Biodiesel is a renewable diesel fuel substitute that can be made by chemically combining any natural oil or fat with an alcohol such as methanol or ethanol. Methanol has been the most commonly used alcohol in the commercial production of biodiesel. In Europe, biodiesel is widely available in both its neat form (100% biodiesel, also known as B100) and in blends with petroleum diesel. Most European biodiesel is made from rapeseed oil (a cousin of canola oil).
KDF Search Results
Biomass is a significant contributor to the US economy--agriculture, forest and paper products, food and related products account for 5% of our GDP. While the forest products industry self generates some of their energy, other sectors are importers. Bioenergy can contribute to economic development and to the environment. Examples of bioenergy routes suggest that atmospheric carbon can be cycled through biofuels in carefully designed systems for sustainability. Significant potential exists for these options.
The need for new criteria and indicators for the assessment of biodiversity conservation as part of sustainable forest management of tropical forests has been identified as a priority by many international organisations. Those biodiversity criteria and indicators which formed part of a much broader initial assessment by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) (Prabhu et al. 1996) were found to be deficient. This Working Paper contains specific proposals for biodiversity criteria and indicators.
Funded from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office.
A life cycle assessment (LCA) on coal-fired power systems has been conducted to assess the environmental effects on a cradle-to-grave basis. Three different designs were studied: (1) a plant that represents the average emissions from coal-fired power plants in the U.S. today, (2) a plant that meets the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), and (3) an advanced plant incorporating a low emission boiler system (LEBS).
Limited fuel availability is a critical factor in the marketability of new fuels. A survey of us households is used to estimate the value of fuel availability and its influence on choice of fuel for a fuel-flexible vehicle and the choice of a dedicated-fuel engine for a vehicle. The marginal value of availability decreases as the percent of stations offering a new fuel increases. For fuel-flexible vehicles the cost of lack of availability decreases from us $0.35/gallon at 1% to US $0.02/gallon when 50% of stations offer the fuel.
The potential environmental effects of operating a commercial-scale biomass-to-ethanol plant include both the on-site and off-site impacts surrounding the production facility.
Electric power production from biomass has the potential to make significant contributions to the power mix in the U.S., and to do so with substantially fewer environmental impacts than current technologies. Using dedicated energy crops for power production will significantly close the carbon cycle, reduce and stabilize feedstock costs, increase the feasible size of biomass power plants, and provide economic benefits to agricultural communities.
This socioeconomic report reviews the local, regional and statewide implications of building and operating a forest biomass to ethanol manufacturing facility at specified sites in the Quincy Library Group area (Lassen, Plumas and Sierra counties in the Sierra Nevada) or other sites in Northern California. The report first sets the current socioeconomic context in this natural resource dependent area. It then reviews the effect of an ethanol plant on employment, personnel incomes, state and local taxes, construction jobs, and local infrastructure (particularly roads, schools and utilities).
This working paper contains proposals for specific genetic criteria and indicators (C&I) which are expected to be part of a more general set of biological C&I. These proposals are intended for use in guiding tropical forest management but the indicators and verifiers we describe are not in the form of simple prescriptions where a single measurement can be recommended for a single causal effect.
Estimates of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) are used extensively in transportation planning for allocating resources, estimating vehicle emissions, computing energy consumption, and assessing traffic impact. The estimates used in these applications usually come from different sources. For an objective comparison of VMT estimates from different methods, the principles and assumptions supporting the methods and the potential sources of error associated with the methods must be clearly understood.
Human actions are altering the terrestrial environment at unprecedented rates, magnitudes, and spatial scales. Landcover change stemming from human land uses represents a major source and a major element of global environmental change. Not only are the global-level data on landuse and land-cover change relatively poor, but we need a much better understanding of the underlying driving forces for these changes. Many forces have been proposed as significant, but single-factor explanations of land transformation have proved to be inadequate.
Large-scale modeling systems have long been viewed as potentially valuable tools for evaluating farm policy. They have received increased attention in recent years, in part because of the added complexity of U.S. farm programs and the fuller integration of the U.S. farm sector with nonfarm sectors and world agricultural commodity markets. Instability in the world economy, changed macroeconomic policies, credit and debt positions, and agricultural trade regulations have significant impacts on U.S. agriculture in the short run and more pronounced long-run implications.
Construction of the Sapphire Energy Integrated Algal Biorefinery (IABR) began in June 2011 in Luna County, near Columbus, New Mexico. Sapphire Energy was awarded a $50 million grant from the Department of Energy and a $54.4 million dollar loan guarantee from the Department of Agriculture, which were used to help fund the IABR.
Through a partnership with Earthrise Nutritionals, the first algal strain grown was Spirulina. Following this, strain SE00107 (Desmodesmus sp.) was cultivated continuously for over 22 months. In 2014, Sapphire Energy transitioned to cultivation of Nannochloropsis. The IABR produced over 500 tonnes of algal biomass.
From 2009-2017, Sapphire Energy also operated the Las Cruces Test Site (LCTS) in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where strains and processes were tested prior to use at the IABR. The LCTS also provided technical support to the IABR for various activities such as Quality Assurance/Quality Control and crop protection. The Process Development unit used to convert algal biomass to crude oil was also sited at the LCTS and produced over 2000 gallons of "Green Crude" that had many of the properties found in fossil crude oil.
In 2017, the IABR was sold to Green Stream Farms, who continue to cultivate algae on the site.
The files provided here contain various published and unpublished observations, reports, procedures, and design documents related to algal cultivation at the two New Mexico sites.
Bioenergy Category
Biofuel Production
Supporting Data
BETO develops and maintains example conceptual design cases with analysis for feedstock production, feedstocks logistics, and conversion to a specific fuel and, where economical, coproduct(s) and biopower. Each design case is based on specific design reports for feedstock technologies and conversion components of the pathway. Design cases provide engineering-based goal-year projections and R&D technical targets based on techno-economic analysis (TEA) across the supply chain accompanied by a whole supply chain sustainability analysis (SCSA) of that configuration.
Technology pathway designs may be selected as candidates for process integration and possibly for experimental verification at engineering and/or pilot scale after component technologies are deemed sufficiently developed. The technology pathways are not meant to serve as a business model, but are used to guide and focus R&D on the largest cost and sustainability barriers, as well as inform stakeholders and researchers of quantitative progress on specific pathway elements.
Bioenergy Category
Biofuel Production
The Sun Grant Initiative is a national network of land-grant universities and federally funded laboratories working together to further establish a biobased economy. These institutes are at the forefront of research and innovation involving bioenergy and biofuels production. They have the history, technology, and resources available to lead the nation towards a renewable, sustainable, domestic energy industry.
BECCS is one strategy to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. To assess the potential scale and cost of CO2 sequestration from BECCS in the US, this analysis models carbon sequestration net of supply chain emissions and costs of biomass production, delivery, power generation, and CO2 capture and sequestration in saline formations. The analysis includes two biomass supply scenarios (near-term and long-term), two biomass logistics scenarios (conventional and pelletized), and two generation technologies (pulverized combustion and integrated gasification combined cycle).