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Book (stand-alone)Biofuel co-products as livestock feed - Opportunities and challenges 2012
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No results found.Climate change and predicted shortages of fossil fuels present major challenges. Currently, biofuel production is from agricultural crops grown primarily on arable land. Conflict with the traditional use of arable land, itself a limited resource, to produce food and animal feed must be avoided and economic sustainability assured. At present cereals, especially maize and wheat, and sugar cane are used for ethanol production, with soybean, oil palm and rapeseed for biodiesel production. The expa nding transport industry requires increasing amounts of biofuels, and an increasing market for co-products has generated a need for new feedstocks. Cellulosic material, often available from sub-prime land with minimal inputs, and other non-conventional sources are being investigated. Before being used as feeds, some seeds and cakes will require detoxification. The contribution of micro-algae, production of which can be achieved in coastal waters, is likely to grow in importance. These developmen ts are mirrored the broadening of the animal species receiving the co-products, from ruminants, especially cattle, and pigs to poultry and fish (aquaculture). Further developments include enhancement of the use of existing co-products and the introduction of new ones. This publication collates, discusses and summarizes state-of-the-art knowledge on the use as livestock feed and future availability of co-products from the biofuel industry. The levels at which the co-products could be safely use d in livestock diets are also presented. Throughout the book, gaps in knowledge and research topics needed to address them have been identified. These include standardization of product quality to assist ration formulation; testing of new products; development of detoxification procedures; research on micro-algae; and life cycle analysis linked to traditional nutritional appraisal. This publication covers a wide array of co-products and is a timely contribution, as people's aspirations are ris ing, evident from the increasing demand for livestock products and an ever greater reliance on transport, coupled with the challenge of maintaining agricultural production when faced with global warming. We hope that the information here synthesized will be useful to policy-makers, researchers, the feed industry, science managers and NGOs, supporting them in making information- based decisions on issues such as food-feed-fuel competition. Hopefully it will help confront the emerging challenges o f global warming, in addition to making efficient use as livestock feed of a wide range of currently available and future co-products from the biofuel industry. -
DocumentIntra-industry trade in biofuels
How environmental legislation fuels resource use and GHG emissions
2012Also available in:
No results found.We have seen significant volumes of intra-industry trade in ethanol between the United States of America and Brazil. A trend which started in 2010 and accelerated in the second half of 2011 with large quantities of ethanol crossing paths in trade between the two countries. While intra-industry trade of homogenous products is not new, it is typically explained by factors such as seasonality or cross-border exchanges caused by transportation cost differentials. None of the traditional market facto rs can explain the volumes of intra-industry trade in ethanol between the US and Brazil. Instead, it appears to be driven by differential environmental policy that aims to capture differences in production methods of the underlying feedstocks and processing methods based on credence attributes of biofuels. Environmental legislation is inducing the product differentiation that invites arbitrage between the two countries resulting in the two-way trade of an otherwise physically homogenous product; in so doing, additional fossil energy is consumed in the mutual exchange of ethanol along with associated GHG emissions and the policy costs to consumers are raised which may suppress demand further reducing the displacement of fossil fuels, both of which are in direct conflict with environmental objectives of many biofuel programmes. With tighter environmental constraints on biofuel production written into EU policy, the potential for competition for classes of renewable fuels increases and could extend its reach from bioethanol to include biodiesel and/or the underlying feedstocks in the EU, the US and Brazil. This would create additional opportunities for arbitrage among the regions as a result of disparate policy differentiation of biofuel products. We submit options to mitigate this through the use of a “book and claim” system under which each country could pursue its own policy objectives while acting in a coordinated fashion to reduce costs and emissions. -
Book (stand-alone)Algae-based Biofuels
Applications and Co-products
2010Also available in:
No results found.The possible competition for land makes it impossible to produce enough first generation biofuel to offset a large percentage of the total fuel consumption for transportation. As opposed to land-based biofuels produced from agricultural feedstocks, cultivation of algae for biofuel does not necessarily use agricultural land and requires only negligible amounts of freshwater, and therefore competes less with agriculture than first generation biofuels. Combined with the promise of high productivi ty, direct combustion gas utilization, potential wastewater treatment, year-round production, the biochemical pathways and cellular composition of algae can be influenced by changing cultivation conditions and therefore tailored on local needs. On the other hand, microalgae, as opposed to most plants, lack heavy supporting structures and anchorage organs which pose some technical limitations to their harvesting. The reasons for investigating algae as a biofuel feedstock are strong but thes e reasons also apply to other products that can be produced from algae. There are many products in the agricultural, chemical or food industry that could be produced using more sustainable inputs and which can be produced locally with a lower impact on naturalresources. Co-producing some of these products together with biofuels, can make the process economically viable, less dependent from imports and fossil fuels, locally self sufficient and expected to generate new jobs, with a positive ef fect on the overall sustainability. This document provides an overview of practical options available for co-production from algae and their viability and suitability for developing countries.
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