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"It's not food, it's not fuel, it's China," said Jim Lane, editor of Biofuels Digest and author of the report.
The study determined that China's meat consumption since 1995 has increased by 112 percent to 53 kilograms per person per year.
"If the Chinese people had consumed the same amount of meat, per person, in 2007 as in 1995, there would have been enough grain left over to support 927 million people with food for an entire year," said Lane.
The study found that the U.S. increased corn production by 157 million tonnes of corn since 1995. 31 million net tonnes of grain went to support U.S. ethanol production, and 27 million tonnes supported a 15 percent increase in U.S. population during the period. By contrast, the study projected that livestock grain demand to supply Chinese meat consumption increased by 199 million tonnes between 1995 and 2007.
"Given that the U.S. population grew 15 percent, the 82 percent increase in U.S. corn production left plenty for
people, plenty for livestock, and plenty for ethanol," said Lane. "The bad news is that we have a global fuel and food crisis of the first magnitude. The only good news is that it's easier to find a steak in Beijing."
The study tracks the meteoric growth in Chinese meat consumption since 1983, a trend spotted early by commentator Lester Brown in his prescient article "Who Will Feed China?" In 1995, meat consumption was 25 kilograms per person, reaching 31 kilograms by 1999, 50 kilograms by 2000, and is 53 kilograms per person today.
"Chinese meat consumption is still 45 percent less than the average consumption in the U.S.," Lane warned. "An
additional 277 million tonnes of grain would be needed to support China at parity with the U.S. That would take 68
million acres to grow. There isn't that kind of arable land available anywhere is the world, whether we use grains for renewable energy or not."
The study is available for free download at http://www.biofuelsdigest.com.
Biofuels Digest provides a free daily summary of biofuels news via web, email and RSS to subscribers at more than 1500 organizations. The Digest is syndicated on Reuters, Fox Business News and other international media.
CONTACT:
Biofuels Digest
Jim Lane
jlane@biofuelsdigest.com
786-393-8530
NREL's fiber optic hydrogen sensor utilizes a non-ignitable, flexible, thin, glass or plastic, fiber optic strand that transmits light to a thin film material. The material changes color in response to the presence of hydrogen. The CRADA allows NREL and Nuclear Filter Technology to develop a full-scale prototype of this technology, which ultimately will result in commercially available products.
Applications include those for the following industries:
- Petrochemical
- Transportation
- Fuel cell
- Fuel production
- Food processing
- Natural gas
- Nuclear waste
Nuclear Filter Technology is also licensing several NREL inventions related to the fiber optic and thin film materials that sense the presence of hydrogen.
SOURCE: Technology Transfer department of National Renewable Energy LaboratoryOn the roof of the largest research building along the courtyard of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's new east campus, perches a 700-watt solar system. The combination of concentrating solar modules and a turntable tracker makes the photovoltaic system more efficient and less costly than conventional systems. In each module 24 reflectors focus sunlight onto 72 single-crystal silicon solar cells. The four 175-watt modules concentrate sunlight up to three times its normal strength, reducing by two-thirds the number of expensive silicon cells required to produce the same amount of electricity.
Solar Tracker
An inexpensive solar tracker keeps the modules facing the sun
throughout the day, theoretically increasing the energy output as much
as 35% in some regions. ORNL purchased and installed the system in
September 2007.
Hybrid Solar Lighting
The rooms at the top of a nearby four-story research building are illuminated by hybrid solar lighting. In this technology pioneered by ORNL, sunlight is piped into rooms through optical fibers, and intelligent sensors adjust artificial light levels needed by occupants during cloudy days.
Sunlight Direct of Oak Ridge is commercializing this technology, which has entered the demonstration phase with installed systems at locations owned by Wal-Mart, Staples, Battelle and San Diego State University.
Thin-Film Solar Cells
ORNL materials researchers using the plasma arc lamp hope to demonstrate elimination of defects from multicrystalline and amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells, which are less efficient than single-crystal solar cells but less expensive to make. Measurements of these processed materials will be made at the new Center for Advanced Thin-film Solar Cells. (See Research Horizons: A Renewed Interest)
The Department of Energy, is a major driver behind ORNL's expanded research in solar energy. Craig Cornelius, acting program manager of Solar Energy Technologies in DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, has indicated that greater funding for research to make solar materials more efficient and less expensive will be available to national laboratories.
ORNL, which boasts one of the world's leading materials research capabilities, proposes innovative basic technology research to help meet DOE solar materials challenges.
The Department of Energy has mandated that by 2013 7.5%
of all energy used at national laboratories
must be produced from renewable energy.
ORNL plans to install more photovoltaic panels, perhaps as solar walkways and solar roofs over parking lots, and possibly biomassfired boilers, to help achieve that goal.
Cornelius, who leads the Solar America Initiative as part of the
President's Advanced Energy Initiative, has stated that DOE's goal is
to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of
electricity by 2015. DOE predicts that by 2015, solar energy will
produce 15 gigawatts, enough to power 11.2 million American homes.
Read more about Solar Energy Research
(left) Researchers
hike Yellowstone National Park, left, on the hunt for microbes that
could potentially be used in bioenergy production.
(right) They analyze the samples back home in the lab
Bioenergy from Microscopic Organisms
Oak Ridge National Laboratory microbiologist Tommy Phelps sees the untapped potential of bioenergy in shelves of bottles and beakers containing microscopic organisms that just might hold the elusive bug or enzyme capable of digesting large quantities of plant matter into ethanol.
Phelps's current batch of microbes, stockpiled in dozens of bottles of
silt, rocks and soils, was collected from Yellowstone National Park,
where the hot springs that draw millions of summertime visitors also
nurture microscopic life in their boiling waters. These bugs, in turn,
beckon microbiologists like Phelps, who seek a solution to transform
Earth's abundant cellulosic sources into a modern energy supply.
Yellowstone's warm waters offer the promise of microbes that can
rapidly and efficiently degrade cellulose—the woody, leafy matter that
makes up plants. Scientists hope to tap the power of these microbes for
industrial-scale consolidated bioprocessing of plants, including trees
and switchgrass, the species central to the BioEnergy Science Center's
research efforts.
BioEnergy Science Center
The hunt for this cellulosic "super bug" is part of a suite of efforts
under way at the BioEnergy Science Center, headquartered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Since
being named one of three $135 million Department of Energy bioenergy
research centers, researchers at ORNL and its partner institutions have
quickly gotten to work.
DOE's ambitious goal is to replace by 2030
one-third of the nation's transportation fuel with cellulosebased
sources. At these centers, researchers are carrying out the targeted,
fundamental science needed to bridge the gap between the potential of
cellulose-based fuels and their reality.
Current microbes and enzymes are relatively slow at attacking plant matter's complicated and protective structure. Researchers will determine precisely the genes involved in the interaction of the microbes and enzymes to break apart cellulose. Other genes responsible for producing undesirable products, such as acetic acids, will be knocked out in the hope of, ultimately, developing the perfect ethanol-manufacturing microbe. Particular enzymes will be isolated as well and genetically analyzed, with a focus on determining the ideal formula of enzyme or microbe and enzyme to serve as the vehicle for cellulosic ethanol production.
Plants with Good Biofuel Sugars
Microbes, however, are just a piece of the puzzle. Other researchers at the Oak Ridge center are going through similar steps to develop plants with qualities most conducive to processing into biofuel. Similar to the microbial work, researchers will analyze thousands of genetically modified switchgrass and poplar tree samples in order to discover and develop the best varieties for ethanol production. As part of the process, the biofeedstock, together with the microbes and the enzymes, will be joined in a complex matrix of analysis and R&D in order to develop the best biofuel recipe.
On the biomass formation side, the partners will produce samples of plant material genetically altered to modify their cell walls for optimum breakdown into usable sugars. Such altered species might feature lower amounts of lignin—the substance that holds cellulose fibers together—or a reduction in the crystallinity of the cellulose. ArborGen and ORNL will be primarily responsible for creating and studying various altered trees, while scientists from the University of Tennessee, the University of Georgia and the Noble Foundation will take the lead in switchgrass research.
Read more at ORNL
Time: 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Location: Corporate Offices of the International Association of Nanotechnology
1290 Parkmoor Avenue, San Jose, CA 95126
Speaker: Heidi Livingston Eisips, Founder, Korala Consulting
Topic: "Cleantech and the Bottom Line"
Join the Clean Tech Institute and the International Association of Nanotechnology for a Nano Lunch focused on the latest commercial applications of clean technology. Guest speaker Heidi Eisips with Korala Consulting, will discuss how cutting-edge clean tech is impacting the bottom line of businesses in Silicon Valley and beyond.
About the Speaker
Heidi Livingston Eisips is a sustainability consultant and seasoned business professional with over twenty years of international experience managing and growing entrepreneurial ventures, solutions, brands, and alliances.
Registration: $10 for non-members. Free for Ianano members.
Please complete the online registration form: http://nanotechcongress.com/registration-nanolunch.htm
For more information, please contact us at 408-280-6266 or email to info@ianano.org
Alisha White
International Association of Nanotechnology
1290 Parkmoor Ave.
San Jose, CA 95126
awhite@ianano.org
www.ianano.org
The plant currently gets half of it’s 100 megawatts of energy from an onsite gas turbine. BP’s proposed facility would cover the other half.
Last summer, BP erected at least five test towers about five miles from the P&G substation with an interest in possibly building a 30-90 wind turbine facility.
The challenge is to bring the cost down. And that's 1336 Technologies' mission.
1336 Technologies is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinout company that has a new cell architecture that uses low-cost fabrication methods to increase the efficiency of multi-crystalline solar cells.
Plans include building industrial-scale, 100 megawatt plants around the world. Their architecture, developed at MIT, improves surface texture and metallization to enhance silicon solar cell efficiency by 25% (from 15 - 19%) while lowering costs. 1366 Technologies will partner with solar companies and government agencies, licensing its technology to accelerate the ongoing global transition to solar.
Aiming to make silicon solar cells competitive with coal, 1336 Technologies has raised $12.4 million in Series A funding.
MIT Professor, 1366 founder and CTO, Ely Sachs, noted that 1366 Technologies will be combining innovations in silicon cell architecture with manufacturing process improvements to bring multi-crystalline silicon solar cells to cost parity with coal-based electricity.
Sachs added, "The science is understood, the raw materials are abundant and the products work. All that is left to do is innovate in manufacturing and scale up volume production, and that's just what we intend to do." The company has just taken space to build its pilot solar cell manufacturing facility. Private Equity Hub
Professor Sachs previously invented the String ribbon wafer technology being commercialized at Evergreen Solar, a leading developer of solar energy products. Both a founder and investor in 1366 Technologies, Sachs is taking a leave of absence from MIT to help build the company based on research developed at and licensed from MIT.
Financial Opportunities for Renewable Energy - from DOE
The US Department of Energy's Green Power Network maintains a website
with listings of solicitations for renewable energy generation,
renewable energy certificates, and green power.
This green power financial opportunities list
is maintained as a courtesy to web site visitors.
Unless otherwise noted, these requests for proposals (RFPs) and solicitations are neither supported nor endorsed by the U.S. Department of Energy, Green Power Network.
Some examples of CALIFORNIA opportunities include:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) (Sol# USDA-RD-RUS-HECG08) is offering up to $6.8 million through its High Energy Cost Grant Program for developing renewable energy generation in rural communities.
- Antelope Valley Water Storage, LLC RFP seeking eligible renewable energy resources to meet California RPS requirements.
- PacifiCorp RFP seeking up to 200 MW of eligible renewable energy resources (power purchase agreements or 'build-own-transfer' only) to meet California RPS requirements.
- Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) RFP seeking eligible renewable energy resources to meet California RPS requirements.
- San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) RFP seeking eligible renewable energy resources to meet California RPS requirements.
- Southern California Edison Company RFP seeking eligible renewable energy resource within the CAISO Control Area (preferred) to meet California RPS requirements.
- Pacific Power is offering funds through the Blue Sky Award Fund for renewable energy resources within its service area.
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company RFP seeking up to 1,600,000 MWh of eligible renewable energy resources to meet California RPS requirement. Notice of Intent to Bid due by March 14, 2008.
Would you like to receive these listings by email?
Sign-up to receive RFP Updates
To receive notification of new green power RFPs via email, please fill in the information requested on the DOE webpage.RFP Submissions
If you would like to recommend or submit a Green Power RFP, forward relevant information to green_power@nrel.gov.The Zymetis process can make ethanol and other biofuels from many different types of plants and plant waste called cellulosic sources. Cellulosic biofuels can be made from non-grain plant sources such as waste paper, brewing byproducts, leftover agriculture products, including straw, corncobs and husks, and energy crops such as switchgrass.
When fully operational, the Zymetis process could potentially lead to the production of 75 billion gallons a year of carbon-neutral ethanol.
The secret to the Zymetis process is a Chesapeake Bay marsh grass bacterium, S. degradans. Hutcheson found that the bacterium has an enzyme that could quickly break down plant materials into sugar, which can then be converted to biofuel.
The Zymetis researchers were unable to isolate the Bay bacterium again in nature, but they discovered how to produce the enzyme in their own laboratories. The result was Ethazyme, which degrades the tough cell walls of cellulosic materials and breaks down the entire plant material into bio-fuel ready sugars in one step, at a significantly lower cost and with fewer caustic chemicals than current methods.
Hutcheson projects a $5 billion enzyme market for biofuels. The energy bill passed by the U.S. Senate in 2007 mandates oil companies to blend in 21 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol with their gasoline by 2022.
Zymetis, Inc. is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel enzyme products derived from unique organisms to achieve lower costs, and improved yields. www.zymetis.com
