Washington, DC – U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the investment of nearly $80 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for advanced biofuels research and fueling infrastructure that will help support the development of a clean sustainable transportation sector.  The selections announced today – two biofuels consortia for up to $78 million to research algae-based– are part of the Department’s continued effort to spur the creation of the domestic bio-industry while creating jobs.

“Advanced biofuels are crucial to building a clean energy economy,” said Secretary Chu. “By harnessing the power of science and technology, we can bring new biofuels to the market and develop a cleaner and more sustainable transportation sector.   This investment will help spur the creation of the domestic bio-industry, while creating jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.”

Biofuels Consortia

Two cross-functional groups will seek to break down critical barriers to the commercialization of algae-based and other advanced biofuels such as green aviation fuels, diesel, and gasoline that can be transported and sold using today’s existing fueling infrastructure. The selected projects consist of leading scientists and engineers from universities, private industry, and government, and will facilitate sharing expertise and technologies.

The two consortia selected for funding are:

National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB) ($44 million)—Led by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (St. Louis, MO), NAABB will develop a systems approach for sustainable commercialization of algal biofuel (such as renewable gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) and bioproducts. NAABB will integrate resources from companies, universities, and national laboratories to overcome the critical barriers of cost, resource use and efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, and commercial viability. It will develop and demonstrate the science and technology necessary to significantly increase production of algal biomass and lipids, efficiently harvest and extract algae and algal products, and establish valuable certified co-products that scale with renewable fuel production. Co-products include animal feed, industrial feedstocks, and additional energy generation. Multiple test sites will cover diverse environmental regions to facilitate broad deployment.

National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC) (up to $33.8 million)—Led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, NABC will conduct cutting-edge research to develop infrastructure compatible, biomass-based hydrocarbon fuels. The result will be a sustainable, cost-effective production process that maximizes the use of existing refining and distribution infrastructure. NABC will investigate a variety of process strategies and down select to those closest to larger scale demonstration. The NABC plans to further develop these strategies to deliver a pilot-ready process, with full lifecycle analysis to measure the environmental benefits.

Collectively, these consortia will be matched by private and non-federal cost-share funds of more than $19 million for total project investments of over $97 million.

Secretary Chu also announced today the selection of eight infrastructure projects to receive up to $1.6 million to support expanded fueling infrastructure for ethanol blends.  The projects announced today will expand ethanol blends infrastructure at existing retail fueling locations in nine states: Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.  The projects plan to install E85 pumps, retrofit existing pumps to dispense E85, and install blender pumps that offer ethanol blends up to 85 percent at over 60 stations. Collectively, the projects propose creating at least 45 E85 dispensers and 16 blender pumps along key driving corridors and areas with higher concentrations of flexible fuel vehicles.

The infrastructure projects will be matched with $3.9 million in non-federal cost-share funds, for total projects investments of $5.5 million.

View the complete list and project descriptions of awards announced today.

MENLO PARK, California (December 14, 2009) – Silicon Valley venture capitalist Elton Sherwin in his new book, Addicted to Energy, claims that reducing soot and smog are key to affordably protecting the planet from rapid warming and vital for reaching an agreement with China. Drawing on research from U.C. Berkeley, Stanford and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Sherwin says that reducing non-CO2 greenhouse agents is faster and cheaper than reducing CO2.  “We still need to dramatically reduce CO2 in the U.S. and China, but reducing soot and smog is a quick, affordable way to work together and lessen the likelihood of crossing a major climate threshold or tipping point.”

“By lowering soot and smog emissions, the Chinese can make a major positive contribution,” says Sherwin. “There is reluctance to discuss this because it might slow progress on CO2.  But the impact of soot and smog are so great they cannot be ignored.  They are comparatively less expensive to mitigate and they provide an opportunity for the Chinese to meet or exceed western reductions without having to slow their economic growth.”

Smog contains several potent greenhouse agents. Soot contains large amounts of black carbon. One U.S. House of Representatives report says that reducing black carbon alone “will immediately slow global warming.”*

A recent article published in Foreign Affairs, co-authored by one of the world’s leading climate scientists, says, “Fully applying existing emissions-control technologies could cut black carbon emissions by about 50 percent. And that would be enough to offset the warming effects of one to two decades’ worth of carbon dioxide emissions.”**

Sherwin uses an intriguing analogy:

“Image you inherit a home and discover the attic packed full of dynamite, blasting caps and fuses. What does the local bomb squad do?  They remove the fuses and blasting caps first, and then the dynamite.”

In Sherwin’s analogy, CO2 is the dynamite, but soot and smog are the fuses and blasting caps – the first priorities.

Continuing the analogy Sherwin says, “The house is a metaphor for our planet and we are living in one room and the Chinese are living in another room. We can argue with the Chinese about who is most responsible for the mess in the attic for another decade or two and pass the problem to our children.  But by then it may be too late. We need to clean up the attic now.”

Sherwin says that the U.S. and China should jointly lead a worldwide crash program to reduce soot and tropospheric ozone (one of the key components in smog) while simultaneously reducing CO2 emissions. He says, “Filters that trap soot should be an immediate priority. This is too big an opportunity to ignore.”

He continues, “The Chinese produce so much soot and ozone, they could meet virtually any treaty obligation if these two powerful agents of climate change were included.”

Sherwin adds one word of caution, “The Chinese also release vast quantities of reflective particles into the atmosphere mixed together with their soot. Today, these reflective particles protect the earth, and it is critically important that they continue this practice while filtering out the black carbon.” Sherwin adds, “It is imperative that we accurately account for all these particles and take actions that really protect the climate.”

Source : energyhousepublishing.com

* Google “Hearing Examines Black Carbon and Global Warming.”  From the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives.

** “The Other Climate Changers: Why Black Carbon and Ozone Also Matter,” Jessica Seddon Wallack and Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Foreign Affairs, September/October 2009 Issue.

The U.S. government—and major U.S. banks—seem to have lost their appetite for coal. After spending five years and approximately $50 million on preliminary studies as well as selecting a proposed site in Mattoon, Ill., the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has scuttled plans to build the so-called FutureGen power plant.

The facility would have captured the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂) that is emitted when coal is burned for electricity generation. Instead, the DOE hopes to help industry add carbon-capture-and-storage capability to advanced coal plants already in the works.

“This restructured FutureGen approach is an all-around better investment for Americans,” Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a statement announcing the change. The DOE is asking Congress for $407 million to research how to burn coal most efficiently, along with $241 million to demonstrate such carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies—at least $900 million less than DOE said it would have cost to complete FutureGen.[...]

Full article – Via : ©sciam.com

“Increasing the availability and use of low-carbon fuels will bring immediate and long-term environmental benefits by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging sustainable agricultural practices that provide greater efficiencies and lower costs.

“As outlined in a recent BIO report, ‘Achieving Sustainable Production of Agricultural Biomass for Biorefinery Feedstock,’ farmers will be able to produce, harvest and deliver sufficient feedstock to the growing biorefinery industry in an economically and environmentally sustainable way through increased use of no-till agriculture. The report identifies available techniques for sustainable harvesting of agricultural residues – such as corn stover and cereal straws – for use as feedstocks for advance biofuel biorefineries. The report is available at http://bio.org/ind/biofuel/SustainableBiomassReport.pdf.

“With agricultural biotechnology, farmers can continue to increase yields of crops to meet the demands for both food and fuel. Over the past 10 years, agricultural biotechnology has helped U.S. farmers increase yields by 30 percent, a rate of yield increase that will be sufficient to meet the goals of the new renewable fuel standard. In addition, farmers can reduce operating costs, prevent soil erosion, maintain soil fertility, and harvest crop residues as raw materials for advanced biofuels through adoption of no-till agriculture. In many cases no-tell practices can even result in carbon sequestration.

“The Renewable Fuel Standard in the recently enacted Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 calls for 36 billion gallons of biofuel to be used by U.S. motorists by 2022. Of that, 21 billion gallons has to come from advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol. All new biofuel production is required to meet aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets.

“Industrial biotechnology has greatly enhanced the efficiency of current biofuel production and made it possible to produce advanced biofuels from a broader range of cellulosic feedstocks, including crop residues. As America and countries across the world convert to bio-based fuels, industry leaders and policymakers must ensure that native habitats are protected and that only sustainable agricultural practices are utilized.”

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About BIO

BIO represents more than 1,150 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology technologies. BIO also produces the annual BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world.

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Contact:

Contact Paul Winters

202-962-9237,

Your credit card can help save the planet. That’s the message companies are pitching to consumers as they roll out new credit cards designed to cash in on people’s worries about global warming.

These “green” cards allow users to channel a percentage of their spending toward efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. General Electric Co.’s Earth Rewards MasterCard, launched in July by the company’s GE Money unit, targets as much as 1% of total spending on the card toward emission-reduction projects.Bank of America Corp. followed in November with its own green card, Brighter Planet Visa, which matches every dollar spent with one point that can be accumulated and traded in for “carbon offsets.” Carbon offsets are meant to reduce the impact of emissions made somewhere else — such as by planting trees. Additionally, Storm Lake, Iowa, savings bank MetaBank, a unit of Meta Financial Group Inc., in August launched its GreenPay MasterCard, which also allows users to accumulate carbon offsets with each purchase.[...]

Full article – Via : ©online.wsj.com

The economies of developing countries are energy intensive, and without energy security and affordable fuels, all efforts at social development are in vain. We are already seeing the truly catastrophic socio-economic effects of high oil prices on the poorest countries, some of which are now forced to spend up to six times more on importing oil than on health care and poverty alleviation. Asking such countries to make energy even more expensive by putting a carbon tax on fossil fuels or by capping emissions in order to fight climate change would be unacceptable to many of them. In fact, some energy experts have warned that in the medium term, high energy prices could indeed be more threatening to societies than climate change.

A Chinese top official, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui, made this crystal clear by saying Beijing will reject binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions at the UNFCCC’s global meeting in Bali next month, because developing countries must be allowed to use more energy and consequently raise emissions to fight poverty.

Full Article – Source : ©BioPact.com