The Malaysian government recently announced that by 2011, all vehicles in Kualampur will run on a 5% blend of palm-oil mixed with diesel. This has been delayed over the past few years due to price fluctuations.
Malaysia is the world's second-largest exporter of palm oil after Indonesia, and the two countries account for 85 percent of global production. Being the world's second-largest palm oil producer, this plan will be soon implemented in stages in several central states from June 2011 and the extra costs which incur will be borne by the petroleum companies. The fortunes of Malaysia's biofuel industry waned in late 2008 when the price of crude oil tumbled, triggering a crash in the palm oil price which made supply uncertain, jeopardizing the long-term contracts and the industry needs.
The Malaysian government is very keen on implementing this as soon as practical as they very strongly believe The policy will benefit the country as biofuel is environmentally friendly and it will reduce the country’s dependence on petroleum diesel. It will also strengthen the palm oil prices and enable the planters, especially smallholders, to benefit from the stronger palm oil price. The ministry said it will discuss the implementation mechanism with petroleum companies, while the government will set up six petroleum depots with blending facilities.
The government has said the switch to biofuel will help reduce the cost of fuel in Malaysia, where petrol is subsidised, but conservationists have criticised oil palm plantations for destroying wildlife habitats. One of the challenges is meeting the sustainability criteria that are being debated worldwide .Malaysia -- which aims to be the global leader in biodiesel -- has approved 56 licences for biodiesel production, which account for a production capacity of 6.8 million tonnes.
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Showing posts with label carbon emissions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carbon emissions. Show all posts
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Airlines Will Use Biofuels to Fight Climate Change
Food-waste, plant sources, flax, marsh grass etc. are going to be widely used as feedstock for biofuel production in a decade claim the aviation experts .These are the efforts taken by some airlines to fight climate change.
The aviation experts are having a big focus on feedstock such as Jatropha, algae etc.which cause least or no destruction to the environment. The concern among many environmentalists previously was that the use of plant derived fuels would greatly destruct the forest. In Northern part of Europe, Camelina is being used as a fuel to run aircrafts.
The airplanes emit roughly 2% of the green house gases and the emissions from the aircraft even from a high altitude remain in the atmosphere, at least the emissions in the ground are absorbed by the soil and the ocean.
By 2012, all the flights entering into and leaving the European airports will be subject to the European trading program as in the airlines will be allowed to emit only certain amount of carbon-dioxide and they will be given targets for buying and selling carbon credits.
The International Air Transport Association strongly believes that by 2020, the fuel efficiency will be increased by 1.5% and by 2050 the carbon emissions from the aircrafts will be nearly reduced to half.
For more information
The aviation experts are having a big focus on feedstock such as Jatropha, algae etc.which cause least or no destruction to the environment. The concern among many environmentalists previously was that the use of plant derived fuels would greatly destruct the forest. In Northern part of Europe, Camelina is being used as a fuel to run aircrafts.
The airplanes emit roughly 2% of the green house gases and the emissions from the aircraft even from a high altitude remain in the atmosphere, at least the emissions in the ground are absorbed by the soil and the ocean.
By 2012, all the flights entering into and leaving the European airports will be subject to the European trading program as in the airlines will be allowed to emit only certain amount of carbon-dioxide and they will be given targets for buying and selling carbon credits.
The International Air Transport Association strongly believes that by 2020, the fuel efficiency will be increased by 1.5% and by 2050 the carbon emissions from the aircrafts will be nearly reduced to half.
For more information
Monday, October 19, 2009
Cheap Cellulosic Ethanol using Immobilised Enzymes...
As discussed in my previous posts, cellulosic ethanol has got bright prospects and is definitely going to be the best replacement for fossil fuels. The reason behind this is the fact that the cellulosic biomass is abundant in the planet. This also has the advantage of being a non- crop when compared to other food crops from which ethanol can be derived.
Conventional method of cellulosic ethanol production involved the plasmification of the organic matter resulting in the mixture of hydrocarbons. Organisms such as the bacteria are then added to the bacteria, which produces ethanol. This method is employed by many of the companies working on cellulosic ethanol commercialization.
Yet another method which was used is to directly digest the cellulosic biomass using enzymes to produce ethanol. This method is a bit more expensive than the first method and most importantly, a lot of by-products are lost during cellulose degradation.
To commercialize the cellulosic ethanol and to overcome these bottlenecks faced currently, researchers from the Louisiana Tech University have patented and discovered a new approach of immobilizing enzymes which digest the cellulosic biomass. This nanotechnological approach of immobilizing enzymes makes use of a charged particle which gets attached to the non-catalytic domains of the enzymes or uses extracellular matrix proteins to bind the enzymes.
This method of using immobilized enzyme is expected to drastically reduce the cost of cellulosic ethanol production. It is expected to save about $32 million and is capable of producing about 16 billion gallons of cellulose based ethanol, claims the LTU. Apparently, the cellulose ethanol commercialization has the capacity to reduce the carbon emissions to about 89 % when compared to gasoline based fuels.
Interestingly, the cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in LTU is the first of its kind and they are very sure that Louisiana will be one of the main contributors in the cellulosic ethanol production.
For those of the scientific bent and those willing to decipher how the whole thing works can attend the Louisiana Tech’s Energy Systems Conference on November 5 at the Technology Transfer Center in Shreveport.
See more
Conventional method of cellulosic ethanol production involved the plasmification of the organic matter resulting in the mixture of hydrocarbons. Organisms such as the bacteria are then added to the bacteria, which produces ethanol. This method is employed by many of the companies working on cellulosic ethanol commercialization.
Yet another method which was used is to directly digest the cellulosic biomass using enzymes to produce ethanol. This method is a bit more expensive than the first method and most importantly, a lot of by-products are lost during cellulose degradation.
To commercialize the cellulosic ethanol and to overcome these bottlenecks faced currently, researchers from the Louisiana Tech University have patented and discovered a new approach of immobilizing enzymes which digest the cellulosic biomass. This nanotechnological approach of immobilizing enzymes makes use of a charged particle which gets attached to the non-catalytic domains of the enzymes or uses extracellular matrix proteins to bind the enzymes.
This method of using immobilized enzyme is expected to drastically reduce the cost of cellulosic ethanol production. It is expected to save about $32 million and is capable of producing about 16 billion gallons of cellulose based ethanol, claims the LTU. Apparently, the cellulose ethanol commercialization has the capacity to reduce the carbon emissions to about 89 % when compared to gasoline based fuels.
Interestingly, the cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in LTU is the first of its kind and they are very sure that Louisiana will be one of the main contributors in the cellulosic ethanol production.
For those of the scientific bent and those willing to decipher how the whole thing works can attend the Louisiana Tech’s Energy Systems Conference on November 5 at the Technology Transfer Center in Shreveport.
See more
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
A Mobile Press for Camelina Extraction in Wyoming.
In Wyoming, researchers and landowners are planning to test if the concept of biofuel would work in their state. The reason I grabbed this article is because, guess what ?? they are gonna try growing Camelina- cabbage cousin. As I mentioned earlier, Camelina is a wonderful biofuel, crop which is known to reduce the carbon emissions drastically and its fertilizer requirements are very less too.
The Wyoming Business Council Agribusiness Division has received a grant for their research. They are actually planning to buy a press- equipment, which will be to crush the Camelina to extract oil from it. The grant which they have received, will help a great deal to take it all around their state to show the producers the way it works. It is called a mobile press .It is believed to extract about 40-45% oil. Earlier, the problem they faced was the the processing of Camelina near the place where it was grown. They hope that this mobile press will solve this problem..They feel that it can be rolled out and set up for demonstration and small-scale research. In March, the Camelina company in Montana was after a press, I don’t know if this mobile press would be of any help to them.
The focus of this research has been the biofuel. However, there are some questions which arise at this point? Generally speaking, when a seed is pressed only one-third of it is fat and the rest is its meal . What will be done with the leftover Camelina stuff (meal) after the oil extraction ?
Efforts are underway to check if this will be economically feasible. Researchers wonder what they could do with such a huge quantity of meal . Hence, they would like to research on this topic for another two years or so before jumping into further conclusions.
see more
The Wyoming Business Council Agribusiness Division has received a grant for their research. They are actually planning to buy a press- equipment, which will be to crush the Camelina to extract oil from it. The grant which they have received, will help a great deal to take it all around their state to show the producers the way it works. It is called a mobile press .It is believed to extract about 40-45% oil. Earlier, the problem they faced was the the processing of Camelina near the place where it was grown. They hope that this mobile press will solve this problem..They feel that it can be rolled out and set up for demonstration and small-scale research. In March, the Camelina company in Montana was after a press, I don’t know if this mobile press would be of any help to them.
The focus of this research has been the biofuel. However, there are some questions which arise at this point? Generally speaking, when a seed is pressed only one-third of it is fat and the rest is its meal . What will be done with the leftover Camelina stuff (meal) after the oil extraction ?
Efforts are underway to check if this will be economically feasible. Researchers wonder what they could do with such a huge quantity of meal . Hence, they would like to research on this topic for another two years or so before jumping into further conclusions.
see more
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