August 2006
From BioenergyWiki
Bioenergy > Bioenergy timeline > 2006 > August 2006
This page lists events and news from August 2006.
[edit]
Events
- 29 August 2006, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States: Richard G. Lugar-Purdue Summit on Energy Security (invitation-only).
- According to its website, the conference addressed "national security and economic policies, biomass and coal-based fuels," and suggested "business and government strategies."[1]
- 1-2 August 2006, Washington, D.C., United States: "30X30 Workshop" sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Biomass Program (OBP). (Invitation only).
- According to the conference website, the "purpose of this workshop is to obtain input from industry, academia, and other experts to develop plausible scenarios to achieve the goals set forth in the President's Biofuels Initiative" (including to make cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive by 2012).[2]
[edit]
News
- Analysis: Algae may produce biofuels, 29 August 2006, United Press International, reported that the "newest source of biofuel, an oil alternative, could be algae that feed off of polluting factory emissions", according to a researcher with Israel's Alga Technologies.
- Bioenergy effort under way, 24 August 2006, Journal-World, Lawrence, Kansas, United States reported on the efforts of an Sunflower Electric Power Corp. electric cooperative in southwest Kansas "to create a first-of-its-kind 'integrated bioenergy center'" combining a "meat-processing operation, dairy, ethanol plant and biodiesel plant" with a coal-fired energy plant, which would together "generate electricity, produce ethanol, feed livestock and otherwise help one another succeed -- through reductions in water use, lessening of emissions and a host of other spin-offs previously unrealized in a single project anywhere."
- "The project would convert manure to methane, which could fuel an ethanol plant. Flue gas from the coal-fired electric plant could feed into an algae reactor, whose water could be drained for boiling in the power plant -- steam drives the turbines that produce electricity -- while the algae could be used to feed dairy cattle or help produce biodiesel fuel."[3]
- This is an example of the concept of industrial ecology, which aims to reduce waste by using waste flows as feedstocks for productive processes.
- Biofuels may strain U.N. goals of ending hunger, 23 August 2006, Reuters, reported that "Rising production of biofuels from crops might complicate U.N. goals of ending hunger in developing countries, where 850 million people do not have enough to eat...." It quoted Alexander Mueller, assistant Director General of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization as saying, "There's a huge potential for biofuels but we have to look at ... competition with food production....We have to find out what the situation will be in 5 to 10 years ... a lot of research has to be done."
- Learn more about the food versus fuel debate.
- Myanmar leapfrogs to oil independence through biofuels program - questions about human rights remain August 13, 2006 from Biopact. "Myanmar (Burma), which is governed by a ruthless military junta, hopes to replace all of its 40,000 barrels per day of conventional oil imports with a homegrown nut oil (jatropha) within three years. Jatropha cultivation is highly labor intensive and it is feared that Burma's government may use forced labor once again in establishing and operating the plantations."
- The Corn Conundrum on Barron's online (subscription only), August 2006, noted the increases in investments for ethanol production in the United States and related plans and stock prices for ethanol producers such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM).
- Corn is currently the main feedstock for production of ethanol in the United States.
- Major UK Supermarkets Sign Up to Take Action on Palm Oil, 2 August 2006, Friends of the Earth (FOE UK) Press Release, stated that UK "supermarket chain Morrisons...announced it will join international efforts to tackle the problems caused by palm oil, following a campaign to highlight the threat to orang-utans posed by the crop." The retailer joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), described by FOE as "the only global initiative to source sustainable palm oil" amid demand that is "fuelling the destruction of virgin rainforest in South East Asia, home to the orang-utan, as well as resulting in land disputes and the exploitation of local communities."
| 2007: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | ||
| Bioenergy timeline | edit | |
| News | edit | |
| By date | By region | By topic News from other sites (RSS feeds of news on bioenergy) | ||
Categories: Bioenergy timeline | 2006 | News | Events
