One more thing to think about is the amount of arable land needed to grow these oilseed crops. For instance, will Europe, a relatively small continent of people largely opposed to genetically modified (GM) agricultural products, have enough cropland to sustain a growing biofuels industry without draining product from the rapeseed food markets, or without compromising its widely-held position against GM crops?

According to Promar International, biodiesel’s demand for vegetable oils will cause significant increases in global vegetable oil prices—more so than history has ever witnessed before. The analysis also shows that by 2012 or 2013, soybean production would likely be up by 3.8 million metric tons worldwide, while worldwide sunflower production would rise 1.7 million metric tons. Rapeseed production increases are expected to hit 1.4 million metric tons higher than current production by then, and palm oil production would rise 500,000 metric tons.

Along with those findings, Promar International predicts that Europe will become a net importer of soybean, rapeseed, sunflower and palm oils. Its analysis also indicates that palm oil production will likely skyrocket, especially in regions of the world like Malaysia, Indonesia, south Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Recent reports circulating through various media outlets point to the destructive nature of proliferating palm tree plantations in developing parts of the world. The fear is that, in order to supply the growing demand for high-oil-yielding crops for biodiesel production and other needs, native species in rainforests and other precious habitats are being lost to make way for the vast tracks of cultivated land needed to sustain these growingly popular plantations.

Fats and Greases

On a somewhat lighter note, NREL predicts slow growth in both animal fats and waste grease supplies over the next several years.

NREL found that, over the past five years, inedible tallow and grease supplies have increased at an average of only 0.4 percent per year. Also, the domestic demand has fallen at the rate of 0.5 percent per year. NREL predicts inedible tallow supplies could increase by 58 million gallons by 2016. The production of edible tallow has risen 1.4 percent per year, and domestic demand for edible tallow has fallen by 1.3 percent per year. By 2016, NREL predicts that edible tallow supplies will increase by 68 MMgy. However, lard supplies and domestic demand have both been falling over the past five years. Future lard increases are only expected to come in at approximately 7 MMgy.

Waste vegetable oils and brown greases are the least expensive feedstock for biodiesel production, but due to their often-high amounts of free fatty acids, they typically cost the most to process. However, there are a growing number of successful producers out there using proprietary technologies for these conversions, but finding out exactly what they are doing and how they are doing it is sometimes challenging.

“The supply of other greases and trap grease is assumed to remain constant over time, lacking any good information about these sources,” NREL’s Oil Analysis report states. “Thus, animal fats and greases will only grow by 133 million gallons by 2016 in the absence of any significant regulatory changes in these markets.”

“Alternatives” and future research

These series of deliberations—the “food versus fuel” competition (with respect to vegetable oils and edible animal fats), resulting higher prices when competition for oils and fats increase, livestock market ramifications, slow projected growth in the animal fats markets, arable land needed to grow the oilseed crops and more—have spurred some companies to focus on researching alternative feedstocks for biodiesel production.

According to Graham Prince, head of corporate communications for London-based D1 Oils plc., these reasons have led his company to investigate jatropha as a viable alternative feedstock for biodiesel production.

Jatropha is originally native to Peru and Mexico, Prince tells Biodiesel Magazine. “The South American Indians used it as a medicinal plant,” he says. “The seed and its oil are high in curcin, a poison.” Because of the presence of this poison, jatropha is not a food crop for animals or humans.

D1 Oils came on the scene in the late 1990s, when the company was looking into feedstocks for biodiesel production. “It’s better priced than canola or German rapeseed, or a lot of other high maintenance crops that require fertilizers and pesticides,” Prince says. When D1 Oils “discovered” jatropha—on the “margin of research since the 1940s after Japan initiated it during [WWII],” Prince says—they hit the jackpot. “Jatropha has some key characteristics for biodiesel production,” Prince says. “Jatropha has high oil yields—up to 40 percent in the right conditions—it’s competitively priced, there’s no need for arable land to grow it and it’s not competing with food crops.” According to Prince, Jatropha sounds like the ideal biodiesel feedstock.

D1 Oils believes it can produce jatropha oil at $275 per metric ton, compared to palm oil’s current price of $450 per metric ton. “Palm oil’s the one to beat,” Prince says.

“The problem with German rapeseed is that the price is distorted by the demand from the food industry,” he continues. “If you couple the fact that jatropha is not a food crop with the idea that jatropha thrives on marginal lands, we believe it has great potential.”

D1 Oils is strategically building alliances with contracted jatropha farmers, third-party jatropha oil suppliers and others in joint ventures all over the globe—especially where land remediation is needed and growing conditions are less than suitable for growing food crops. D1 Oils is partnering with growers in Africa and Asia, where the company’s modular “D1 20” processing units can be set up near oil-crushing facilities located on jatropha plantations. On par with the earlier mention of Promar International’s belief that Europe will become a net vegetable oil importer in the not-so-distant future, Prince says D1 Oils plans to import its African-made jatropha-based biodiesel to the United Kingdom in just a couple years.

“There is still a lot to prove,” Prince says. “But as the agronomy of the seeds progresses, our numbers will get better.”

Unfortunately, jatropha trees take 3 to 5 years to mature after planting, while requiring radical pruning to maximize growth, according to Prince.

As D1 Oils concentrates its efforts on honing the growth of jatropha and developing its proprietary process technologies, GreenFuel Technologies Corp. is looking at exploiting algae for biodiesel production—in a novel and environmentally constructive way.

GreenFuel’s “emissions-to-biofuels” approach to “growing” its own feedstock consists of installing its modular units in line with, for example, a power plant’s effluent-streaming smokestack, in which algae are cultivated and thrive on consuming carbon dioxide while breaking down nitrogen oxide bonds.

<-- Previous Page	1   2   3	Next Page -->
View Entire Article