Review of China’s bioethanol development and a case study of fuel supply, demand and distribution of bioethanol expansion by national application of E10

The increasing dependence on imported oil and tremendous greenhouse gases (GHG) emission is making the diversification of primary fuel such as petroleum a critical vital energy and environmental issue in China. China is promoting bioethanol by mandatory use in nine provinces and the expansion is on agenda. This paper first reviews China’s bioethanol development. Next, suitable feedstock crops for expanded ethanol production are discussed. Particularly, bioethanol expansion by national application of E10 is investigated from perspectives of potential in bioethanol supply, projected ethanol demand, and the possible cost-effective bioethanol distribution system. It is calculated that by making use of un-used land for feedstock planting and introduction of improved feedstock varieties, potential bioethanol production capacity in China will be up to 25.33 million tons per year. Ethanol demand for national application of E10 is projected to be around 7 million tons per year. A linear optimization model is used to consider the economic costs of distributing bioethanol in China. The optimization result suggests that development of bioethanol industry may focus on Henan, Jilin, Anhui, Jiangxi and Sichuan basin. It also estimates 53.79 RMB per ton of bioethanol for downstream rail or truck transportation remain a relatively small fraction of total fuel cost. Thanks to the well developed railway network in China, more bioethanol can be distributed at a relatively modest premium distribution costs and with low environmental influences.     

Dynamic impacts of high oil prices on the bioethanol and feedstock markets

This study investigates the impacts of high international oil prices on the bioethanol and corn markets in the US. Between 2007 and 2008, the prices of major grain crops had increased sharply, reflecting the rise in international oil prices. These dual price shocks had caused substantial harm to the global economy. Employing a structural vector auto-regression model (SVAR), we analyze how increases in international oil prices could impact the prices of and demand for corn, which is used as a major bioethanol feedstock in the US. The results indicate that an increase in the oil price would increase bioethanol demand for corn and corn prices in the short run and that corn prices would stabilize in the long run as corn exports and feedstock demand for corn decline. Consequently, policies supporting biofuels should encourage the use of bioethanol co-products for feed and the development of marginal land to mitigate increases in the feedstock price.     

Optimizing biofuel production: An economic analysis for selected biofuel feedstock production in Hawaii

Hawaii’s agricultural sector has an immense supply of natural resources that can be further developed and utilized to produce biofuel. Transformation of the renewable and abundant biomass resources into a cost competitive, high performance biofuel could reduce Hawaii’s dependence on fossil fuel importation and enhance energy security. The objectives of the study are to evaluate the economic feasibility of selected bioenergy crops for Hawaii and compare their cost competitiveness. The selected feedstock consists of both ethanol and biodiesel producing crops. Ethanol feedstock includes sugar feedstock (sugarcane) and lignocellulosic feedstock (banagrass, Eucalyptus, and Leucaena). Biodiesel feedstock consists of Jatropha and oil palm.The economic analysis is divided into two parts. First, a financial analysis was used to select feasible feedstock for biofuel production. For each feedstock, net return, feedstock cost per Btu, feedstock cost per gallon of ethanol/biodiesel, breakeven price of feedstock and breakeven price of ethanol/biodiesel were calculated. Leucaena shows the lowest feedstock cost per Btu while banagrass has the highest positive net returns in terms of both feedstock price and energy price.The second approach assumes an objective of maximizing net returns. Given this assumption, biofuel producers will produce only banagrass. As an example, the production of bioenergy on the island of Hawaii is illustrated where 74,793 acres of non-prime land having a “warm and moist” soil temperature and moisture regime are available. Using average yields (static optimization), banagrass production on this acreage can yield 8.24 trillion Btus of energy (ethanol). This satisfies the State’s 10% self-sufficiency energy goal of 3.9 trillion Btus by 2010. Incorporating risk through variability in crop yields and biofuel prices separately shows banagrass as having the highest probability for receiving a positive net return. Banagrass is the leading candidate crop for biofuel production in Hawaii and the State of Hawaii ethanol goal can be achieved by allocating non-prime lands for banagrass production without compromising prime lands currently allocated for agricultural food production in Hawaii. Physical, environmental and socio-economic impacts should be accounted for in evaluating future biofuel projects.     

Potential of bioethanol production from agricultural wastes in Iran

The production of bioethanol from agricultural residues such as wheat, barley, sugar cane, corn and rice in Iran is investigated in this paper. In Iran, agricultural residues are not commonly used for energy application. This paper aims to cover several perspectives on the size of the bioethanol feedstock resource in Iran. Crop residues and sugar cane bagasse are included in feedstock for production of bioethanol. There are approximately 17.86 MT of wasted crops in Iran that can potentially produce 4.91 GL of bioethanol per year. Wheat, sugar cane bagasse, rice, barely and corn are the most favourable bioethanol production source in Iran. Agricultural waste materials can be used for production of bioethanol fuel. Bioethanol can be considered as the optimum alternative fuel for gasoline. Bioethanol is an environmentally friendly fuel and has the potential to provide comparable engine performance results.     

Can China afford to commit itself an emissions cap? An economic and political analysis

As the world’s second largest carbon emitter, China has long been criticised as a ‘free-rider’ enjoying benefits from other countries’ efforts to abate greenhouse gas emissions but not taking due responsibilities of its own. China has been singled out as one of the major targets at the subsequent negotiations after the Kyoto curtain had fallen. By analysing the historical contributions of inter-fuel switching, energy conservation, economic growth and population expansion to China’s CO₂ emissions during the period 1980–1997, this article first demonstrates that the above criticism cannot hold its ground. Next, we analyse what the economic effects would be if China’s carbon emissions in 2010 were cut by 20 and 30%, respectively, relative to the baseline. We found that China’s GNP losses under the two less restrictive carbon limits are in the same range as the often reported estimates for industrialised countries under very restrictive carbon limits. Then the article envisions some efforts and commitments that could be expected from China until its per capita income catches up with the level of middle-developed countries. By emphasising the win–win strategies, these efforts and commitments could be unlikely to severely jeopardise China’s economic development and, at the same time, would give the country more leverage at the post-Kyoto climate change negotiations. Finally, the article is concluded with the argument that combating global climate change is in China’s interest. It will be beneficial to a more sustainable development of the Chinese economy as well as to the global climate.     

Is China ready for its nuclear expansion?

China’s rapid pace of nuclear energy growth is unique, and its impact on the global nuclear market as both a customer and potential future supplier is already tremendous and will continue to expand. It is crucial to understand this energy policy development and its impact on various global areas. Unfortunately, there is relatively limited English-language information available about China’s nuclear power industry and its current development. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the Chinese nuclear energy program and policy, reviewing its past, present, likely future developments, as well as to consider potential challenges that deserve further attention. This paper will explore reasons that have caused the existing industry, describe China’s nuclear bureaucracy and decision making process to understand how different stakeholders play a role in China’s nuclear energy development. This study concludes that China’s existing nuclear program and industry, in combination with its current stable economic and political environment, provides a sound foundation for the planned nuclear expansion. However, challenges which are crucial to the success of the nuclear expansion will need to be addressed.     

Liquid biofuels potential and outlook in Iran

Iran’s diversity of terrain and climate enables cultivation of a variety of energy crops suitable for liquid biofuels production. In Iran, the easily and readily available biofuel feedstock today for production of bioethanol is molasses from sugar cane and sugar beet. There is also about 17.86 million tons of crops waste from which nearly 5 billion liters of bioethanol could be produced annually. This amount of bioethanol is sufficient to carry out E10 for spark ignition engine vehicles in Iran by 2026. There is also enormous potential for cultivation of energy plants such as cellulosic materials and algae. Iran has 7%of its area covered with forest products which are suitable sources for liquid biofuels such bioethanol and biodiesel. Iran also has a long tradition of fishing in Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf with about 3200 km coastline and on inland rivers. The produced fish oil and other plant oils such as palm tree, jatropha, castor plant and algae are suitable biodiesel feedstock. Out of 1.5 million tons of edible cooking oil consumed in Iran annually, about 20% of it can be considered as waste, which is suitable biodiesel feedstock.This quantity along with the other possible potential feedstock are favorable sources to carry out B10 step by step until 2026.     

Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of bioethanol from sugarcane in Brazil

Brazil has always been the pioneer in the application of bioethanol as a main fuel for automobiles, hence environmental and economic analyses of the Brazilian ethanol industries are of crucial importance. This study presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) on gasoline and ethanol as fuels, and with two types of blends of gasoline with bioethanol, all used in a midsize car. The focus is on a main application in Brazil, sugarcane based ethanol. The results of two cases are presented: base case—bioethanol production from sugarcane and electricity generation from bagasse; future case—bioethanol production from both sugarcane and bagasse and electricity generation from wastes. In both cases sugar is co-produced. The life cycles of fuels include gasoline production, agricultural production of sugarcane, ethanol production, sugar and electricity co-production, blending ethanol with gasoline to produce E10 (10% of ethanol) and E85 (85%), and finally the use of gasoline, E10, E85 and pure ethanol. Furthermore, a life cycle costing (LCC) was conducted to give an indication on fuel economy in both cases. The results show that in the base case less GHG is emitted; while the overall evaluation of these fuel options depends on the importance attached to different impacts. The future case is certainly more economically attractive, which has been the driving force for development in the ethanol industry in Brazil. Nevertheless, the outcomes depend very much on the assumed price for crude oil. In LCC a steady-state cost model was used and only the production cost was taken into account. In the real market the prices of fuels are very much dependent on the taxes and subsidies. Technological development can help in lowering both the environmental impact and the prices of the ethanol fuels.     

Opportunity for profitable investments in cellulosic biofuels

Research efforts to allow large-scale conversion of cellulose into biofuels are being undertaken in the US and EU. These efforts are designed to increase logistic and conversion efficiencies, enhancing the economic competitiveness of cellulosic biofuels. However, not enough attention has been paid to the future market conditions for cellulosic biofuels, which will determine whether the necessary private investment will be available to allow a cellulosic biofuels industry to emerge. We examine the future market for cellulosic biofuels, differentiating between cellulosic ethanol and ‘drop-in’ cellulosic biofuels that can be transported with petroleum fuels and have equivalent energy values. We show that emergence of a cellulosic ethanol industry is unlikely without costly government subsidies, in part because of strong competition from conventional ethanol and limits on ethanol blending. If production costs of drop-in cellulosic biofuels fall enough to become competitive, then their expansion will not necessarily cause feedstock prices to rise. As long as local supplies of feedstocks that have no or low-valued alternative uses exist, then expansion will not cause prices to rise significantly. If cellulosic feedstocks come from dedicated biomass crops, then the supply curves will have a steeper slope because of competition for land.     

Future prospects of delignification pretreatments for the lignocellulosic materials to produce second generation bioethanol

Production of bioethanol is winning support from masses because it is a workable choice to solve the problems associated with the fluctuating prices of crude petroleum oil, climatic change, and reducing non‐renewable fuel reserves. First‐generation biofuels are produced directly from food crops. The biofuel (bioethanol, biodiesel) is ultimately derived from the starch, sugar, animal fats, and vegetable oil that these crops provide. It is important to note that the structure of the biofuel itself does not change between generations, but rather the source from which the fuel is derived changes. Corn, wheat, and sugar cane are the most commonly used first‐generation bioethanol feed stocks. Lignocellulosic materials are used as a feed stock for the production of second‐generation bioethanol. The major production steps are (1) delignification, (2) depolymerisation, and (3) fermentation. Agricultural residues are waste materials produced through the processing of agricultural crops. The main reason to use of these agricultural residues to produce bioethanol is to convert waste to value added products. The main challenges are the low yield of the cellulosic hydrolysis process due to the presence of lignin and hemicellulose with cellulose. Pretreatments of lignocellulosic materials to remove lignin and hemicellulose are the techniques used to enhance the hydrolysis. Present review article comprehensively discusses the different pretreatment methods of delignification for ethanol production. Published literature on pretreatments from 1982 to 2018 has been studied. Perspectives, gaps in studies, and recommendations are given to fully describe implementation of eight prominent pretreatments (milling, pyrolysis, organic solvents, steam explosion, hot water treatments, ozonolysis, enzymatic delignification, and genetic modification) for future research. The energy and environmental features of lignocellulosic materials are elaborated to show a sustainable aspect of second‐generation biofuel. It was felt necessary to discuss the concept of bio refinery to make biofuel production financially more attractive as well because the future prospects of second‐generation biofuel are promising.     

The impact of a growing bioethanol industry on food production in Brazil

The Brazilian production of major food commodities increased fivefold between 1961 and 2008. In the same time, the area cropped with sugar cane increased with high growth rates, currently covering 3% of the area dedicated to agricultural production in Brazil. In order to assess a possible competition between biofuel and food production, the development of agricultural productivity and area expansion in the past was analysed. Furthermore, the future situation of land resources for agricultural production was illustrated. The findings of this study indicated that area resources of more than 20 million hectare would be available for agricultural production in the upcoming years. A current constraint of food production throughout land dedicated to biofuels was not found. Three scenarios were investigated, simulating possibilities of future changes in Brazilian agriculture. The results demonstrated that primary food production could be enhanced by 1.5 times while bioethanol production was enhanced simultaneously by 1.8 times over the years 2007/2008 and 2020. The generated bioethanol volumes would meet 38% of the total energy demand in Brazilian transport sector, applied to the year 2007. The second scenario evaluated an agricultural development with a higher focus on biofuels. It was projected that the production of bioethanol could be increased by 3.0 times to 76.7 million m³ of bioethanol, while increasing at the same time primary food production with the factor 1.4 aligned to the projected population growth. This bioethanol volume represents 67% of the total energy demand in Brazilian transport sector in the year 2007. A third scenario demonstrated that food production could be increased even with no area expansion higher than the projected population growth, due to a continued increase of productivity. At the same time bioethanol production would rise to 32 million m³ without occupying more area.     

How to improve the economy of bioethanol production in Serbia

Bioethanol accounts for the majority of biofuel use worldwide, either as a fuel or a gasoline enhancer. In Serbia, the industrial production of bioethanol still relies on conventional feedstocks containing starch and sugar such as corn, wheat and molasses. In order to improve the economy of bioethanol production and to avoid the competition of the feedstock utilization for food and energy, several production approaches based on crop selection, process integration and waste utilization were considered in this paper. Particular attention was put on utilization of non conventional crops such as triticale and damaged crops not appropriate for food consumption. Potential of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of second generation ethanol in Serbia was also considered as well as the utilization of stillage as a main by-product. The investigated approaches can significantly improve the economy of bioethanol production and contribute to solve serious environmental problems.     

Liquid biofuels in China: Current status,government policies,and future opportunities and challenges

China, like many other countries, is promoting the development of liquid biofuel, including bioethanol and biodiesel. The Chinese government has set biofuel development targets for the coming decade and sanctioned a series of supportive policies. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of current liquid biofuel development in China, related government policies, and the potential opportunities and challenges for its future expansion. Our assessment is based on two rounds of in-depth fieldwork and a thorough literature review. The assessment shows that the prevailing concern on food security has pushed China to move from cereal-based to non-cereal-based biofuel production. Emphasis has also been put on utilizing new marginal land for feedstock production. Our assessment indicates that the targets of China's biofuel development are cautious and feasible, but on the other hand there are still severe challenges for the sustainability of such development. A better understanding of China's experience in striking a balance between energy security, food security and environmental protection would inform the debates across country boundaries and contribute to the efforts for global sustainability.     

Energy and eMergy evaluation of bioethanol production from wheat in Henan Province,China

Ethanol production from wheat has become an emerging economic activity in Henan Province due to the establishment in 2001 of the National Program for Alcohol Production. The program aimed at facing the unfolding world energy crisis in the near future and increasing China's energy security. Instead, in spite of claims for “green energy”, such an activity is likely to generate great environmental damage and social problems. Moreover, the international market prices for raw materials (especially cereals) and fossil oil are putting this activity under siege. This research presents an energy and eMergy analysis of a typical wheat plantation/alcohol distillery system, in the Henan Province. Comparison is drawn with bioethanol production in Italy, based on corn from intensive, industrialized agriculture. Energy and eMergy indices of ethanol production from wheat and corn in the two agro-industrial systems are respectively as follows: output/input energy ratio, 1.09 (wheat) and 1.19 (corn); transformity of bioethanol, 2.77×105 and 1.89×105 seJ/J; renewability, 20% and 11%; eMergy yield ratio, 1.24 and 1.14; environmental loading ratio, 4.05 and 7.84; and finally eMergy sustainability index, 0.31 and 0.15. Results show that bioethanol from food crops is not a sustainable source of fuel.     

Life cycle assessment of different bioenergy production systems including perennial and annual crops

Energy crops are expected to greatly develop in a very short-term bringing to significant social and environmental benefits. Nevertheless, a significant number of studies report from very positive to negative environmental implications from growing and processing energy crops, thus great uncertainty still remains on this argument. The present study focused on the cradle-to-grave impact assessments of alternative scenarios including annual and perennial energy crops for electricity/heat or first and second generation transport fuels, giving special emphasis to agricultural practices which are frequently surprisingly neglected in Life Cycle Assessment studies despite a not secondary relevance on final outcomes. The results show that cradle-to-farm gate impacts, i.e. including the upstream processes, may account for up to 95% of total impacts, with dominant effects on marine water ecotoxicity. Therefore, by increasing the sustainability of crop management through minimizing agronomic inputs, or with a complementary use of crop resides, can be expected to significantly improve the overall sustainability of bioenergy chains, as well as the competitiveness against fossil counterparts. Once again, perennial crops resulted in substantially higher environmental benefits than annual crops. It is shown that significant amount of emitted CO₂ can be avoided through converting arable lands into perennial grasslands. Besides, due to lack of certain data, soil carbon storage was not included in the calculations, while N₂O emission was considered as omitted variable bias (1% of N-fertilization). Therefore, especially for perennial grasses, CO₂ savings were reasonably higher that those estimated in the present study. For first generation biodiesel, sunflower showed a lower energy-based impacts than rapeseed, while wheat should be preferred over maize for first generation bioethanol given its lower land-based impacts. For second generation biofuels and thermo-chemical energy, switchgrass provided the highest environmental benefits. With regard to bioenergy systems, first generation biodiesel was less impacting than first generation bioethanol; bioelectricity was less impacting than first generation biofuels and second generation bioethanol by thermo-chemical hydrolysis, but highly impacting than Biomass-to-Liquid biodiesel and second generation bioethanol through enzymatic hydrolysis.     

A review of agricultural crop residue supply in Canada for cellulosic ethanol production

This paper estimates the availability of agricultural crop residue feedstocks in Canada for cellulosic ethanol production. Canada's major field crops generate 100.6 million dry mega grams (Mg) of crops per year while non-forage crops produce 67 million dry Mg, leaving abundant agricultural residues for use as second generation feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production. This study used crop production and livestock data from Statistics Canada for a 10-year period (2001–2010), as well as tillage data from Statistics Canada census years 2001 and 2006, to estimate crop residue availability by province and soil zone. Total residue yield from crops is calculated by incorporating straw to grain ratios. Total agricultural residues available for ethanol production are computed by deducting soil conservation and livestock uses. An average of 48 million dry Mg of agricultural residues is available per year, with a minimum of 24.5 million dry Mg in drought year 2002. This implies an average yearly potential ethanol production of 13 billion litres from crop residues over the 2001–2010 period, with a minimum of 6.6 billion litres in 2002. Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Quebec have enough agricultural residue supply to set up ethanol plants using agricultural crop residues as primary lignocellulosic feedstocks. There is great variability in agricultural residue production between the provinces and by soil zone. Understanding variability in feedstock supply is important for the economics and operational planning of a cellulosic ethanol biorefinery. Factors such as residue yield per hectare and soil zone will influence cellulosic ethanol plant establishment in order to exploit the abundance of lignocellulosic biomass for an ethanol plant.     

Biofuels versus food production: Does biofuels production increase food prices?

Rapidly growing fossil energy consumption in the transport sector in the last two centuries caused problems such as increasing greenhouse gas emissions, growing energy dependency and supply insecurity. One approach to solve these problems could be to increase the use of biofuels.Preferred feedstocks for current 1st generation biofuels production are corn, wheat, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and sunflowers. The major problem is that these feedstocks are also used for food and feed production.The core objective of this paper is to investigate whether the recent increase of biofuels production had a significant impact on the development of agricultural commodity (feedstock) prices. The most important impact factors like biofuels production, land use, yields, feedstock and crude oil prices are analysed.The major conclusions of this analysis are: In recent years the share of bioenergy-based fuels has increased moderately, but continuously, and so did feedstock production, as well as yields. So far, no significant impact of biofuels production on feedstock prices can be observed. Hence, a co-existence of biofuel and food production seems possible especially for 2nd generation biofuels. However, sustainability criteria should be seriously considered. But even if all crops, forests and grasslands currently not used were used for biofuels production it would be impossible to substitute all fossil fuels used today in transport.     

Consequential effects of increased biofuel demand in Spain: Global crop area and CO2 emissions from indirect land use change

The indirect Land Use Change (iLUC) impacts of biofuels refer to the effects of additional emissions due to land-use changes triggered by the expansion of energy crops in response to increased biofuel demand. These emissions are mostly greenhouse gases (GHG), thus relevant to the climate change impact category. In order to address these effects, the European Commission (EC) has proposed the inclusion of feedstock type specific iLUC factors for different biofuel sources in the Renewable Energy Sources Directive 2009/28/EC (RED). The goal of this study is to quantify the indirect environmental impacts both in terms of global energy crop land area and the subsequent iLUC, if an additional demand of biofuel in Spain occurs, from a consequential approach. Results show a wide range of GHG emissions, in terms of CO₂, of biodiesel and bioethanol from iLUC effects, strongly influenced by the place where the potential biofuel is produced. Based on our study, two main aspects -determine the iLUC effects: the dedicated energy crops that are used to produce biofuels and the different coproducts obtained along the biofuels production process. Therefore, contrary to the EC proposal for including a single factor by type of crop, the development of origin-dependent iLUC factors seems to be a more appropriate alternative based on the current assessment. Other aspects that might affect the results, such as crop rotation or field management, have been excluded from the analysis in this work.     

Energy in the People's Republic of China

This article was prepared as part of the Energy Forecasting Project sponsored by British Petroleum at the Science Policy Research Unit. The purpose of the study was to review the literature on the coal, petroleum and electric power industries in the People's Republic of China and to relate developments in these industries to overall economic social and political policies in China. The article is thus a summation of our present knowledge about energy sources in China. On this basis, a preliminary attempt is made to assess the implications for China's international economic and political policies in the short-term future.     

Bioethanol production from Asphodelus aestivus

The increase on the price of fossil fuels and the need to protect the environment from greenhouse gases urge the investigation of the possibility of using biofuels to replace them. Cyprus is faced with severe water shortage and unavailability of agricultural land that limit the cultivation of energy crops that supply the feedstock for biofuel production. A possibility would be to use Asphodelus aestivus L. that is encountered in Cyprus and other Mediterranean countries, growing wild in pastures. Its tubers contain starch that was measured to be 10.1%. The bioethanol is produced by fermentation of the mash produced by crashing the tubers of the plant. The first stage of the process was cooking the mash at a temperature of 95 °C, combined by liquefaction and saccharification of the starch using enzymes, like alpha-amylase and glucoamylase. The process was followed by fermentation of the mash for three days and finally distillation of bioethanol. The alcohol yield per kilogram tubers was 49.52 ml/kg, compared to the theoretical value of 83.72 ml/kg, mainly due to the incomplete fermentation of the sugars. The plant seems to be a potential energy plant for bioethanol production in arid regions cultivated on degraded land.