also provide energy as well as food ( at least for
animals that we can then eat ) -

Example:

Calliandra (
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Calliandra_calothyrsus.html )
is an excellent example - it can provide forage for animals - In Indonesia,
annual yields of 7-10 MT of dry fodder (22% crude protein) per ha have been
recorded, and makes good to high quality charcoal ( 34% conversion in one
test with a fuel value of about 7,200 kcal/kg ) and regeneration ability
that is said to allow 14 tons of charcoal every year from 2.5 acres ( 1
hectare ).

Cattails - can provide food and/or fuel depending on how it's used, and can
do so from land unsuitable for any conventional crop.

Honey Locust - the pods on some trees can reach better than 30% simple
sugars that can be used to make ethanol and wildlife relish them as food -
yet enough light filters through, that other crops or pasture can be grown
underneath. Unfortunately little genetic selection has been done to
improve sugar content or yields of individual trees.

These people can scream all they want, but in a nut shell, they have little
to no idea what they are talking about, because they can't see beyond the
corn stalks.

Greg H.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Benjamin Domingo Bof"
To: "Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification"

Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 13:39
Subject: [Gasification] BIOFUELS THREATEN

>From The Times

March 7, 2008

Rush for biofuels threatens starvation on a global scale
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By 2030 the world population will have increased to such an extent that a 50
per cent increase in food production will be needed, it is claimed

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Lewis Smith and Francis Elliott

The rush towards biofuels is theatening world food production and the
lives of billions of people, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser said
yesterday.
Professor John Beddington put himself at odds with ministers who have
committed Britain to large increases in the use of biofuels over the coming
decades. In his first important public speech since he was appointed, he
described the potential impacts of food shortages as the "elephant in the
room" and a problem which rivalled that of climate change.
"It's very hard to imagine how we can see the world growing enough crops
to produce renewable energy and at the same time meet the enormous demand
for food," he told a conference on sustainability in London yesterday.
"The supply of food really isn't keeping up."
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Price rises feed through to shopping basket

Is this the sign of things to come?

Biofuels cannot save the planet

By 2030, he said, the world population would have increased to such an
extent that a 50 per cent increase in food production would be needed. By
2080 it would need to double. But the rush to biofuels - allegedly
environmentally friendly - meant that increasing amount of arable land had
been given over to fuel rather than food.
The world's population is forecast to increase from the six billion at the
start of the millennium to nine billion by 2050. Already biofuels have
contributed to the rapid rise in international wheat prices and Professor
Beddington cautioned that it was likely to be only a matter of time before
shoppers in the United Kingdom faced big price rises because of the soaring
cost of feeding livestock.
His comments come just a month after the Government welcomed a European
Commission target requiring 10 per cent of all fuel sold in British service
stations to be derived from plants within 12 years. Already biofuels attract
a 20p per litre reduction in duty to encourage their uptake. Hilary Benn,
the Environment Secretary, recently announced additional funding for biofuel
research and farmers can claim subsidies to grow crops for energy.
Last year President Bush called for a massive increase in the use of
ethanol in America over the next decade. The US now devotes more acreage to
growing corn than at any time since 1944. Farmers planted 90.5 million acres
in 2007, 15 per cent more than a year before. If White House efforts to
double ethanol production this year are achieved, and in due course 40 per
cent of that corn ends up in petrol tanks, the world will face a harder and
costlier time feeding itself.
A spokesman for Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, insisted that the
Government was well aware of the possible negative effects of biofuels. "We
take this issue very seriously and we are not prepared to go beyond current
target levels for biofuels until we are satisfied it can be done
sustainably."
Professor Beddington said that the prospect of food shortages over the
next 20 years was so acute that politicians, scientists and farmers must
begin to tackle it immediately.
"Climate change is a real issue and is rightly being dealt with by major
global investment," he said afterwards. "However, I am concerned there is
another major issue along a similar time-scale, an elephant in the room -
that of food and energy security. This is giving me and many of my
scientific colleagues much concern."
Population levels are growing so fast already that an extra six million
people are born every month. Growing enough food for everyone was further
challenged, he said, because of climate change, which was likely to lead to
a shortage of water.
Scientists say that intense dry spells will become more frequent over the
next century. The supply of water will be put under further pressure because
of the increased number of people who need it, not only to drink but to keep
their crops alive. The production of a tonne of wheat, for example, requires
50 tonnes of water.
Because it was almost impossible to control the population increase in the
short term, Professor Beddington told the conference, other measures would
need to be taken. "Agriculture has been doing pretty well against the
population size but things are changing now and they are changing quite
dramatically," he said.
"Don't we need to do something about food? Demand has grown enormously,
particularly in China and India, where much of the driving force is
increased demand. By 2030 energy demand is going to be up by 50 per cent and
demand for food is going to be up by 50 per cent."
The increase in demand has been reflected by the rapid rise in the prices
of basic commodities, including wheat, over the past two years.
Biofuels have been put forward as a means of reducing the greenhouse gas
emissions pumped out by fossil fuels but recent studies have questioned
their impact when all factors, such as the use of fertilisers on the crops,
are taken into account. Critics have been angered by the loss of tropical
rainforests, which have been cleared to allow farmers to grow biofuel crops.
Deforestation has been calculated to account for about 18 per cent of
world greenhouse gas emissions and Professor Beddington said that to destroy
rainforests in order to grow biofuel crops was "insane". He added: "Some of
the biofuels are hopeless, in the sense that the idea that you cut down
rainforest to actually grow biofuels seems profoundly stupid." He said that
human ingenuity was extraordinary and he was confident that food production
could be boosted, including by growing genetically modified crops.
Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme, told the
European Parliament in Brussels yesterday: "The shift to biofuels production
has diverted lands out of the food chain. Food prices such as palm oil in
Africa are now set at fuel prices. It may be a bonanza for farmers - I hope
it is true - but in the short term, the world's poorest are hit hard."

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