World Grain Supplies Not Enough To Produce Biofuels - Asia News

[hatrack]

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China wants to double its use of renewable energy by 2020, such as hydro energy, wind power and solar energy as well as biofuels by increasing their extraction from cereals and vegetable oils. But the high costs are presenting obstacles.

After an initial enthusiasm the world has become aware that it is not capable of producing sufficient grain to feed its population and produce biofuels. The boom in biofuels in recent years has led to sharp rice in world grain prices, with widespread grave social repercussions. David Jackson, of Lmc International Ltd London, estimates that by 2015 a further 100 million hectares of crop production (half the size of Indonesia) will be needed to meet just 5% of vehicle consumption. But to obtain this, entire forests would be decimated.

Sugar cane produces more ethanol, but it requires a lot of water in a world suffering from drought. The use of palm oil to produce fuel has resulted in two thirds price hike in recent years, bringing it to 735 dollars a tonne, which crude oil costs 593 dollars per tonne. Thus many plantation projects particularly in Asian have been abandoned.

Now there are plans to use non edible oil plants in the production of biofuels such as jatropha, the leaves seeds and fruit of which are toxic. The British company D1 Oils plc has planted 175 thousand hectares of Jatropha in Africa as well as in India and China.

EDIT

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=10516&size=A

[rucky]

1. No mention of Algae ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algaculture#Algae_as_an_energy_source

[XemaSab]

2. Or switchgrass...

:eyes:

[4dsc]

9. switchgrass is not a biofuel

switchgrass falls under cellulose ethanol if processed.. Just like hemp..

Google "switchgrass theoildrum for more information on why switchgrass is not the answer either..

[DefenseLawyer]

3. Hemp

is the cheapest/easiest to grow, is it not?

[razzleberry]

4. how does a high price for crops,lead to plantations being abandoned? .n/t

[amandabeech]

7. The plantation's crop were the oil palm trees.

Now oil from the palm trees is too expensive, so acres and acres of the trees just sit there. Nothing else is being grown.

[Nihil]

5. Whoops ...

> The boom in biofuels in recent years has led to sharp rice in
> world grain prices

:rofl:

[phantom power]

6. World Grain Supplies Not Even Enough To Feed Humans

[Odin2005]

8. Quit stuffing our food full of HFCS, damn it, that will free up a lot of corn.

n/t.

[kestrel91316]

10. Now, now, now............you and I both know that

HFCS is in all our foods because THE CONSUMER DEMANDS IT.

:sarcasm: