Energy Business Daily

Brazil has proposed to create an environmental seal for its biofuel exports.

The Brazilian government has proposed a scheme whereby it would offer an environmental seal of approval for its biofuel exports. While this is a response to possible punitive measures against current production methods, the certification scheme provides an innovative approach to the biofuels problem, and offers fuel retailers a means of differentiating themselves from their competitors.

In order to counter the dwindling support for biofuels, Brazil, the world's largest exporter of the alternative fuel, has proposed the creation of an environmental seal of approval for its ethanol exports. The seal would provide importers with a guarantee that the biofuels have been produced in an ethical manner while following the strictest environmental regulations.

The government scheme is a response to criticism of biofuels, which has been mounting over the last few months. Indeed, a number of European countries have voiced concerns that rather than being an environmentally friendly policy, the EU's target to raise the use of biofuels to account for 10% of road fuel use by 2020 could actually damage the environment.

In the UK, a government committee on the environment has recently published a report that calls for the production of biofuels in their current form to cease until the environmental impact of their production improves. Concerned about claims that current biofuels production methods are damaging the environment, the French government has also asked the agency for environment and energy to review the technology available for second generation biofuels.

Read more about Biomass to Biofuels Market Potential
The EU also seems uncertain of the long-term effects of the fuel, and has proposed that only biofuels that cut greenhouse gasses by at least 35% relative to fossil fuels should be sanctioned, thereby potentially outlawing certain corn-based ethanols.

Nevertheless, even if the EU or national governments decide against clamping down on current biofuels production methods, the Brazilian government's seal scheme is likely to be popular. Despite consumer demand for biofuels, users have shown concerns about the potential damage to the environment caused by the fuel. As such, certified biofuels could be promoted in fuel retailers' marketing campaigns.

Ultimately, the Brazilian government's plans to provide an environmental guarantee on biofuel exports offers an innovative approach to concerns raised at both national and EU levels that biofuels are doing more damage than good. Furthermore, even if these concerns are not acted upon, selling 'ethical' biofuels provides fuel retailers with a means of differentiating themselves from their competitors.

Related Research

The Biofuels Market Outlook: Market Drivers, Growth Opportunities and Regulatory Change

Biofuel Biomass ethanol switchgrass woodchip

Share This

No Comments »

Renewable energy is an essential part of Australia’s low emissions energy mix and is important to Australia’s energy security. It plays a strong role in reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and helping Australia stay on track to meet its Kyoto target and beyond. Australian Government support for renewable energy assists industry development, reduces barriers to the national electricity market, and provides community access to renewable energy.

Electricity generation in energy consumption in Australia accounts for almost 43% of total energy consumption in the last couple of years and gross generation of electricity is forecast to increase by an average 2.3% per year. Black coal will provide the bulk of its energy source indicating that black coal is an extremely competitive energy source and is in plentiful supply in Australia.

While the increase in electricity generation may be significant in terms of past performance, the relative scale of renewable energy generation will be quite small growing to only around 6.3% of the total in 2019-2020. Still, this relative lack of scale in the overall figures hides significant projects that are being undertaken and often are important for local communities.

With Australia's signature of the Kyoto Protocol in 1998, Australia committed itself to containing greenhouse emissions at 108% above 1990 levels, the benchmark used in setting national targets. Australia took a difficult position at these negotiations because it felt it had special circumstances; that is, a vast landscape, reliance on transport and especially road transport systems, its status as an energy producer and exporter, and high economic and population growth.

Renewable energy is an essential part of Australia’s low emissions energy mix and is important to Australia’s energy security. It plays a strong role in reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and helping Australia stay on track to meet its Kyoto target and beyond. Australian Government support for renewable energy assists industry development, reduces barriers to the national electricity market, and provides community access to renewable energy.

Australia’s hydroelectric capacity has been growing very slowly, with biomass capacity increasing at only a slightly faster rate. Solar PV and wind capacity has experienced very rapid growth, currently around 30% per annum, which is in line with global rates.
Purchase Real Publishing’s recently added report Australian Renewable Energy to find out more about Australia’s energy and renewable energy industry and the tremendous impact it holds for dealing with the global emissions challenge.

Read more about Australia Renewable Energy Industry Analysis

Share This

No Comments »

Our planet is facing a serious challenge in global warming. And many or the worlds’ top scientists believe that global catastrophe can be prevented through the use of “geoengineering” technologies. The primary greenhouse gas is CO2, which is estimated to contribute to over two-thirds of climate change. The primary source of CO2 is the burning of fossil fuels, specifically gas, oil, and coal.

The natural production and absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) is achieved through the earth’s biosphere and oceans. However, mankind has altered the natural carbon cycle by burning coal, oil, natural gas, and wood and each of these activities has increased in scale and distribution. Carbon dioxide was the first greenhouse gas demonstrated to be increasing in atmospheric concentration.

In the last 10 years, scientists have suggested some radical theories to reduce CO2 in our atmosphere. These projects, known as "geoengineering," consist of several concepts including massive reforestation efforts that would absorb the excess and harmful gas from the atmosphere, or successfully lofting hundreds of wide mirrors into the earth’s orbit to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the surface.

Continue Reading »

carbon dioxide carbon dioxide emissions carbon market CO2 CO2 emission ghg emissions green trading markets greenhouse emissions greenhouse gas Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program greenhouse gas emission greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse gases greenhouse gasses

Share This

No Comments »

Biofuel is any fuel that is derived from biomass - recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure from cows. It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels.

Read more about Cellulose Ethanol Market Potential 2008

Ethanol is manufactured from microbial conversion of biomass materials through fermentation. Ethanol contains 35% oxygen. The production process consists of conversion of biomass to fermentable sugars, fermentation of sugars to ethanol, and the separation and purification of the ethanol. Fermentation initially produces ethanol containing a substantial amount of water. Distillation removes the majority of water to yield about 95% purity ethanol, the balance being water. This mixture is called hydrous ethanol. If the remaining water is removed in a further process, the ethanol is called anhydrous ethanol and is suitable for blending into gasoline. Ethanol is “denatured” prior to leaving the plant to make it unfit for human consumption by addition of a small amount of products such as gasoline.

Biodiesel fuels are oxygenated organic compounds - methyl or ethyl esters - derived from a variety of renewable sources such as vegetable oil, animal fat, and cooking oil. The oxygen contained in biodiesel makes it unstable and requires stabilization to avoid storage problems. Rapeseed methyl ester (RME) diesel, derived from rapeseed oil, is the most common biodiesel fuel available in Europe. In the United States, biodiesel from soybean oil, called soy methyl ester diesel, is the most common biodiesel. Collectively, these fuels are referred to as fatty acid methyl esters (FAME).

India produces two types of biofuels, fuel ethanol and biodiesel.

The Government of India has developed an ambitious National Biodiesel Mission to meet 20% of the country’s diesel requirements by 2011-2012. Since the demand for edible vegetable oil exceeds supply, the Government decided to use non-edible oil from Jatropha Curcas oilseeds as biodiesel feedstock. Extensive research has shown that Jatropha Curcas offers the following advantages: it requires low water and fertilizer for cultivation, not browsed by cattle or sheep, pest resistant, easy propagation, high seed yield and ability to produce high protein manure.

To find out more about India’s growing biofuel industry, purchase Real Publishing’s research report Biofuel Industry in India.

Read more about Cellulose Ethanol Market Potential 2008

Share This

No Comments »

Utilities are increasingly having to turn to third-party financing to fund wind farm projects.
The global wind energy industry is facing challenges including rising raw materials costs, supply chain problems and skills shortages, due mainly to booming demand. With renewable valuations at an all time high, industry experts predict strong growth will continue on the back of record sustainable energy investments driven by technology maturity, policy incentives and heightened investor appetite.The worldwide success of wind energy and its tremendous growth have put unprecedented pressure on the manufacturers and capital costs of wind turbines and their components. Indeed, the annual market for wind energy installed capacity increased at a rate of 32% in 2006, with over 15,000MW of new capacity installed worldwide. The market predicts that these severe supply constraints are unlikely to abate much before 2012.

The recent rise in installed wind capital costs has been fuelled by component and general raw materials shortages and price increases, the rapid increase in turbine sizes, the decline of leading currencies, higher than expected maintenance costs, and possible increased profit-taking by suppliers. However, this is only moderately affecting wind's competitiveness, as rising steel, copper and carbon prices are also making coal, nuclear, and other electric power plants more expensive to build. Today, most turbine and components manufacturers have taken steps to respond to the boom in demand by substantially expanding their production capacity.

Utilities companies are, therefore, increasingly having to turn to third-party financing to fund wind farm projects as their balance sheets are unable to absorb the increased costs. As a result, there is speculation that this and the supply squeeze will jeopardize wind energy growth and the likelihood of achieving renewable energy targets.

Despite the range of challenges facing the wind energy industry, Energy Business Reports is of the view that growth is likely to remain strong on the back of record investments, which suggest that the existing technology is ready for scale-up and will become a larger part of the energy mix (onshore wind is now an established commodity, while offshore wind continues to be more difficult to finance). The wind energy industry is very much driven by policy, which today includes a burgeoning array of tariff and fiscal support initiatives (such as the January 2008 European proposal for a directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources) that together create a stable global environment for continued sector growth and investor appetite. Indeed, 2007 saw installed wind capacity surge by 31% compared to 2006, a trend that is likely to continue.
Related Research

Read more about Global Wind Power Market Potential

wind Wind based energy wind energy wind farm wind generated electricity wind turbine wind turbines windmills

Share This

No Comments »