EU-DIGEST

Green Fuels, Cars Get Boost from Cow Pie Power, the Queen and New EV Charging Hub

The drive to green mobility got a boost into the New Year with news of heightened efforts to produce fuels from a variety of waste products, word that Queen Elizabeth's Bentleys are going green and the launch of an electric vehicle charging network in Northern California. Exploration of the power of poop, both bovine and human, made news in the U.S. and Japan. The energy chief for the state of Idaho, the third-largest milk-producer in the U.S., is looking to go big with the conversion of cow pies to natural gas that can power cars or homes, in addition to using the stuff to run turbines that would create electricity and recycling processed manure as plant bedding.

In Japan, the race toward green mobility is focusing on development of mass-produced zero-emission cars. Various firms have announced plans to have specific market launches as early as 2010 with widespread availability in 2012. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. says its iMiEV electric car is due to hit the market next year — which Nissan has also tagged as its launch year for electric cars in Japan and the United States.

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Labels: Alternative fuels, Automotive Industry, Biofuels, EU, US

Earthrace attempt delayed by EU Customs

The 78 foot wave piercing powered catamaran Earthrace is preparing for its second attempt on the Round the World record. The attempt start date was scheduled for March 29th but has been delayed. A shipment of the Spanish supplied 100% biofuel that needs to be in several of the refueling stops around the world ready for Earthrace to arrive, has been delayed by EU customs, forcing the team to delay their record attempt. The revised date for the start, which will still be in Spain, has been rescheduled to take place in approximately three weeks time.

Circumnavigating the globe represents the pinnacle of powerboat challenges, and at more than 24,000 nautical miles is the world’s longest speed challenge. The current record holder is British boat ‘Cable and Wireless Adventurer’ who took the record in a time of 75 days in 1998. One the first of June last year the biodiesel powered trimaran Earthrace has abandoned her first round the world record attempt. Fueled entirely on 100% biodiesel and with a net zero carbon footprint, Earthrace is a showcase of environmentally friendly technologies such as low-emissions engines, non-toxic anti-foul (underwater paint) and an extremely fuel efficient hull design. From the start in Valencia, the boat will cross the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans and travel through the Panama and Suez Canals as it thunders around the planet’s circumference at a maximum speed of 40 knots.

Labels: Biofuels, Earthrace, EU, Powerboats

Netherlands, Brazil to Cooperate on Biofuels

On April 11, the Netherlands and Brazil signed an agreement to share knowledge about the production and transport of biofuels during a state visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to The Hague.The Netherlands sees itself as a potentially key transit point to transport Brazilian ethanol biofuels to rest of the EU countries. The EU has committed itself to increase its renewable energy use by 20% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, with biofuels to make up 10% of all transport fuels used by then.

Labels: Biofuels, Brazil, EU, Netherlands

Don't burn food: biofuels standards needed now

Each day, 820 million people in the developing world do not have enough food to eat1. Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from Mexico2 to Morocco3. And the World Food Program warned last week that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the world's worst-off. How are the wealthiest countries responding? They're burning food. Specifically, they're using more and more biofuels--alcohol made from plant products, used in place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a way to slow down climate change. But in reality, because so much land is being cleared to grow them, most biofuels today are causing more global warming emissions than they prevent, even as they push the price of corn, wheat, and other foods out of reach for millions of people.Not all biofuels are bad--but without tough global standards, the biofuels boom will further undermine food security and worsen global warming.

It's time to move: this Friday through Saturday, the twenty countries with the biggest economies, responsible for more than 75% of the world's carbon emissions, will meet in Chiba, Japan to begin the G8's climate change discussions.

Before the summit, it is time to raise a global cry for change on biofuels: go to: http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60268287
A call for change before this week's summit won't end the food crisis, or stop global warming. But it's a critical first step. By confronting false solutions and demanding real ones, we can show our leaders that we want to do the right thing, not the easy thing.

Labels: Biofuels, EU, G8, Global warming, Japan, US

Fish farming goes urban thanks to Israeli ingenuity - by Karin Kloosterman

There's nothing fishy about it. Israeli Prof. Yonathan Zohar has spent a lifetime researching fish production and has a solution that might stop the world's dramatic decline in fisheries. Hip "green" environmentalists and sushi lovers will like it too.

Using advanced concepts of microbiology, Zohar has entrained special microbes to live in symbiosis with the fish in order to digest their waste. Aerated by plastic plugs that house the microbes, the fish pools are bio-secure and contaminant free, according to Zohar. In addition, part of the solid waste that is created by uneaten food or microbial byproducts is converted into methane and used as biofuel, says Zohar. This is significant. Zohar was one of the original team to develop the technology of fish farming in floating cages at sea in Israel. These cages have become deeply controversial because the waste created by the farmed fish pollutes the surrounding seawater. In addition, the waters where the fish are raised are often heavily polluted with heavy metals such as mercury, leading to problems such as the recent toxic sushi scare in the US. "I am trying to develop the next generation technology, to address cages and nets in light of environmental concerns," he says. "It is clear we are over-harvesting the ocean and running out of fish. We've focused on an alternative land-based method that can be used in the urban environment."

Labels: Alternative Energy, Biofuels, biomass

Biomass fuel creates jobs; nuclear exports them

The Finns have researched, developed, and implemented methods for cost-effective utilization of biomass fuels. Their procurement is not that expensive. For example, the delivered cost for harvesting of renewable peat and forest wastes, their only indigenous fuel, is now below $14 Can per megawatt (one megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts). Canada's natural gas costs range from $35 to $40 per megawatt. Can cost for generating electricity via the nuclear technology compare with this? Nuclear energy is definitely not without pollution. There may not be atmospheric pollution on a continuing basis similar to that in coal-fired power plants where effective flue-gas cleaning techniques have not been installed. With nuclear there already exists pollution and serious health problems associated with mining, notwithstanding what could happen with the plants themselves.With biomass fuelled power plants, we not only have more control, but more importantly, we can create continuing employment opportunities in the harvesting, processing and proper management of our natural resources.

Labels: Alternative Energy, Biofuels, biomass

The Future of Biofuels: A Global Perspective -biofuel production tripled between 2000 and 2007- by William Coyle

With near record oil prices, the future of biofuel—made from plant material—is of keen interest worldwide. Global biofuel production has tripled from 4.8 billion gallons in 2000 to about 16.0 billion in 2007, but still accounts for less than 3 percent of the global transportation fuel supply. About 90 percent of production is concentrated in the United States, Brazil, and the European Union (EU). Production could become more dispersed if development programs in other countries, such as Malaysia and China, are successful. The leading raw materials, or feedstocks, for producing biofuels are corn, sugar, and vegetable oils.

Labels: Alternative Energy, Biofuels, biomass

The European Union bans certain biofuel sources in draft law

Amidst renewed fears over the impact of biofuels on the environment, which a recent Royal Society report warned could “do more harm than good,” the European Union has issued a draft law that would propose a ban on the imports of bio fuels derived from crops grown on certain types of land — such as forests, wetlands and grasslands. It would also require them to deliver a — as yet undetermined — “minimum level of greenhouse gas savings.” Palm oil is cited by many as a particularly insidious source of biofuel because of the unacceptable environmental and societal costs it incurs.

Labels: Biofuels, Environment, EU

Germany plans long-term rise in biofuels blending

Germany said on Wednesday it planned a long-term increase in biofuel blending to counter global warming, but the finance ministry said it would continue to raise taxes on biofuels which are reducing their usage.
Presenting a joint biofuels strategy agreed between the government, the automobile industry, oil companies and the farming sector, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Germany planned to raise the level of biofuels blended into fossil diesel and gasoline to 10 percent from 5 percent now by 2010.

Labels: Biofuels, EU, Germany

Winery scraps to help feed electricity venture

An Ontario bioenergy firm is counting a winery among its partners in a process that will see electricity created from grape byproducts. Inniskillin Wines hopes to convert up to 2,000 tonnes of byproducts like grape skins and seeds that would otherwise end up in a landfill leaking methane gas into the atmosphere. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, but if captured, can be used as a fuel to produce electricity.

Need more information on producing electricity from organic waste at your cattle farm or fruit processing facility? Contact Morren Mondial Associates, Inc. at: mma@europehouse.com.

Labels: Biofuels

EU WARNS BRAZIL ON THE IMPACT OF BIOFUELS - by Jonathan Stearns

The European Union said Brazil must protect farms and forests at home to pry open biofuel markets abroad, seeking to prevent a clean-air campaign from causing land damage. Brazil, a pioneer in developing biofuels including ethanol, is counting on export growth as Europe, the U.S. and Asia try to reduce the use of higher-polluting oil. The EU wants biofuels, made from crops such as sugar and grain, to make up 10 percent of transport fuel by 2020 from a planned 5.75 percent in 2010.

``We can't allow the switch to biofuels to become an environmentally unsustainable stampede in the developing world,'' EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told a conference today in Brussels. ``Europeans won't pay a premium for biofuels if the ethanol in their car is produced unsustainably by systematically burning fields after harvests. Or if it comes at the expense of rainforests.''

Labels: Biofuels, Brazil, EU