Biofuels and food security: Micro-evidence from Ethiopia

There is considerable controversy about the impact of biofuels on food security in developing countries. A major concern is that biofuels reduce food security by increasing food prices. In this paper we use survey evidence to assess the impact of castor production on poor and food insecure rural households in Ethiopia. About 1/3 of poor farmers have allocated on average 15% of their land to the production of castor beans under contract in biofuel supply chains. Castor production significantly improves their food security: they have fewer months without food and the amount of food they consume increases. Castor cultivation is beneficial for participating households’ food security in several ways: by generating cash income from castor contracts, they can store food for the lean season; castor beans preserve well on the field which allows sales when farmers are in need of cash (or food); spillover effects of castor contracts increases the productivity of food crops. Increased food crop productivity offsets the amount of land used for castor so that the total local food supply is not affected.     

Land and water requirements of biofuel and implications for food supply and the environment in China

The increasing thirst for energy to fuel its fast growing economy has made China keen to explore the potential of modern form of bioenergy, biofuel. This study investigates the land and water requirements of biofuel in China with reference to the government biofuel development plans for 2010 and 2020. The concept of land and water footprints of biofuel is applied for the investigation. The result shows that the current level of bioethanol production consumes 3.5–4% of total maize production of the country, reducing market availability of maize for other uses by about 6%. It is projected that depending on the types of feedstock, 5–10% of the total cultivated land in China would need to be devoted to meet the biofuel production target of 12 million metric tons for the year 2020. The associated water requirement would amount to 32–72 km³ per year, approximately equivalent to the annual discharge of the Yellow River. The net contribution of biofuel to the national energy pool could be limited due to generally low net energy return of conventional feedstocks. The current biofuel development paths could pose significant impacts on China's food supply and trade, as well as the environment.     

Biofuel excision and the viability of ethanol production in the Green Triangle,Australia

The promotion and use of renewable energy sources are established priorities worldwide as a way to reduce emissions of Greenhouse Gases and promote energy security. Australia is committed to reach a target of 350 ML of biofuels per year by 2010, and incentives targeted to producers and consumers have been placed. These incentives include zero excise until 2011 for the ethanol produced in Australia and gradual increase of the taxation rates reaching the full excise of 0.125 AUD per litre by 2015. This paper analyses the viability of the second generation ethanol industry in the Green Triangle, one of the most promising Australian regions for biomass production, by comparing the energy adjusted pump prices of petrol and the produced ethanol under different taxation rates and forecasted oil prices. Major findings suggest that under the current conditions of zero fuel excise and oil prices around 80US$ per barrel ethanol production is viable using biomass with a plant gate cost of up to 74 AUD per ton. Moreover, the forecasted increase in oil prices have a higher impact on the price of petrol than the increased ethanol excise on the pump price of the biofuel. Thus, by 2016 feedstock with a plant gate cost of up to 190 AUD per ton might be used for ethanol production, representing a flow of 1.7 million tons of biomass per year potentially mitigating 1.2 million tons of CO₂ by replacing fossil fuels with ethanol.     

Biofuel production potentials in Europe: Sustainable use of cultivated land and pastures,Part II: Land use scenarios

Europe's agricultural land (including Ukraine) comprise of 164 million hectares of cultivated land and 76 million hectares of permanent pasture. A “food first” paradigm was applied in the estimations of land potentially available for the production of biofuel feedstocks, without putting at risk food supply or nature conservation.Three land conversion scenarios were formulated: (i) A base scenario, that reflects developments under current policy settings and respects current trends in nature conservation and organic farming practices, by assuming moderate overall yield increases; (ii) an environment oriented scenario with higher emphasis on sustainable farming practices and maintenance of biodiversity; and (iii) an energy oriented scenario considering more substantial land use conversions including the use of pasture land.By 2030 some 44–53 million hectares of cultivated land could be used for bioenergy feedstock production. The energy oriented scenario includes an extra 19 million hectares pasture land for feedstocks for second-generation biofuel production chains. Available land is foremost to be found in Eastern Europe, where substantial cultivated areas can be freed up through sustainable gains in yield in the food and feed sector.Agricultural residues of food and feed crops may provide an additional source for biofuel production. When assuming that up to 50% of crop residues can be used without risks for agricultural sustainability, we estimate that up to 246 Mt agricultural residues could be available for biofuel production, comparable to feedstock plantations of some 15–20 million hectares.     

Land use competition for production of food and liquid biofuels: An analysis of the arguments in the current debate

This article analyses the current state of the debate over competition for land use, by means of an index of the main arguments in favor and against the production of liquid biofuels and the impacts on food production. Based on this index, an analytic framework is constructed to establish the causal relations indicated by the existing studies on this competition. We find that the emergence of agro-energy has altered the land use dynamic, albeit not yet significantly, with a shift of areas traditionally used to grow foods over to crops to produce biofuels. This has been contributing to raise food prices in the short run. However, it is probable that this is not the only factor determining this trend, nor will it last over the long run. The challenge is to conciliate the production of biofuels with the production of foods in sustainable form.     

Biofuel implementation in East Europe: Current status and future prospects

There is a continuously increasing interest concerning the biofuel implementation in Europe, mainly because of environmental protection and energy supply security reasons. In this context, the European Union (EU) strongly encourages the use of biofuels through a number of Directives. To that effect, EU members follow the Directives implementing various political, fiscal and technical measures and incentives. In the light of the potential created by the recently joined Eastern European countries, an increasing interest is shown in the whole biofuel supply chain within the EU. In parallel, the status of the Eastern European countries domestic market, as far as biofuels are concerned, is an interesting issue, since most of these countries present a significant potential, however still lagging in biofuel implementation. In the above context, the objective of the present work is to give a concise and up-to-date picture of the present status of biofuel implementation in East Europe. The work also aims at identifying the prospects of these countries as far as biofuels are concerned and their role in the EU framework as potential suppliers of a wider market.     

Ultrasonication for biohydrogen production from food waste

The applicability of ultrasonication for enhancement of hydrogen production from food wastes was evaluated in three different systems. System A is a conventional continuously-stirred tank reactor (CSTR) fed raw food waste; system B is a conventional continuously-stirred tank reactor fed sonicated food waste, and system C (US patent-pending) is the sonicated biological hydrogen reactor (SBHR) which comprised a CSTR connected with an ultrasonic probe at the bottom of the reactor. In this study, the increase in hydrogen production rate relative to the control (system A) due to sonication of the feed before the digestion was 27%, compared to 90% in the SBHR. Similarly, the CSTR with sonicated feed exhibited a 23% increase in hydrogen yield as mol H₂/mol hexose_consumed compared to a 62% increase in the SBHR relative to the control (system A). The VSS destruction in the SBHR was higher than those in the CSTR and CSTR with sonicated feed by 50% and 60%, respectively.     

Biofuel production potentials in Europe: Sustainable use of cultivated land and pastures. Part I: Land productivity potentials

IIASA's agro-ecological zones modelling framework has been extended for biofuel productivity assessments distinguishing five main groups of feedstocks covering a wide range of agronomic conditions and energy production pathways, namely: woody lignocellulosic plants, herbaceous lignocellulosic plants, oil crops, starch crops and sugar crops. A uniform Pan-European land resources database was compiled at the spatial resolution of 1 km². Suitability and productivity assessments were carried out by matching climate characteristics with plant requirements, calculating annual biomass increments or yields including consideration of soil and terrain characteristics of each grid-cell.Potential biomass productivity and associated energy yields were calculated for each grid-cell. Spatial distributions of suitabilities of biofuel feedstocks in Europe were generated for each individual feedstock as well as for the five biofuel feedstock groups. Estimated agronomical attainable yields, both in terms of biomass (kg ha^?1) as well as biofuel energy equivalent (GJ ha^?1), were mapped and tabulated by agriculture and pasture land cover classes as derived from the CORINE land cover database. Results have been further aggregated by administrative units at NUTS 2 level.     

Resource demand implications for US algae biofuels production scale-up

Photosynthetic microalgae with the potential for high biomass and oil productivities have long been viewed as a promising class of feedstock for biofuels to displace petroleum-based transportation fuels. Algae offer the additional benefits of potentially being produced without using high-value arable land and fresh water, thereby reducing the competition for those resources between expanding biofuels production and conventional agriculture. Algae growth can also be enhanced by the use of supplemental CO₂ that could be supplied by redirecting concentrated CO₂ emissions from stationary industrial sources such as fossil-fired power plants, cement plants, fermentation industries, and others. In this way, algae may offer an effective means to capture carbon emissions for reuse in renewable fuels and co-products, while at the same time displacing fossil carbon fuels to help bring about a net reduction in overall carbon emissions. Significant displacement of petroleum fuels will require that algae feedstock production reach large volumes that will put demands on key resources. This scenario-based analysis provides a high-level assessment of land, water, CO₂ and nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus) demands resulting from algae biofuel feedstock production reaching target levels of 10 billion gallons per year (BGY), 20 BGY, 50 BGY, and 100 BGY for four different geographical regions of the United States. Different algae productivities are assumed for each scenario region, where relative productivities are nominally based on annual average solar insolation. The projected resource demands are compared with data that provide an indication of the resource level potentially available in each of the scenario regions. The results suggest that significant resource supply challenges can be expected to emerge as regional algae biofuel production capacity approaches levels of about 10 BGY. The details depend on the geographic region, the target feedstock production volume, and the level of algae productivity that can be achieved. The implications are that the supply of CO₂, nutrients, and water, in particular, can be expected to severely limit the extent to which US production of algae biofuel can be sustainably expanded unless approaches are developed to mitigate these resource constraints in parallel to emergence of a viable algae technology. Land requirements appear to be the least restrictive, particularly in the Western half of the country where larger quantities of potentially suitable classes of land exist. Within the limited scope and assumptions of this analysis, sustainable photosynthetic microalgae biofuel feedstock production in the US in excess of about 10 BGY will likely be a challenge due to other water, CO₂ and nutrient resource limitations. Developing algae production approaches that can effectively use non-fresh water resources and minimize both water and nutrient requirements will help reduce resource constraints. Providing adequate CO₂ resources for enhanced algae production appears the biggest challenge, and could emerge as a constraint at oil production levels below 10 BGY.     

Indirect land use change for biofuels: Testing predictions and improving analytical methodologies

Current practices for estimating indirect land use change (iLUC) due to United States biofuel production rely on assumption-heavy, global economic modeling approaches. Prior iLUC studies have failed to compare their predictions to past global historical data. An empirical approach is used to detect evidence for iLUC that might be catalyzed by United States biofuel production through a “bottom-up”, data-driven, statistical approach. Results show that biofuel production in the United States from 2002 to 2007 is not significantly correlated with changes in croplands for corn (coarse grain) plus soybean in regions of the world which are corn (coarse grain) and soybean trading partners of the United States. The results may be interpreted in at least two different ways: 1) biofuel production in the United States through 2007 (the last date for which information is available) probably has not induced any indirect land use change, and 2) this empirical approach may not be sensitive enough to detect indirect land use change from the historical data. It seems clear that additional effort may be required to develop methodologies to observe indirect land use change from the historical data. Such efforts might reduce uncertainties in indirect land use change estimates or perhaps form the basis for better policies or standards for biofuels.     

Opportunities and challenges for biodiesel fuel

Fossil fuel resources are decreasing daily. As a renewable energy, biodiesel has been receiving increasing attention because of the relevance it gains from the rising petroleum price and its environmental advantages. This review highlights some of the perspectives for the biodiesel industry to thrive as an alternative fuel, while discussing opportunities and challenges of biodiesel. This review is divided in three parts. First overview is given on developments of biodiesel in past and present, especially for the different feedstocks and the conversion technologies of biodiesel industry. More specifically, an overview is given on possible environmental and social impacts associated with biodiesel production, such as food security, land change and water source. Further emphasis is given on the need for government’s incentives and public awareness for the use and benefits of biodiesel, while promoting policies that will not only endorse the industry, but also promote effective land management.     

Energy efficiency,security of supply and the environment in South Africa: Moving beyond the strategy documents

Energy efficiency is one of the most potent and cost effective ways of meeting the demands of sustainable development. It has in fact been referred to as the best energy resource. Way back in 2005 the South African Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) published its Energy Efficiency Strategy in support of some of the objectives enlisted in the 1998 White Paper on Energy Policy. The Strategy set a national target for energy efficiency improvement of 12% by 2015 against the baseline year 2000. The document further predicted that, with a business as usual model of energy usage, at the projected rate of national economic development, there would be a need to invest in new power generating capacity by around 2007. Despite the policy foresight and seemingly enthusiastic efforts, though, the dawn of 2008 saw the country gripped in an electric power crisis, with a capacity shortfall of over 10%. This paper looks at what could have gone wrong, examines energy efficiency policies and measures in other countries and how these lessons could be adopted to the South African context.     

Resource consumption in Japanese agriculture and its link to food security

Energy security and food security are two key policy objectives of the Japanese government. However, their study and the policies that have targeted them have been disjointed at best. This paper explores the links between these two policy objectives by quantifying the resources used in (a) the agricultural sector as a whole and (b) two very resource intensive sub-sectors, beef and pork production. Emergy synthesis is used as the analytical approach for the period 1975–2005 with the results suggesting that not only is more natural capital currently being used within the agricultural sector but the efficiency of the agricultural production has declined considering the increase in transformity during the same period. What is more important though is that agricultural yield is strongly correlated with resource use (quantified as emergy). This finding suggests that sudden changes in resource supply can affect agricultural production and as an extension national food security. Overall the evidence presented in this paper shows that energy security and food security are indeed interconnected and that integrated policy responses will be required if these issues are to be tackled effectively.     

Viability of ultrasonication of food waste for hydrogen production

Batch anaerobic studies were conducted to study the effect of ultrasonication as a pre-treatment method for pulp waste prior to anaerobic hydrogen production. Pre-treatment was conducted by sonicating a 100 mL of pulp waste at different sonication times varying from 0.5 min to 30 min. The ultimate hydrogen production increased with increasing sonication time. The highest ultimate hydrogen production was achieved at a sonication time of 30 min and reflected an 88% increase over the unsonicated food waste, of 80 mL/g VS_added. The highest final VFAs concentration after fermentation (corresponding to 70% increase over the unsonicated food waste) was also achieved at a sonication time of 30 min. There were no significant differences between the acetate-to-butyrate ratios (HAc/HBu) for the all sonication times. The maximum hydrogen production rate at sonication time of 30 min was about 145% higher than that the unsonicated food waste.     

Energy and water tradeoffs in enhancing food security: A selective international assessment

Rice is the major staple food in most Asian countries. However, with rapidly growing populations, sustained high productivity and yields through improving water productivity is critically important. Increasingly complex energy–agriculture relationships require an in-depth understanding of water and energy tradeoffs. This study contributes to energy and food policies by analysing the complex energy, water and economics dynamics across a selection of major rice growing countries.The results show that tradeoffs exist between yield and energy inputs with high yield attributed to higher levels of energy input. The selected developed countries show higher energy productivity, relative to all other energy inputs, compared to the selected developing counties, owing to enhanced mechanisation, on-farm technology and improved farm management. Among all countries, China has the highest water productivity due to water-saving irrigation practices. These practices offer opportunities for developed and developing countries to increase water productivity at the same time taking advantage of economic and energy benefits of reduced pumping.Sustained production from agriculture is vital to food security. Improved irrigation practices can offset environmental footprints in the short run but their large-scale implementation remains an issue. In the long run, investments are needed to buffer the negative impacts of food production on the environment. Investments to boost water productivity and improved energy use efficiency in crop production are two pathways to reduce energy dependency, enhanced natural resource sustainability and ensuring future food security.     

Biofuel production: Prospects,challenges and feedstock in Australia

The growing demands for energy coupled with ever increasing environmental concerns have allowed the global production of biofuels to rise significantly in recent years. Many countries across the world have begun utilising biofuels on a national scale, while many more are in the process of planning and implementing similar steps. While Australia has an abundance of fossil fuels in the form of coal, natural gas, and oil, and currently employs a variety of alternative energy sources, the technology to produce and implement biofuels in Australia is in its embryonic stage. Today, Australia is using first generation feedstock as the main source for the production of biofuel, but is progressively broadening into second-generation biofuel production technology. Australia has an enormous amount of biomass available in the form of agricultural and forestry residues, bagasse and feedstock currently unused for the production of biofuels. The technology for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels warrants further research to maximise yield to the point of industrial feasibility. This review discusses the current state of ethanol production in Australia, the key technological challenges involved in the production of second-generation biofuel and the availability of various kinds of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel production.     

The use of graphical pinch analysis for visualizing water footprint constraints in biofuel production

A graphical pinch approach for analysis of water footprint constraints on biofuel production systems is presented. The technique is based on the composite curve method which was originally developed for carbon-constrained energy planning, which is extended in this paper based on the underlying similarities of source-sink allocation problems. The pinch analysis approach enables limiting water footprint conditions to be identified, and provides insights that are useful for planning the large-scale cultivation of biofuel crops. An illustrative case study based on the bioethanol program of the Philippines is solved using the proposed approach.     

A framework for reviewing the trade-offs between, renewable energy, food, feed and wood production at a local level

High fuel prices and concerns about energy security and anthropogenic climate change are encouraging a transition towards a low carbon economy. Although energy policy is typically set at a national level, tools are needed for people to engage with energy policy at regional and local levels, and to guide decisions regarding land use, distributed generation and energy supply and demand. The aim of this paper is to develop a per-capita approach to renewable energy demand and supply within a landscape and to illustrate the key trade-offs between renewable energy, food, (animal) feed and wood production. The chosen case study area (16,000 ha) of Marston Vale, England is anticipated to have a population density midway between that for England and the UK. The daily per capita demand for energy for heat (31 kWh), transport (34 kWh) and electricity (15 kWh) when combined (80 kWh) was seven-fold higher than the combined demand for food (2 kWh), animal feed (6 kWh), and wood (4 kWh). Using described algorithms, the combined potential energy supply from domestic wind and photovoltaic panels, solar heating, ground-source heat, and municipal waste was limited (<10 kWh p⁻¹ d⁻¹). Additional electricity could be generated from landfill gas and commercial wind turbines, but these have temporal implications. Using a geographical information system and the Yield-SAFE tree and crop yield model, the capacity to supply bioethanol, biodiesel, and biomass, food, feed and wood was calculated and illustrated for three land-use scenarios. These scenarios highlight the limits on meeting energy demands for transport (33%) and heat (53%), even if all of the arable and grassland area was planted to a high yielding crop like wheat. The described framework therefore highlights the major constraints faced in meeting current UK energy demands from land-based renewable energy and the stark choices faced by decision makers.     

Characterisation of land types and agro-ecological conditions for production of Jatropha as a feedstock for biofuels in Zimbabwe

There is increasing interest in Zimbabwe in developing a biofuels industry based on the production of biodiesel using Jatropha as the main feedstock. This has led to the introduction of Jatropha as a commercial energy crop in the country. There are plans to grow 1220 km² of Jatropha which will supply about 365,000 t of seed. This will provide about 110 dam³ of biodiesel required to achieve a blending level of 10% with petro-diesel. The availability and suitability of land for the production of Jatropha cannot be taken for granted, particularly given the fact that the concept and practice of production of feedstocks for biofuels remain contested on the threat they pose to food security. Determining the land that is potentially available for biofuels is a non-trivial task. A multiplicity of factors needs to be considered. It is important to determine the spatial extent of areas with suitable growth conditions for Jatropha. The interaction of soil type and land use is an important interface in agriculture. Added to this is the need to balance food, fodder and fuel supply in land use planning. This paper attempts to assess the availability and suitability of various land types as well as agro-ecological conditions for the production of Jatropha in Zimbabwe.