BIOFUELS Tales of the Unexpected

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BIOFUELS Tales of the Unexpected?
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• STATE OF THE PLANET
• Human population 6bn, rising to 9bn
• Food supplies under threat
• Economic growth
• Personal prosperity and mobility
• Security energy, water, food, climate
• Car population 750m rising to ???
• Growing pressure on biosphere

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• BIOFUELS 15 APRIL 2008 BIOFOOLS DAY
• UK Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation
• 2.5 of forecourt fuels must be from renewable
  sources
• UK target for 2010 is 5
• EU Biofuels Directive's target is 10 by 2020
• USA target is 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol by
  2012, and 36 billion gallons by 2022

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• BIOFUELS WHY?
• Make the oil last longer?
• Reduce emissions from transport?
• OR
• Keep the farmers happy?
• Avoid confronting car manufacturers about
  efficiency?
• Avoid telling drivers to cut back?
• Avoid proper town and transport planning?

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Does it run on biofuel?
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• BIOFUELS THE CONCEPT
• Burning petrol or diesel or kerosene produces
  CO2
• Growing plants absorb CO2
• Burn fuel thats grown now instead of fossil
  fuels
• Neutralise CO2 emissions by growing new fuel
  crops
• Keep the same transport system
• Keep the same fuel distribution system
• A win-win situation or are there unintended
  consequences?

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• BIOFUELS THE ISSUES
• Questionable if they reduce greenhouse gases
• Is the energy balance positive?
• Strain on global agricultural system
• Business demands high yields - monoculture and
  GM?
• Pressure on water supplies, fears of topsoil
  erosion
• Deforestation and other land use change
• Habitat and biodiversity destruction
• Social upheaval for indigenous peoples
• Agriculture is very poor way to harvest solar
  energy (9 calories used to make 1 food calorie)
• Is there land and water to grow enough fuel to
  make a difference?

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• BIOFUELS THE BAD BITS
• Palm oil 8 per cent of global CO2 emissions is
  caused by draining and deforesting peat lands in
  South East Asia, largely for oil palm
  plantations. Land used is often taken from
  indigenous peoples.
• Soya South America tropical rainforest is
  cleared, wiping out 80-100 per cent of the
  biodiversity. Much soya is genetically modified.
• Sugar Cane Brazil, the biggest producer of
  sugar cane has cleared huge areas of savannah
  lands, destroying much biodiversity. Labour
  conditions on sugar cane plantations are often
  appalling.
• Oil seed rape High fertiliser input means that
  the EUs preferred biofuel crop may be up to 70
  per cent worse for the climate than fossil fuels.
• Maize The big incentives to grow maize for
  biofuel in the USA have been blamed for rising
  corn prices. Production of cereals for beef
  cattle is displaced from US to other countries.

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• BIOFUELS GHG EMISSIONS
• The production of biofuels is not GHG-free
• Diesel for tractors, heat for refineries, diesel
  for ships and trucks etc to move raw materials
  and finished product all produce CO2
• No-one knows for certain if these outweigh the
  benefits.

• But fertiliser use probably tips the balance.
• Maize and rapeseed yields are typically enhanced
  by using nitrogen fertilisers in bulk. Nitrous
  oxides are then released to the atmosphere.
• Paul J. Crutzen, 1995 Nobel prize winner for
  chemistry, said in 2007
• Biodiesel produced from rapeseed can result in
  up to 70 percent more greenhouse gas emissions
  than burning fossil fuel diesel. Ethanol made
  from maize results in 50 percent more emissions.
• (nitrous oxide reflects 300 times as much heat as
  CO2)

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• BIOFUELS LAND USE CHANGE IMPACTS
• Professors Alex Farrell and Michael O'Hare from
  the University of California at Berkeley in Jan
  2008
• If corn grown on conservation reserve program
  land is used for ethanol, total lifecycle
  emissions, including indirect LUC, are
• 2.4 x gasoline
• If replacing corn used for ethanol causes
  tropical deforestation, total lifecycle
  emissions, including indirect LUC, are
• Over 6 x gasolineRenewable diesel using palm
  oil has total lifecycle emissions,including
  indirect LUC, of
• 2.3 x diesel

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THE EFFECT OF LAND USE CHANGES ON GHG EMISSIONS

• Brazilian officials said Amazon destruction
  surged during the last five months of 2007
• Deforestation rose from 94 square miles in
  August to 366 square miles in December
• Deforestation causes 25 of atmospheric GHG
  increase

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Grow
Plough
Harvest
Fertilise
Ship
Energy
Energy
Energy
Energy
Energy
Ship
Sell
Store
Refine
Use
Store
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• BIOFUELS ENERGY BALANCE
• Energy is needed to grow plants and turn them
  into fuels
• If greater than the energy produced by fuel
  there is a negative energy balance
• Doubts that all biofuels give a positive balance
  or a worthwhile positive balance

• David Pimentel and Tad Patzek concluded that all
  crops converted using current processing methods
  gave a negative energy balance
• return is 0.778 unit of energy in maize ethanol,
• 0.688 unit in switchgrass ethanol,
• 0.636 unit in wood ethanol
• 0.534 unit in soya bean biodiesel.

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• BIOFUELS SUSTAINABILITY CRITERIA
• European Commissions position (Jan 2008)
• Land use - old forest with no or limited human
  intervention cannot be used for biofuels
  cultivation, nor can 'highly biodiverse
  grasslands', or lands with a 'high carbon stock'
  like wetlands or 'pristine peatlands
• CO2 impact - the overall greenhouse gas (GHG)
  savings from biofuels production must be at least
  35 in order for cultivation to be considered
  sustainable.
• Rewards for diversifying the feedstocks such as
  ligno-cellulosic material for the production of
  second generation biofuels.

But no consideration of the impact of Biofuels on
food production, water supplies and on indigenous
peoples welfare. Nor any means to stop fuel
crops being grown on existing farmed land, and
forests etc being cleared to replace the lost
food land.
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• BIOFUELS - ALGAE
• Biofuel yields gallons/acre
• Corns 50-60
• Soya 48
• Oil Palm 635
• Algae 5,000 - 10,000 gallon/acre
• Algae is a single celled plant - highest uptake
  of CO2
• Can double its mass in a day harvest daily not
  annually
• Can use contaminated water supplies and
  infertile land
• Power plant flue gases used to promote growth
  recover 30 of waste heat into new fuel,
  absorbing CO2 and NOx to mitigate climate change
• Suitable for making ethanol, diesel, and other
  hydrocarbons, including biomass for burning

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• BIOFUELS CELLULOSE
• (or SECONDGENERATION)
• Plants contain starches (sugars), cellulose,
  proteins and lignin. Starches / sugars are used
  for first generation biofuels
• Second generation biofuels are made from
  cellulose and lignin - by nature tough and harder
  to break down than starches
• Can use non-food crops like switchgrass as well
  as food-crop waste and wood waste
• Cellulosic biomass can produce many different
  liquid and gaseous fuels.
• Conversion processes can be either
  thermo-chemical or biological

In theory 2nd generation looks better than using
food crops, but nothing is working yet on an
industrial scale. It doesnt follow that
profitable 1st generation biofuels will stimulate
2nd generation to replace it.
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BIOFUELS competing with food
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• FOOD PRODUCTION IS NOT KEEPING PACE WITH
  POPULATION
• In the period 1996 to 2006
• Total world agricultural production increased by
  2.2 pa
• Global population grew 13.5
• Food shortages and prices rose dramatically in
  2007/2008
• Food riots in Haiti, Egypt, Mexico, The
  Philippines
• Governments ban exports of rice
• Rice price doubled in last 12 months
• World Food Programme issues urgent call for help
  (500m)
• Gordon Brown accepts Biofuels are part of the
  cause
• Government food aid programmes are another
  biofuel subsidy

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• FOOD and FUEL CALORIES
• In 2008
• Total world food consumption 3300 million
  million Calories
• Total world car petrol consumption 7000
  million million Calories
• In 2020
• Total world food consumption 3500 million
  million Calories
• Total world car petrol consumption 7500
  million million Calories
• If 10 of Car Calories come from Biofuels,
  Calories to be grown will be 20 higher in 2020
  than otherwise

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• BIOFUELS A PROBLEM WHO SAYS?
• Lester Brown the US is generating global food
  insecurity on a scale never seen before. In a
  misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by
  converting its grain into fuel for cars, the
  United States is driving up food prices
  worldwide.
• Hilary Benn We know from the evidence that we
  have currently we have some types - ethanol from
  corn which is even worse than the petrol it is
  meant to be replacing
• Prof Bob Watson, DEFRA chief scientist "it
  would obviously be insane if we had a policy to
  try and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through
  the use of biofuels that's actually leading to an
  increase in the greenhouse gases from biofuels
• UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon "We need to
  be concerned about the possibility of taking land
  or replacing arable land because of these
  biofuels"
• Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur on Food
  the growing practice of turning crops into
  biofuel is a crime against humanity
• European Commission Joint Research Centre
  "uncertainty is too great to say whether the EU
  10 percent biofuel target will save greenhouse
  gas or not."

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• BIOFUELS in NUMBERS
• 100,000 the number of cars that could be
  powered by used chip fat in the UK (0.4 of all
  UK cars)
• 25 the proportion of our car fuel that could
  be produced in Britain if ALL land was dedicated
  to fuel crops
• 15 the proportion of arable land in the EU to
  be given over to Biofuel production by 2020

• 150,000 how many coconuts were used to
  part-fuel the Virgin green flight
  London-Amsterdam. 0.75 million would have been
  needed to make all the fuel.

• 1 - the solar energy captured by plant
  photosynthesis. 20 - the solar energy captured
  by concentrating solar power

• 20 - the subsidy given by UK Govt to Biodiesel
  producers
• 3 Million tonnes UK wheat deficit by 2010 if
  plans for ethanol refineries go ahead. Currently
  we are just in surplus.

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BIOFUELS - STOP PRESS March 2008 Canada bans use
of distillers grains from bio-ethanol
production as cattle feed too many residual
chemicals

• Splash and Dash Subsidised US B99 Biodiesel
  (99 Bio) imports to the EU make up 10 of
  current EU consumption. Shippers get generous tax
  credits for blending soya and palm-oil biodiesel
  with 1 mineral diesel. Undermines UK and EU
  Biodiesel producers.

13 March 2008 Ruth Kelly announces review by RFA
under Ed Gallagher. To look at the available
evidence on the indirect effects of biofuels on
land use change both within the EU and
internationally and the consequences for GHG
savings. It will also examine the effects of an
increasing market for fuel crops on international
food prices and food security. (initial report 27
June 08)
3 April 2008 Around 330,000 cars made by German
manufacturers, plus more than 2 million imported
cars, are unable to run on the new E10 fuel.
Plans for E10 may be scrapped or delayed.
15 April 2008 Gordon Brown urges boost in oil
production
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• OUR FOSSIL FUEL LEGACY
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• Carboniferous period 280 to 345 million years
  ago
• In this 65 million year period, the remains of
  plants and animals were converted to oil, coal
  and gas
• We started using them in earnest only about 200
  years ago - at current rates, we will burn most
  of them in 1000 years.
• Effectively we burn many thousands of years
  worth of fossilised biomass every year

• Can we really grow 5 or 10 of our transport
  fuel needs every year without any impacts on the
  planet?

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• ALTERNATIVES?
• Travel less rethink lifestyles and town
  planning
• More efficient cars (the US plan to use 7.5 bn
  gallons of ethanol in 2012 could be matched by an
  increase of car mileage by just ONE mpg.)
• Greater use of LPG for cars 15 less CO2 than
  petrol
• Electric cars huge capital investment, too
  expensive for China / India?
• Better public transport
• Grow your own food
• AND?

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To find out more
www.savetheorangutan.co.uk (Borneo Orangutan
Survival UK)
www.biofuelwatch.org.uk http//tech.groups.yahoo.c
om/group/biofuelwatch/ http//ga3.org/campaign/agr
ofuelsmoratorium www.gwfoe.org.uk/main/briefings.h
tml
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QUESTIONS PLEASE
If you look closely, theres still some Arctic ice