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News You Can Use: Five Biofuels Reports Worth Getting Now
Need some holiday reading that can set you up in the New Year? Here's how to get five reports that will put a surprise in your stocking, and why.
Here in Digestville, we see an especially big flow at year's end of new reports from research organizations, government departments, private enterprise and especially NGOs. We've seen five this holiday season that are especially worth devoting some pillow time to. 1. The USDA’s crop land report. What: An in-depth analysis of U.S. land use patterns released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows total cropland decreased by 34 million acres from 2002 to 2007, the lowest level since USDA began collecting this data 1945. The surprise: No sign of the ethanol-fueled land-use change that supposed to be going on all throughout this period? Get it if: You run into food-vs-fuel or land conversion issues in your work. How to get it. It’s a free download from the USDA, here. 2. LUX Research’s winners-and-losers report on new and emerging technologies in the field. What: Lux Research applied the Lux Innovation Grid to rate technology developers in the alternative fuels field, in a report titled, “Refining Alternative Fuels Innovators into Winners and Losers.” “The alternative fuels space is hitting puberty, painfully. Some companies are reaching scale and raking in revenues, while others are going bankrupt, missing milestones, laying off employees, and squandering millions,” said Andrew Soare, Lux Analyst and the lead author of the report. The surprise: No sign of POET, Abengoa, or KiOR in the headline-grabbing summaries of “winners”. But strong support for Codexis and Novozymes, Amyris, Solazyme, and Gevo, Enerkem, Agnion, Agilyx, BTG-BTL, and Ensyn. Get it if: You are an investor or competitor in this space. How to get it: There’s a (very, very, very tiny) free excerpt here. For the full report, LUX is here to tell you about all the ways they accept payment. 3. Can the UK meet its renewable transport fuel goals? What: It’s a report from E4tech: “Development of illustrative scenarios describing the quantity of different types of bioenergy potentially available to the UK transport sector in 2020, 2030 and 2050.” The surprise: Sustainability thresholds could constrict availability of biodiesel by 2020. Beyond then, overcoming market barriers and freeing up land areas globally could dramatically increase the availability of energy crops for lignocellulosic biofuels. In 2050, the total supply potential available in the Medium intensity scenario is ~80 % of the projected UK transport demand. Get it if: You are looking at serving the UK market, or developing projects in the EU. How to get it: A free download, available via Biofuels Digest. 4. What will the advanced biofuels industry look like in 5 years? What: Well, it’s a video series, not strictly a report. But check it out. 1 – What is the biggest challenge to growing your business? The surprise: It’s like attending a conference, only without the travel expense. Get it if: You are working in, investing in, or analyzing the advanced biofuels space. How to get it: You can view the series promo here. 5. The skinny on RINs – how are they working? What: From Hart Energy, their new RINs Report, focusing on modeling for the Ethanol blendwall effects on the market. The surprise: Very counter-intuitive results: the blend wall reduces market for sugarcane ethanol that is at a premium to corn ethanol. Get it if: You are distributing, buying, or making corn-starch ethanol or any form of advanced biofuels in or for the US market. How to get it: Start with a sample, here. From there, Hart will be glad to sell you the full report. This article was originally published on Biofuels Digest and was reprinted with permission. The information and views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of RenewableEnergyWorld.com or the companies that advertise on its Web site and other publications.
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Jim Lane
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One cannot simply look at a decline in cropland and conclude that. One has to compare it with a counterfactual. Would there have been an even greater decline in land devoted to crops in the absence of the ethanol boom? Also, at issue in the fuel-versus-food debate is not just total cropland but also how the cropland is used -- i.e., whether the expansion of corn production is at the expense of other crops. Finally, the debate is, in any case, more about what happens outside the United States -- e.g., if the combination of less rotation with soybeans, and more diversion of soybeans to biofuels, fuels sharp rises in the international prices of vegetable oils, which in turn leads to land conversion in Latin America or south-east Asia.