Turning trees, grass, and
other biomass into fuel for automobiles and airplanes is a costly and complex process.
More than 80 percent of energy still comes from burning wood or
other biomass despite the oil and gas boom.
These projects are expected to use an integrated ClearFuels - Rentech design and be co-located at sugar mills, and at wood and
other biomass processing facilities.
The American Lung Association strongly opposes the combustion of wood and
other biomass sources at schools and institutions with vulnerable populations.
Careful examination of the inputs and indirect land impacts
of other biomass based fuels such as cellulosic biofuels will clearly show the same thing.
Western Montana has abundant wind resources and enough rooftop space on schools and warehouses to generate scads of solar power, not to mention the land base to produce large quantities of biodiesel fuel and
other biomass energy crops.
TURN IT INTO CHARCOAL Wood or
other biomass heated slowly in a chamber without oxygen will transform into charcoal that does not decompose for thousands of years.
Suns - Oil president Mark Mauss says his company expects to expand beyond waste fats to process
other biomass when the economics make sense, affirming Changing World Technologies» vision if not its execution.
The researchers are currently working to apply the technique to wood and
other biomass feedstock materials, as well as to better understand and fine - tune the interactions between the PILs and lignin.
And closer study of biomass burning is calling into question the «carbon - neutral» assumption: that growing wood or
other biomass captures the same amount of CO2 that subsequent burning for electricity generation releases.
In fact, according to a 2013 study in The Lancet, roughly 3.5 million people, mostly women and children, die every year from respiratory illness as a result of indoor air pollution created by wood and
other biomass stoves.
«It's different
from other biomass because it's a waste product rather than a plant grown specifically to create energy.»
But surely it is cruel and inhuman to possibly risk the health and welfare of billions of poor people in the less developed world by making it more difficult for them to stop exposing themselves to the smoke and pollutants which necessarily result from burning wood and
other biomass near or in their houses for cooking and heating.
Lately, this idea of burning wood or
other biomass for heat has surged in popularity as an alternative to using fossil fuels.
While popular catalysts called zeolites could help turn paper manufacturing waste and
other biomass into fuel, the catalyst crumbles after just two days in hot water.
The American Lung Association recognizes that pollution from the combustion of wood and
other biomass sources poses a significant threat to human health, and supports measures to transition away from using these products for heat production.
This modular, flexible BTG technology platform, in combination with various synthetic gas - to - liquid (GTL) technologies and co-locating its biorefineries at sugar mills, wood processing and
other biomass processing facilities, provides a reduced risk, lower overall cost commercial strategy.
In so doing, help create a movement for positive agro-ecological food systems and a rejection of industrial agriculture including for biofuels,
other biomass energy and for biochar.
My research emphasis is on the agronomic performance of robust biofuel and forage crops of diverse genetic backgrounds including switchgrass, sorghum, alfalfa and
other biomass crops.
One of the key processes in the research was comparing the genome assemblies of the fungal enzymes to those
of other biomass - degrading microbes, made possible only by recent breakthroughs in genome sequencing techniques,
Biofuels and
other biomass - derived products have become viable options for replacing fossil fuels.
The solution swells the particles of wood or
other biomass, allowing the solution to interact with the fibers, much like a newspaper swells when water spills on it.
But in collaboration with the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company, Wang and his colleagues developed a catalyst to convert bio-based ethanol, which is made from corn or
other biomass, to isobutene in one easy production step.
«Learning about how termites convert wood and
other biomass into sugars may be applicable to the production of sustainable biofuels,» Professor Lo concluded.
-- Replace indoor cooking and heating fires with clean - burning cookstoves fired either by wood, manure or
other biomass or, even better, methane.
Amid all this talk of energy demand, the IEA also emphasises another of its estimates: 1.4 billion people across the world lack any access to electricity and 2.7 billion still use wood or
other biomass to cook.
1 - sentence summary: Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory demonstrated how defects deep inside a zeolite catalyst could be healed, allowing the catalyst to drive reactions in hot liquid water, a common environment for materials involved in converting paper industry waste and
other biomass into fuels
In creating fuels from agricultural waste and
other biomass, water slows a solid acid catalyst's ability to get the job done, costing time and energy.
Another potential feedstock is agricultural wastes and
other biomass.
Other biomass - based fuels, however, are genuinely sustainable — fuels derived from things like crop waste, or switchgrass, or sustainably harvested cover crops.
The researchers also found that PM 2.5 particles from wind - blown soil and the burning of wood and
other biomass were insignificant in terms of the risk of death from heart disease.
Just how bad is it, and how does that compare to
other biomass / wood stoves?
Coal was found to be a major contributor, together with the burning of wood, dung and
other biomass.
The Health Effects Institute was involved in the landmark Global Burden of Disease study published last year in The Lancet, which tallied 3.5 million annual deaths from respiratory illness due to burning of wood, brush, dung, and
other biomass for fuel — making it one of the largest environmental threats to health.
The findings come at a time when coal is on track to surpass oil as the world's top energy source and 2.8 billion people rely on wood, crop waste, dung, and
other biomass to cook and heat their homes.
The American Lung Association recommends continuing research on the health effects of burning wood and
other biomass sources, and the technologies to reduce the emissions associated with the combustion of these fuels.
The American Lung Association calls for effective enforcement of existing laws and regulations governing the combustion of wood and
other biomass sources, as well as the expanded regulation of air pollution emissions from these sources.
At the moment, most of this comes from ethanol produced by corn, and in the future plans are to power vehicles from forests, oil crops such as oil palm and soya for biodiesel, and
other biomass.
Some 2.5 billion people use wood, dung, or
other biomass to meet their cooking energy needs.
Long after October 24th, the scientists and entrepreneurs at Qteros will be working hard to make the promise of cellulosic ethanol from trees and
other biomass a reality.