Sentences with phrase «corn as a biofuel»

Using corn as a biofuel seems like a good idea in principle.

Not exact matches

Regular biofuel production works by fermenting the sugars stored in crops such as sugar cane or corn, but the team's idea is to instead transform the sugar found in the cellulose of the residual crop material — the stalks, stems and leaves.

«The study says it will be very hard to make a biofuel that has a better greenhouse gas impact than gasoline using corn residue,» which puts it in the same boat as corn - based ethanol, said David Tilman, a professor at the University of Minnesota who has done research on biofuels» emissions from the farm to the tailpipe.

Moreover, as appetites for food and biofuels — made with palm, corn, and other plants — rise, more land is needed to accommodate agriculture.

By turning crops such as corn, sugarcane and palm oil into biofuels — whether ethanol, biodiesel, or something else — proponents hope to reap the benefits of the carbon soaked up as the plants grow to offset the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted when the resulting fuel is burned.

Biofuel producers use the sugars in crops such as corn to create alternative fuel that is more climate friendly than gas or coal.

Biofuel is made from the sugars in crops such as corn.

Cellulose - loving fungi can cut biofuel costs by enabling existing corn ethanol plants to process cheaper, woody feedstocks such as corn stover

Concerns have been raised that diverting significant portions of crops, such as corn, to biofuel production could have a negative impact on availability and cost of the food supply.

But the thinking is that the carbon dioxide emitted by renewable sources will eventually get reabsorbed through photosynthesis, as trees, corn, and other biofuel sources grow back.

Corn growers and their allies have pressed to have as much biofuel as possible blended into fuels but the oil industry has complained that the program drives up its costs and should be repealed.

Enzymes, genetically engineered to avoid sticking to the surfaces of biomass such as corn stalks, may lower costs in the production of cellulose - based biofuels like ethanol.

«It takes 77 million years to make fossil fuels and 45 minutes to use as a coffee cup,» says Cereplast's Scheer, noting that his industry can use the residue of government - mandated production of biofuels, such as ethanol from corn.

The amount of biomass available from corn and food crops is very small; for biofuels to have a large impact, we must harness energy from nonedible plants, also known as cellulosic biomass — wood and wood waste, agricultural waste, and energy crops.

The new analysis found that conventional crops such as corn had the highest yield of biomass that can be turned into biofuel on marginal lands, although their ability to reduce CO2 is harmed by tilling, fertilizing and other CO2 - producing activities necessary to turn them into fuel.

In contrast, the grasses and other flowers and plants that grow naturally when such lands are left fallow — species such as goldenrod, frost aster, and couch grass, among others — can deliver roughly the same amount of biofuel energy per hectare per year if fertilized, yet also reducing CO2 by more than twice as much as corn.

Traditional biofuels such as bioethanol are made from food crops like corn and sugarcane that require prime agricultural land — a commodity in relatively short supply.

The new study estimates land available for growing biofuels — crops such as corn or sugarcane that can be converted to fuels - at between 56 and 1035 million hectares, compared to previous estimates of 320 to 1411 million hectares.

the chart fails to show that soy from brazil, the stuff served in that meatless urban restraunt menu, has many times the embodied energy of eating local grass fed beef, that the corn suggested as least energy consuming is only so due to vast scales of industrial monocroping that wipes out diversity and local edible foods habitat (and is used largely for pig and cow fodder if not biofuels, and so lays waste to half the midwest), that milk from a pastured cow or goat, or eggs from pastured chickens, are gaining thier energy from sources no human could eat.

But biofuels such as corn ethanol are incredibly resource intensive and probably don't reduce carbon emissions.

Fortunately for the corn industry, «advanced» biofuels have failed to take off as Congress expected.

Their presentations highlighted the connection between biofuels and price volatility in food commodities, such as sugar cane and corn, as well as developmental potentials.

A minimal first step would be to ensure that all fossil fuel inputs to biofuels are carbon - taxed, including natural gas used as feedstock for ammonia - based fertilizers of corn grown for ethanol.

A recent study suggests the volatility of U.S. corn prices is more sensitive to near - term climate change than to energy policy influences or to use of agricultural products for energy production, such as biofuel.22

Mandates and subsidies for fossil - fuel intensive biofuels such as corn - derived ethanol are so large that eliminating or reducing them would almost certainly do more than a carbon tax to curb these fuels» artificial price advantage.

It's now well - established that large - scale U.S. production of biofuels such as ethanol from corn has accomplished little or nothing (or even negative) in its stated goals of reducing oil dependence and cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, and has functioned instead as a full - employment program for agribusiness (and a political production racket for Iowa and other corn - growing states).

«The U.S. and Europe can not produce enough plant feedstocks to meet targets» for biofuel production — even with cellulosic corn — as defined by government mandates, which are largely being driven by a growing demand for energy independence and national security concerns, said Thurmond.

Advanced biofuels can be derived from lignocellulosic feedstocks, such as agricultural waste (e.g., corn stover, wheat straw, rice hulls), agricultural processing byproducts (e.g., corn fiber or sugar cane bagasse), forestry and wood processing waste, the paper portion of municipal solid waste, or dedicated energy crops such as switchgrass.

In fact, since the RFS expanded renewable fuel volumes in 2007, over 1/3 of corn production and nearly 1/4 of the oil produced from soybeans have been diverted to biofuels.1 As the EPA points out, «because many biofuel feedstocks require land, water, and other resources, research suggests that biofuel production may give rise to several undesirable effects.»

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL ROME â $» In the past year, as the diversion of food crops like corn and palm to make biofuels has helped to drive up food prices, investors and politicians have begun promoting newer, so - called second - generation biofuels as the next wave of green energy.

Corn - based biofuels have been heavily criticized as large federal subsidies prop up the economics and ignore the overall energy inefficiencies.

The Wall Street Journal has reported the results of two independent studies that suggest the widespread use of ethanol from corn could result in nearly twice the greenhouse gas emissions as the gasoline it would replace because of expected land - use changes, researchers concluded Thursday. The study challenges the rush to biofuels as a response to global warming.

«The biofuels researcher Timothy Searchinger has calculated that once the massive release of greenhouse gases cause by converting grassland and rainforest into cropland is taken into account, introduction of biofuels produces increases in greenhouse emissions, the size of the rise being as much as a doubling for corn ethanol production,» Montford tells us.

95 The case for crop - based biofuels was further undermined when a team led by Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Prize — winning chemist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, concluded that emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, from the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer used to grow crops such as corn and rapeseed for biofuel production can negate any net reductions of CO2 emissions from replacing fossil fuels with biofuels, thus making biofuels a threat to climate stability.

The plant ferments corn to produce ethanol for use as a biofuel.

There are also other longer term political considerations: if sugarcane ethanol is kept out, the corn ethanol folks might lobby to lift the cap on corn ethanol and allow it to qualify as an advanced biofuel.

Al Gore is a huge supporter of biofuels, and particularly corn - based ethanol, as a «solution» to global warming.

However, with 35 % of U.S. corn being turned into biofuels, it clearly has a major effect on the price, driving it upwards (and driving other commodities higher as well, as farmland becomes more scarce).

Indeed, corn is not the optimal basis for providing all the ethanol fuel we will need, but, as the President says, biofuels are needed to reduce our addiction to oil and to slow climate change — and the emerging biofuels market is spurring major investments in using biomass other than corn to make ethanol.

Corn is a poor feedstock for biofuel (although it way be useful to use non-food corn waste as feedstoCorn is a poor feedstock for biofuel (although it way be useful to use non-food corn waste as feedstocorn waste as feedstock).

Critically, as our recent alert demanded, biofuel's indirect land use impacts, starting with corn ethanol, are to be considered when determining a fuel's net impact upon emissions.

WASHINGTON — Three big intertwined but rival agribusinesses — corn farmers, meat and poultry producers, and biofuel refineries — are in a political fight to protect their interests as a drought ravages corn producers and industrial consumers alike.

As I've said before and will continue to say until we stop opening corn ethanol plants, corn ethanol is a dead end and of limited utility as even an intermediary step towards better biofuelAs I've said before and will continue to say until we stop opening corn ethanol plants, corn ethanol is a dead end and of limited utility as even an intermediary step towards better biofuelas even an intermediary step towards better biofuels.

It seems short - sighted to fill our landscapes with rows of bird - killing windmills when, hopefully, within the decade research into solar power and perhaps waste [NOT corn]- as - biofuels may provide alternatives.

So this is good news regarding the first concern pointed above (about corn yield), though yet to be seen if other initiatives appear as a response to the other questionings surrounding the biofuels business in the country.

Photo credit: Lynn L. Walters / The New York Times Proponents of biofuels, which are often made from plants such as corn or sugar cane, often point to their many advantages over fossil fuels like gasoline.

-LSB-...] Tallow - waste biofuel is more ethical than other alternative fuels, since it does not displace food crops such as corn... ``

Thankfully, Barack Obama has indicated that he wants to advance cellulosic ethanol research, but we mustn't rest on that assurance alone and continue to monitor his commitment here so that he doesn't get swayed by the corn lobby into, as the original article suggests (perhaps prematurely), continue the failed policies of the Bush administration in promoting biofuels.

With oil prices soaring, biofuels from corn, palm oil, sugar cane and other agricultural products are increasingly seen as a cheap and cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.

(Note that the study did not look at first generation biofuels made from tropical crops like sugarcane or sweet sorghum which reduce emissions far more than corn ethanol; for sugarcane ethanol, the reduction is as large as that of cellulosic biofuels, earlier post.)