Issues in Contemporary Agriculture:
Fuel

In the News

BC Renewable Agri-Energy Initiative

(BCBN Press Release, November 5, 2009)  The BC Bioenergy Network ("BCBN"), a provincially-funded leader supporting the growing bioenergy sector in British Columbia, announced today a $100,000 investment with the BC Agricultural Research and Development Corporation ("ARDCorp"). The funding will enable ARDCorp to develop a comprehensive strategy and business plan for a Renewable Agri-Energy Initiative.  Read more

Genome Prairie Projects Attract $ 1.7M in Provincial Funding

(Genome Prairie Press Release, October 5, 2009)  The future of flax and biofuels research has never been brighter in Manitoba. With the Province of Manitoba's $375,000 investment in Genome Prairie's Total Utilization of Flax Genomics (TUFGEN) and the $1.3 million investment in the Microbial Genomics for Biofuels and Co-Products from Biorefining Processes (MGB2), Manitoba is set to lead Canadian genomics research in flax and biofuels.  Read more

Straw-Based Ethanol Eyed for Saskatchewan Mill Site

(Country Guide, June 2, 2009)  A shuttered pulp mill at Prince Albert, Sask. could be the new site for a facility to make cellulosic ethanol from farmers' cereal straw.

Saskatchewan's provincial government on Monday inked a letter of intent with Domtar, owner of the pulp mill site, and Iogen, an Ottawa enzyme manufacturer, for the proposed development of an ethanol and bioenergy facility at the P.A. site.  Read more

Vegetable-Waste Power Plant Gets Federal Funds

(Country Guide, May 24, 2009)  A project to contribute to Ontario's power grid using electricity from artificially digesting vegetable waste has picked up a contribution from Ottawa.

The federal government said Friday it will put up a repayable contribution of up to $1.6 million for Seacliff Energy to build a cogeneration facility using vegetable waste, from local farms and greenhouses, as its fuel.  Read more

PAMI to Build, Test Anaerobic Digester

Country Guide, May 11, 2009  The Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) will use a federal investment of $350,000 to build a pilot-scale anaerobic digester for potential use in generating energy from livestock wastes.

Through its Applied Bioenergy Centre (ABC), PAMI plans to use its digester to evaluate the feasibility of livestock operators and/or municipal landfills producing their own sustainable energy sources from animal waste or household garbage.  Read more

Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn-Ethanol

A study by researchers at the University of Nebraska, Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse gas Emissions of Corn-Ethanol, analyzed the life cycles of corn-ethanol systems accounting for the majority of U.S. capacity to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiencies on the basis of updated values for crop management yields, biorefinery operation, and coproduct utilization. Direct-effect GHG emissions were estimated to be equivalent to a 48% to 59% reduction compared to gasoline, a twofold to threefold greater reduction than reported in previous studies. Improved technologies have the potential to move corn-ethanol closer to the hypothetical performance of cellulosic biofuels.

The full study can be read here

Beaker Fuel

(www.forbes.com, November 24, 2008)  Dartmouth college engineering professor Lee R. Lynd hit upon an unlikely source of transportation fuel three decades ago: bacteria from compost heaps. While working on a farm one summer, he became fascinated by how the bacteria could degrade all sorts of plant matter and produce heat. He envisioned creating designer bacteria that could digest fibrous plants and spit out barrels of fuel. But when he tried to convince venture capitalists in the early 1990s to form a company based on the idea, he got nowhere. Gas was cheap and renewable energy, a backwater. One government agency rejected his grant proposal five years in a row. "People said, 'You seem like a bright guy. Why are you in this dead field?'" says Lynd.  Read more

Desert Plant's Properties Eyed for Canadian Oilseed

(Country Guide, November 29, 2008)  Properties of a "cactus-like" plant from Arizona might have a future in Canada in an oilseed crop for the industrial lubricant market.

Randall Weselake, a professor at the University of Alberta's department of agricultural, food and nutritional science, has lined up $360,000 for a research team to experiment with seeds from the plant, called lesquerella.   Read more

Three New Studies Debate Corn-Based Ethanol

(Meatingplace.com, October 31, 2008)  New studies this week on the efficiency and food supply effects of corn-based ethanol came to completely different conclusions.

Two studies issued by the Illinois Corn Growers Association concluded that corn-based ethanol production leaves a smaller carbon footprint than gasoline and has substantial room for growth without affecting the corn supply to the food and feed sectors.  Read more