Tag Archives: alternative
DTI Taps Export Potential Of ‘Engineered’ Bamboo
Philippine Daily Inquirer 9:08 pm | Friday, August 9th, 2013 The Department of Trade and Industry wants to tap the export potential of “engineered” bamboo as it is expected to provide Philippine furniture manufacturers a competitive edge in the Asean region. This will be critical after 2015 when the economies of the 10-member countries of the Asean would have been integrated under the Asean Economic Community, allowing the free flow of goods and manpower across the region. Senen M. Perlada, director at the DTI’s Bureau of Export Trade Promotion (BETP), said engineered bamboo had huge export potential since bamboo is endemic in the country; bamboo plantations can thrive nationwide; and new technologies are readily available for adoption. “The innate creativity of the Filipino and the plant’s flexibility as a raw material for a variety of products and uses can be showcased in international trade exhibitions and missions, as well as in local trade fairs and exhibits,” Perlada added. Engineered bamboo refers to the low-cost product manufactured from bamboo and designed to replace wood. Citing World Bamboo Resources, the DTI said that the Philippines had about 172,000 hectares of bamboo forest in 2005, or about 2.4 percent of the country’s total forest area of 7,162-million hectares. Over the past five years, the country’s export sales of bamboo furniture and furnishings had been on a seesaw trend, reaching a high of $1.21 million in 2008 and then dropping to $928,132 in 2009, government data showed. In 2010, export sales stood at $689,786, before it regained momentum in 2011 with sales reaching $1.1 million. In 2012, sales of bamboo furniture dropped by 56.9 percent to $481,195 from the previous year. The Philippines’ main markets for bamboo furniture in 2012 were the United States, which accounted for $261,020; France, $64,806; and the Netherlands, $35,116. Exports of bamboo furnishings, though more modest compared to bamboo furniture, brought in $365,398 in 2008 and $464,343 in 2011, but dropped to $100,521 in 2012. The main market was France, which bought 90 percent or $90,329 worth of bamboo furnishings from the Philippines in 2012. Amy R. Remo Continue reading
EcoPlanet Bamboo’s Expansion Plans Target 1 Million Acres of Degraded Land
PRWeb Published 7:05 pm, Thursday, August 8, 2013 EcoPlanet Bamboo’s plantations have received independent accreditation from a range of institutions, from the World Bank to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Such accreditation demonstrates that a for-profit company can earn strong financial returns in a sustainable and transparent way, while positively impacting the lives of the poor, improving the environment, and protecting the planet. Barrington, IL (PRWEB) August 08, 2013 Increasing demand for timber and fiber continues to put pressure on forests globally, and although sustainability issues are a hot topic, market economics ultimately win and the forest loses. Over the past three years EcoPlanet Bamboo has driven the development of commercial plantations of non invasive tropical clumping bamboo around one core pillar – to set in stone the benchmarks and framework for the industrialization of bamboo as an alternative fiber in a way that addresses issues of social and environmental concern. EcoPlanet Bamboo’s recently concluded first phase of growth, the strategically located reforestation of approximately 10,000 acres of highly degraded land, in some of the poorest and least developed regions of Central America and Southern Africa, was focused on being demonstrative. Proving that bamboo could be successfully produced at a commercial scale across different species and climates from both seed and tissue culture plantlets; proving that climate change benefits (accredited by the Verified Carbon Standard), as well as biodiversity and social co-benefits (accredited by the Climate, Community, Biodiversity Alliance) could be achieved; and ultimately proving that bamboo could be produced in a truly sustainable manner through the early acquisition of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Forest Management certification for the Rio Siquia and Rio Kama plantations. In addition to these certifications, EcoPlanet Bamboo’s plantations have received independent accreditation from a range of institutions, from the World Bank to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Such accreditation demonstrates that a for-profit company can earn strong financial returns in a sustainable and transparent way, while positively impacting the lives of the poor, improving the environment, and protecting the planet. EcoPlanet Bamboo is hopeful that this success will set a new global benchmark for the industrialization of bamboo. With this framework strongly in place to guide the development of each new plantation, EcoPlanet Bamboo has set its sights on a second phase of growth – achieving the reforestation of 1 million acres of highly degraded land into fully functioning commercial bamboo forests, with a focus on Southeast Asia, Brazil and Africa. Split into manageable operations of 25,000 – 100,000 acres, these are to be dedicated plantations; each one co-developed alongside timber dependent manufacturing companies within strategic locations globally, providing them the ability to create a long-term competitive price advantage, secure supply and a meeting of each entity’s sustainability goals. “While our achievements to date are still a long way from our 1,000,000 acre goal, they have proved not only that we can, but that we are committed to industrializing bamboo in a way that benefits the local community, is environmentally positive, and enables the feedstock security that multinational corporations require to ultimately move away from unsustainable logging practices, and make the switch to an alternative fiber,” says Troy Wiseman, CEO of EcoPlanet Bamboo Group. For the original version on PRWeb visit:[url=”http://www.prweb.com…web11010766.htm”] http://www.prweb.com…web11010766.htm Continue reading
Seeking Biomass Feedstocks That Can Compete
Biofuels and biobased chemical makers hope to win with cellulosic sugars By Melody M. Bomgardner On the hot, dry agricultural land of California’s Imperial Valley, 17 new varieties of an unusual crop are being tested on a 100-acre plot. If the tests are successful, the valley’s bounty of lettuce, cantaloupes, and broccoli may someday be joined by plants that are converted into fuels and chemicals. The crop, energy cane, is a less sweet cousin of sugarcane. It is a perennial grass that was developed by plant scientists to create a large amount of biomass quickly. Canergy , a biofuels start-up, plans to grow enough energy cane to power one or more commercial-scale fuel ethanol plants starting in 2016. Although the valley is known for producing fruits and vegetables, more than half of its 450,000 acres are actually devoted to crops such as Sudan grass, used for hay. If enough farmers decide to add energy cane to their crop rotation, the region would produce a huge amount of biomass. “It grows extremely well there—we’re expecting phenomenal yields,” says Timothy R. Brummels, Canergy’s chief executive officer. He estimates that 1,800 to 2,200 gal of ethanol per year can be made from 1 acre of energy cane, compared with about 400 gal from 1 acre of corn. Energy cane is a dedicated energy crop, a category of plants that also includes the giant reed Arundo donax, napier grass, switchgrass, and hybrid poplar. Investments in energy crops are one part of a larger push by the biobased fuel and chemical industry to secure cheap, abundant feedstocks. Chemical companies can use the material to produce acrylic acid and butadiene, for example. Genomatica, Gevo , and Myriant have built their processes to take in sugar from corn or sugarcane. Those sources carry downsides. For instance, prices rise and fall along with other commodities such as petroleum, and the supply of sugar may not be ample enough to meet the needs of high-volume chemical makers. To ensure the viability of their industry, they are eager to replace those food sugars with a cheaper, more stable cellulose-based raw material. Executives say they are watching the growth of the cellulosic ethanol industry closely. Its success would pave the way to securing new cellulosic feedstocks for chemicals, they believe. “Just about every one of our chemical partners is interested in the potential for using biomass feedstocks,” says Christophe Schilling, CEO of Genomatica. “The motivation comes from a couple of different potential advantages—the first one is the potential for lower-cost feedstock. It still needs to be proven, but that is the hope. Then it is the stability of a secure supply of feedstock that doesn’t have the volatility of hydrocarbons or commodity agriculture.” Schilling adds that getting feedstock from nonfood sources is also important. Thanks to a half-decade of effort by the ethanol industry, clues are now emerging about how a cellulosic feedstock supply chain for chemicals would take shape. One thing is certain: The route is more complicated than for fossil-fuel feedstocks. “Part of the challenge is that shale gas is shale gas no matter where on Earth it comes from. But biomass is different with each crop,” says Brian Balmer, chemical industry principal at the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan . For that reason, making inexpensive sugars from plant-based feedstocks has become its own specialty. Canergy, Genomatica, and Gevo have partnered with Beta Renewables , which is a joint venture between the engineering firm Chemtex, owned by Italian chemical maker Mossi & Ghisolfi; private equity firm Texas Pacific; and enzyme maker Novozymes. The biobased chemical makers are interested in Beta Renewables’ process for breaking down cellulose with steam and enzymatic treatment to release sugars. Beta Renewables is already using the process to produce ethanol from wheat straw and A. donax at its commercial-scale biorefinery in Crescentino, Italy. Chemtex plans to build a facility in Clinton, N.C., that will run primarily on a mix of energy crops that includes A. donax and use the Beta Renewables technology. Beta Renewables says its process can deliver sugar from biomass for 10 cents per lb, a substantial discount from today’s corn-derived sugars, which cost around 18–20 cents per lb, notes Michele Rubino, the company’s chief operating officer. That is a price that pleases Gevo’s CEO, Patrick R. Gruber. “I hope he’s right. To make it big we will want cellulosic sugar,” he says. “To get more carbon per unit of land is better for everyone.” Gevo makes isobutyl alcohol from corn-based sugar. The output of Gevo’s first plant, in Luverne, Minn., is being used as a solvent and in jet fuel for the U.S. Air Force, but isobutyl alcohol is also a candidate to be an intermediate for p -xylene in Coca-Cola’s project to make 100% biobased soda bottles. Biobased chemical maker Myriant is working to adapt its organisms to squirt out succinic acid on a diet of cellulosic sugar, which contains both five- and six-carbon molecules. However, Alif Saleh, Myriant’s vice president of sales and marketing, says chemical industry customers have not yet demanded a switch away from corn sugar. Poet-DSM is contracting with farmers to obtain 285,000 tons of corn stover for its 25 million-gal-per-year plant. The companies need lots of local growers, so they have started a major outreach campaign , including advertising on local radio stations . DuPont plans to collect stover from a 30-mile radius for its similarly sized facility in Nevada, Iowa. Neither firm has disclosed its cost to make sugar. An alternative is to grow biomass on purpose by planting energy crops on agricultural land that cannot be economically used for food crops. That so-called marginal land may be ideal for some types of energy crops, particularly perennial grasses. By not shifting land use away from food production, companies can also defuse much of the concern about the impact of biobased fuels and chemicals on the food supply—the crux of the food-versus-fuel debate. “For us, having a base load of a dedicated energy crop is a pretty nice way to set up the supply chain,” Rubino argues. “It gives us high density, high yields, and requires less land. We base the facility off of that and take additional locally available residues from agriculture or mills.” The relatively modest amount of land needed to grow dedicated energy crops is appealing to biobased chemical makers. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, A. donax should produce as much as 15 dry tons of biomass per acre. In contrast, DuPont estimates it will collect 2 tons of corn cobs, leaves, and stems per acre. Of course, that land also produces corn. Obtaining feedstock can be further simplified by contracting with companies that control large amounts of land or biomass. In July, Beta Renewables signed a long-term agreement with Murphy-Brown, a livestock subsidiary of Smithfield Foods that is arranging for energy crops to be grown on land where hog farmers spray animal waste. The high-yielding perennial grass crops will help take up the excess nitrogen in the waste. Similarly, cellulosic sugar firm Renmatix has signed a development agreement with UPM, a pulp and paper firm, to develop sugars from UPM’s woody biomass. Renmatix CEO Mike Hamilton says the most cost-effective biobased chemicals will be manufactured on a site near the feedstock, perhaps at a pulp and paper mill. “If people are planning to ship low-value biomass around the country, that is not an effective process,” Hamilton says. “If you can assemble the end-to-end value chain, that is where the economics are optimized to compete with fossil-fuel chemicals.” Hamilton and other biobased chemical makers know that newly abundant natural gas is challenging the economics of their business. Indeed, the rise of shale gas will create biobased winners and losers, experts say. “What biobased chemical makers should focus on is the higher carbon chain lengths that you don’t get in natural gas,” Frost & Sullivan’s Balmer advises. Two- and three-carbon biobased chemicals, in contrast, will struggle to be competitive because petrochemical versions can be made from natural gas. “The rise of natural gas is a fascinating situation,” Genomatica’s Schilling says. “In our case, we benefit because of the products we make.” The firm has developed sugar-based routes to butadiene, which is used to make synthetic rubber, and to 1,4-butanediol, a raw material for urethanes, plasticizers, and coatings. The petrochemical industry has historically made 1,4-butanediol, butadiene, and other four-carbon chemicals by processing by-products from ethylene facilities that consume crude-oil-based feedstocks. But ethylene plants that run on ethane and propane extracted from natural gas produce a much smaller C 4 stream. In the past few years, experts say, prices for 1,4-butanediol and butadiene have significantly increased, and the trend should continue for the foreseeable future. Still, traditional companies aren’t going to cede territory to biobased chemical makers without a fight. For example, one company, TPC Group, is planning to make butadiene via butane dehydrogenation at a plant it owns in Houston. And the seven giant shale-gas-based petrochemical plants that have been announced for the U.S. are going to flood the market with chemicals of all sorts. At Renmatix, competing with chemicals made from shale gas has been on Hamilton’s mind lately, but he believes he is on the right side. “First, natural gas is not renewable. Second, it is also a volatile commodity, whereas biobased materials are significantly more reliable. Where there is competition, the least volatile, more long-term option will win.” [+]Enlarge Credit: POET-DSM (corn stover), Wikimedia Commons (grain sorghum), Beta Renewables (Giant reed), GreenWood Tree Farm Fund (hybrid poplar), USDA (energy cane, napier grass), Shutterstock (switchgrass) Chemical & Engineering News Continue reading
