Scientists challenge IPCC biofuel advice

from Biofuel Review: (Posted by Giles Clark, London Friday, 02 November 2007)

Five senior scientists have written to the head of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr R K Pachauri, to highlight what they see as “serious and dangerous deficiencies” in the notes on biofuels in the recently released IPCC AR4 Mitigation book. The concerns of the scientists, and the letter, were revealed on the Grain website (www.grain.org) yesterday (1st November) ahead of the IPCC Synthesis Report’s which is expected to be approved by national delegations this month.
full text of the letter

Their letter highlights that no proof has been given, even when requested from the relevant Author, of the claim in the SPM (Summary for Policy Makers) that biofuel blending, as a policy, measure or instrument, had been “environmentally effective…in at least a number of national cases.”

That claim, being a Brazilian amendment passed at the last IPCC plenary session, has reappeared in a bolder form in the latest UN Global Environment Outlook.

The Transport chapter, they say, omitted to warn that even modest growth of biofuels, by using up farmland or pasture, often leads to cropland as a whole expanding at the expense of natural forests and grassland. The carbon emissions from such land-use change can negate any benefits for decades or centuries. This was occurring in South East Asia, and possibly now in South America, in partial response to EU and US biofuel incentives.

The studies of biofuel emissions balances used by the IPCC did not model the effects of such outcomes. Yet these would need to be included in any assessment of whether biofuel blending programmes or incentives had been “environmentally effective”, said the five scientists.

They are now calling for the full basis for this claim in the SPM to be revealed, or for the claim to be withdrawn.

The IPCC advice also failed to note that growing biofuels was currently a very inefficient use of land for mitigation, compared with growing solid fuel to replace coal. “That is elementary to any discussion of bioenergy,” said Helmut Haberl of Klagenfurt University.

David Pimentel, of Cornell University, added: “Climate change is a most pressing issue for humanity, and world leaders need to take the issue of mitigation much more seriously than they have to date. Having said that, decision-makers need to be given balanced and justified advice. These particular notes, as they stand, will be used to support erroneous and disastrous decisions, and that is simply not right”.

IPCC mitigation book

Freedom Fuels film

Freedom Fuels takes an in-depth, solution orientated look at renewable fuel sources, such as biodiesel, ethanol and vegetable oil. It explores the petroleum industry’s suppression of alternative fuels and examines the potential positive and negative impacts of biofuels.

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(Running time: 50 min, File size: 196.05 MB)

more on single-celled biodiesel plants

Algae’s single-celled structure is extremely efficient in use of light and absorption of nutrients. So much so, that algae’s growth and productivity is 30 to 100 times higher than crops like soybeans. Algae production does not compete with agriculture. Algae production facilities are closed and do not require soil for growth, use 99% less water than conventional agriculture, and can be located on non-agricultural land far from water. Since the whole organism converts sunlight into oil, algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two-car garage than an entire football field of soybeans.

The right naturally occurring algae species can, under just the right conditions, produce oil at near-theoretical limits. Their small size (less than 30 microns) and aquatic nature makes them ideal for a large-scale, highly automated, closed production system called a photobioreactor, or PBR. These systems are highly-tuned to provide each cell the precise conditions needed for maximum productivity.

Algae thrive on a high concentration of carbon dioxide. And nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant of power plants, is a nutrient for the algae. Algae production facilities can thus be fed exhaust gases from fossil fuel power plants, and even breweries, to significantly increase productivity and clean up the air.

The carbohydrates remaining after the oil has been extracted from the algae can be used to make animal feed, ethanol, and potentially sequester carbon.

OTHER INFOS: The algae that produces hydrocarbons is botryococcus braunii China Strain 1 or 2. This particular algae produces hydrocarbons of up to 60% of its DRY WEIGHT. It doubles itself every 2 to 4 days. This algae also has a life cycle that slows down even under the best of conditions. The conditions to generate this algae’s max potential are very specific as to lumogens, (too much or too little sunlight stunts reproduction), food stock for the algae, salinity of the water and particularly temperature. More or less than the ideal 25 deg C stunts growth measurably.

Solix Biofuels, IGV GmbH/GreenFuel Technologies Corporation, Photosynthesis and Optimizing Algae Growth in a Bioreactor, Quinn Edwards, Introduction to Biophotonics, April 28, 2006.pdf, more biofuels research links