Executive summary:
There are many methods for creating biofuels and renewable energy sources for growing or difficulty economies, but few viable solutions offer low carbon emissions with the least negative impact on the environment. Years of research reveal that the biofuels industry is a promising catalyst for job creation, revenue generation and a more ecological lifestyle. Palm oil, sugar and corn used for biofuels remain the main industries, but do not constitute a lasting source for the renewal of the fuel market. Biomass from pork slurry using digesters is a promising revolution, provided that it is integrated into a biosystem that generates multiple income and advantages. New technologies show that it is possible to start from municipal waste, then separate carbon from hydrogen molecules to produce pure carbon and pure hydrogen, making it an ideal option for clean fuel. Technological breakthroughs in the field of synthetic gas also prove to be sustainable options for the future, while transforming a cost into income. The only neutral carbon fuel is the turpentine of trees, implemented commercially in Las Gaviotas, Colombia.
Keywords: biofuels, carbon emissions, palm oil, pork manure, digester, hydrogen, synthetic gas, conversion of costs to recipes, autopoiesis, turpentine, diesel and petrol engines.
Water as a source of energy: las gaviotas
I was inspired when I landed for the first time in 1984 in Las Gaviotas, this distant space of the Colombian Vichada which is part of the L'Orénoque basin. Mario Calderon Rivera was then the president of the Colombian chapter of the Rome club and he invited the members of the club visiting to attend the creation of a new development paradigm: the regeneration of the wet tropical forest. It was surprising that the majority of people present recognize the wonderful ideas and enthusiasm of Paolo Lugari, the initiator of the project, but the majority of them believed that the proposals would never realize. Even if only a few trees remained at the start of this attempt to replant the savannah with the forest which used to exist, I was impressed by the power supply in the middle of nowhere; A drop of water of one meter generated 60kW/h in a landscape that seemed flat for an uninformed eye.
Paolo Lugari: the quest for forest regeneration and clean drinking water
Paolo Lugari, who has never obtained a secondary school diploma but benefited from home education with his father, has some clear principles in his head: under the tropics, there are solutions coming from the tropics. He prefers to work with an enthusiastic apprentice rather than having a team led by a depressed Nobel Prize winner. He surrounded himself with a large number of enthusiastic apprentices and I certainly had the impression of being an apprentice during each of the dozens of visits to Las Gaviotas, each time ready to learn more about this wonderful spirit which was described by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (the Nobel Colombian Literature Prize, 1982) as "the man who invented the world". He was with Felipe Gonzalez, the former Spanish Prime Minister, among the first supporters of this revolutionary initiative who changed the rules of reforestation and socio-economic development. The proposal for the regeneration of the forest was clear: gastrointestinal diseases could only be resolved if the population had access to drinking water. The sustainable production of drinking water depends on the modification of the pH of the soil, which can only be obtained if and when the earth is covered with trees. The only tree that could serve as a pioneer species was the Caribbean pine (Pinus caribbaea). Paolo and his team decided to start planting pines. They understood how systems could solve health problems while generating forests, producing drinking water and kidnapping carbon dioxide. This initiative required energy and the first intervention therefore consisted in creating a line that would provide electricity to the community. The only renewable source was water and this is where I learned that it is sometimes necessary to listen to the experts and work with pragmatics.
At the time, few people thought that a drop of one meter would be enough to provide electricity, but this hydroelectric microcentral is still operational more than 30 years later. It was this experience that motivated me to be attentive to the need for energy, but she also taught me that energy is not an end in itself, but a means to reach an end: water , housing and health are clearly more important, but are only viable if electricity is available.
Use of vegetable oils and palm for biofuels
The design of the detergent factory in Belgium aimed at low energy consumption. Living in a comfort zone like Europe, I did not yet want to move to a state of total self -sufficiency. However, I had my first experience in recycling used vegetable oil from restaurants as well as fuel for cars. In 1992, all diesel cars belonging to my detergent company in Belgium rolled 100 % in vegetable oil until our leasing company learned it by the media and informs us that it was going to cancel the guarantees of cars. As the cars worked well, I started to wonder what was the problem. I learned that people have a risk aversion, and this experience put me on the path of the world of biofuels. While we were pouring the filtered frying oil from the restaurant in the petrol tank, I was informed of the transesterification and the creation of some by-products such as glycerin.
Since I was faced, in the fall of 1993, with the harsh reality of palm oil and the growth of its consumption which led to the destruction of the tropical forest, the natural habitat of the orang- Outan in Kalimantan, I became very sensitive to the emerging enthusiasm according to which palm oil would also serve as a source of biofuel. Palm oil was not a lasting source of biodegradable detergents and it was therefore not a lasting source of renewable fuel. This is why I was sensitive to the approach of financing institutions concerning the new possible ways for the production of biofuels. When Peter Goldmark, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, learned of our Zeri programs in Africa, and in particular mushroom culture initiatives in Zimbabwe, we were invited to cooperate in the plantation of Jatropha Cucas, also known as Hibiscus. We studied the possibilities and learned that oilseed fruits constituted an easy fuel source.
During the fourth world congress on zero programs, which was held in Namibia in 1998, we organized a special session on biofuels with the participation of scientists from Africa and Latin America, and an opening discourse Paolo Lugari. Professor Osmund Mwandemele, dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the University of Namibia at the time, chaired the session. It was the first time that the Zeri network, made up of more than 150 participants, discussed biofuels as part of a systemic design. Professor Lucio Brusch, president of Zeri Brazil, sheds light on emerging research on biofuels from algae which had been launched as part of the algae -based nutrition program. Reunion participants have agreed that the top priority was to fight malnutrition, fight gastrointestinal diseases and ensure drinking water supply. The by-product of these initiatives was a biofuel and it is the design of the process of grouping water, food and fuel that would make all the results both competitive and self-sufficient. We discussed these biofuels with Paolo and we wondered if the native palm species in Vichada, known as Moriche or Mauritia Flexuosa, could serve as a biofuel source instead of oil palm. The Moriche could be planted inside the emerging forest as an native species which would allow us to test how its oil, which would not compete with food or earth, could help provide a biodiesel. I discussed this question with the office of Zeri Japan and we decided to bring together the funds necessary to undertake the additional planting under the direction of Mr. Yusuke Saraya, president of Zeri Japan and Ms. Miyako Yoshino, Director of Zeri Education Japan. Paolo Lugari came to Japan and gave a conference at the United Nations University, which prompted the United Nations Development (UNDP) program to administer funds. In the year 2000, Paolo received an offer from Professor Bernard Amadei, the founder of borderless engineers in Colorado (USA), to come and build a Biodiesel factory. Professor Amadei had attended my courses and conferences in Santa Fe, New Mexico, organized by Lynda Taylor and Robert Haspel, who led Zeri programs for a decade in this part of the United States. Las Gaviotas made room in their center in Bogotá and the first Biodiesel factory in the city center of Colombia (and probably from Latin America) was operational in two weeks.
Fuel biomass transesterification
The transformation of biofuels into diesel requires transesterification with methanol (CH3OH) as a reaction agent and sodium hydroxide (NAOH) as a catalyst which, together, create a biodiesel with glycerol as by-production. Paolo Lugari and General Motors have agreed to test the effects on the engines of their cars. While this process was following its course, I continued to search the world other renewable energy sources that would offer much better carbon balance sheets.
After discovering Professor George Chan's digesters and the scaling of biogas installations of which Professor Li Kangmin was witness in China, I decided to visit some of the largest fermentation facilities in the world. Biomass, in this case the pork slurry, was transformed into methane gas. I learned the details of the fermentation of solids by anaerobic processes and I found that the use of excrement was more logical than what we envisaged in Colombia with palm oil, even the variety of local palm . The size and yield were extraordinary and the three digesters treated more than 10,000 m3 from the manure of 20,000 pigs, making it a very effective operation.
The scaling up experience in China has clearly shown that transesterification has a certain logic, but that it still requires too many external inputs which are not easily and locally available. Biogaz production from pork slurry is part of a different postulate: transforming waste into fuel. It is not a single objective but rather a cascade of nutrients and energy. The slurry from the digester is an ideal source of nutrients for algae, which leads to the cultivation of fish for fish. We have learned of our lessons and the palm oil biodiesel project in Colombia continues to operate without the transesterification process, and its use is now limited to food. The oil is only purified and then sold on the local market as a cooking oil. It was time to go beyond the limits of what we know.
Biogaz yield of biodigesters
We went in search of new possibilities and have consulted dozens of our scientists. It is Anders Wijkman, former Director of PUBLICs of the UNDP and member of the Royal Science Academy, who directed us to the University of Linköping in Sweden and the work of Professor Jörgen Ejlersson, researcher at the Center for Studies on 'Water and the environment of this university. He had doubled the biogas yield of biodigesters thanks to a few simple measures, then had doubled it. What seemed magical for some was fundamental science for others. It was clear that methanogenic microorganisms must have access to metals like nickel to develop. His intuitions and the excellent research applied to paper and paper factories offered a new track to Jörgen Ejlersson and his team, which led them to design a new commercial model.
Swedish researchers at Linköping University have laid the foundations for creating a new business: Scandinavian Biogas in Stockholm. The former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson is the president of this private company. Their fermentation technology could be considered a revolution since it combines the sludge from wastewater treatment plants with solid municipal waste. It is a simple and sophisticated mixture technique that has been described as "intelligent chemistry". Nutrients intended for microorganisms are well dosed and rhythmic. This leads to an increase in methane production of a factor at least four.
Even if theoretical and laboratory studies were completed, the real test was carried out in Ulsan, Korea, where the operation has gone from the pilot scale to the full industrial scale since 2008, with high beneficiary margins. This logic applied to a wastewater treatment installation has changed my point of view since then. Indeed, if the biodigesters located in the treatment plants can receive solid organic waste which is now diverted from discharges or incinerators, then we can increase production, which will reduce the load of discharges and generate income. The amount of income generated is so positive that it allows a cost model to an income model. Instead, cities use license companies to treat water at fixed costs over a long period, private companies can obtain the right to treat water and pay the city a income -based fee that 'They generate. How many cities would not want to move on to this model? There are nearly 10,000 biodigesters in Germany and almost none of them earns money, mainly dependent on subsidies to balance the budget. In Korea, an installation generated income and jobs from the start of its operation.
Use waste to generate income
Korea's experience has triggered a large research on how waste can be considered an income. However, the implementation of this strategy to generate income for municipalities has been delayed due to decisions made in the past. The cities wanted to conclude fixed costs agreements, knowing that the amount of liquid and solid waste would only increase. The disadvantage of this strategy is that cities are linked by long -term contracts that cannot be canceled in the short term. This means that the opportunities offered by Scandinavian Biogas will only be deployed in the coming decade. This case demonstrates once again that it is not necessary to be content to "improve current affairs", but that it is rather necessary to group the activities in order to draw advantages in terms of tax reduction and access increased to renewable energies. During the World Congress organized in Tokyo in 2004 on the occasion of our 10th anniversary, we debated the fact that privatization is not a guarantee of sustainability or profitability, but these types of public-private partnerships demonstrate that it It is time to change the economic model of long -term contracts for wastewater treatment.
Hydrogen as a source of clean energy
I was satisfied to learn directly from ULSAN facilities and Swedish know-how in terms of intelligent chemistry applied to solid municipal waste management and wastewater treatment of cities. This has shaped my vision of methane and the possibilities of treating it not as one more biofuel, but rather as a chemical raw material. It is SK Chemicals, the largest chemical company in Korea, and Professor Phil Risby who showed that methane was an excellent source of energy, beyond the combustion of gas. Thanks to the new technologies developed by Dr. Risby through derived companies like Gasplas at the University of East Anglia (United Kingdom), in particular vortex and microwaves, it is possible to separate carbon from molecules hydrogen and produce pure carbon and pure hydrogen. If we are looking for clean fuel, hydrogen is undoubtedly an ideal option. And if it is produced from biogas generated by waste, the fuel has a solid carbon footprint.
After a new inspection of the integrated biosystem of Montfort Boys Town in April 2007 and biodigesters who operated there, I decided to make an exploratory arrest in New Zealand and consult the latest technological developments in this beautiful country. Even if it is a fairly isolated little nation, it has a unique approach to innovation.
Black smoke as a source of fuel: new biofuels from summary gas
In Auckland, I met, among others, Sir Stephen Tindall, an entrepreneur who created the “The Warehouse” store chain. Sir Stephen had left the management of his company and created an investment vehicle called K1W1, which focuses on investment in local technologies in the fields of biotechnology and the environment. While we discussed a portfolio of initiatives, Sir Stephen alluded to a unique technology, inspired by biology, which would transform "black smoke into fuel". Of course, it was too early for him to give details, but while most people would consider this as magic, I only knew too well that he had identified a great opportunity to create a new generation of biofuels for the future. I followed my intuition and the black smoke has remained on my radar screen since then. It was thanks to this discovery that I got to know Dr Sean Simpson. Born in England but clearly an adoption "kiwi", he was attracted to New Zealand after a career in the pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland and a research program on cellular structures at the University of Tsukuba (Japan), To study the production of ethanol from wood. While the program was promising and corresponded to the overall objective of reducing greenhouse gases (GHG), its attention was diverted by the unique microorganisms that thrive in the intestines of rabbits.
The creative journey has scattered in many directions and has resulted in a new fermentation process which is perhaps the oldest on Earth; A process that converts synthetic gas (a mixture of CO, CO2 and H) into ethanol and in a few other by-products. Research has confirmed that summary gas offered a remarkable basis for biofuels fermentation with levels of efficiency that exceed the standard. Like Jörgen Ejlersson had found a way to increase methane with a factor of four, Sean Simpson emulates the logic of fermentation to carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gas. It is obvious that it is the type of greenhouse gas that we have in too much quantity and the proposed solution would not only change the rules of the game, it redefines competitiveness and constitutes an excellent example of creative disturbance.
During a new visit to New Zealand in 2011, the Lanzatech company was firmly established and financed locally. Sir Stephen's investment fund had played the role of "fundraising", providing capital and mobilizing other people so that they do the same. Everyone at Lanzatech was impatient to prepare the industrial test with Baosteel in China. The results were very encouraging: the black fumes emitted by the steelworks were converted into 100,000 gallons of ethanol.
It was clear for all those present around the table that the successful demonstration at the industrial scale is equivalent to the advent of a new paradigm for biofuels: polluting black smoke and a GHG which turns into fuel. Like the hydrothermal chimneys of the great seabed are a source of life, food and energy, the emissions of steelworks, petrochemical factories and waste treatment facilities could turn into sources of income providing renewable energy at a cost competitive. It did not take long for strategic sustainability investors, such as Vinod Khosla, investing $ 100 million, followed by a major participation of the Japanese group Mitsui up to $ 60 million.
Get away from the biogas produced from corn
Converting smoke into fuel and proving that it works is very attractive and I am amazed at the limited number of experts in this area who are aware of it. Worse, just like for Scandinavian biogas, it is surprising that political decision -makers completely ignore these opportunities. Lanzatech was hidden in New Zealand and the leaders decided to move where the market is. They set up their new headquarters in Chicago (United States), where the midfielder of old fireplaces and the shopping market for the biofuels were very controlled by ADM and Cargill, the American leaders in the traditional biofuels world.
The difference is that these companies produce ethanol from corn with billions of taxpayers' subsidies. When we compare this production strategy with the solution proposed by Lanzatech, we note that the creation of biofuels from corn has lost all meaning. Such a fundamental breakthrough attracts others. It is interesting to note that none of the major biofuels' conglomerates was ready to take a step and that the area was left to a few entrepreneurs and venture capital funds. Even in the new field of biofuels, technological and institutional locking has prevented the faster implementation of other innovations.
A competitor who emerged in Europe in 2012 is a team made up of Dr. Michelle Gradley and Dr Brian Rudd, who separated from Novacta to create Biosyntha. While Novacta continues to focus on therapeutic products, Biosyntha focuses on the development of exclusive fermentation systems from renewable raw materials. The creation of another innovative means of converting synthetic gas into ethanol is in good place in the program. Lanzatech and Biosyntha have patented microorganisms, but with millions of modifications, it would not be too difficult to find microbes that no one has seen.
Synthetic gas and ethanol technologies
The interest manifested by Japanese, Chinese and Indian partners in synthetic gas conversion technologies is remarkable. Europeans and North Americans, on the other hand, are reluctant observers, with a few exceptions of course. Lanzatech launched a joint venture with the Shougang Steel Group (首钢集团) to market technology in China.
China. It has been encouraging to see, during the dozens of visits made in China in recent years, that this approach of GHGs is not a vow pile or a facade. China is seriously intended to clean up its situation by converting emissions into renewable income and energy forms rather than increasing the cost of production by the introduction of expensive exharators and the imposition of high additional taxes. The logic of "CAP and Trade" as provided by the Kyoto protocol is now clearly secondary compared to this new logic of biofuels. New Zealand, Chinese and British initiatives to convert smoke to fuel continue their promising path to the market.
Praised in the field of biofuels: beyond sugar and corn
Colombian entrepreneurs like Carlos Ardila Lulle followed the Brazilian example and began to invest in the fermentation of ethanol from sugar, which is the norm in Latin America since the barons of sugar understood that this natural sweetener had lost his favor. Thanks to Oscar Ayala, our coordinator of the blue economy in Cali (Colombia), I went to visit these sweets and I noticed, to my surprise, the massive consumption of water. Each liter of ethanol requires ten liters of water, which is not durable. We discussed with investors the possibility of using water for the irrigation of sugar cane plantations, but it was clear that we could not go much further than the formulation of some ideas. The quest for lasting fuels must go beyond sugar and corn, which requires more daring initiatives that can result in a paradigm change.
The deepest breakthrough in the biofuels in which we have attended in recent years appeared in Las Gaviotas. The Biodiesel factory in Bogota has ceased its activities less than three years after its construction, but a new idea allowed Las Gaviotas to be a pioneer again. The plantation of 8000 ha of pines made it possible to draw a continuous income from the resin. The slaughter of trees has proven to be one of the best job creators and the local treatment provided a high quality of colophane and pure turpentine. Colophane was sold on the Colombian market at competitive prices despite strong competition from China, but turpentine did not find a taker.
Turpentine as fuel
I remember my scholarship from the Honda Europe Foundation which allowed me to spend time in the offices of Honda in Tokyo in 1981. I had the unique opportunity to meet Mr. Shoichiro Honda many times since He was the president of the Belgian-Japanese friendship company. As a young graduate, I really wanted to learn from this automotive industry icon. Mr. Honda explained that he had started to sell motorcycles with a terebentry supply contract as fuel. There was no fuel available after the Second World War and the only way to succeed in the sale of motorized vehicles was to offer a fuel supply contract. No one could guarantee petrol importation, but 70 % of Japan being covered with forests, the pines were exploited for their resin, which made it possible to provide renewable fuel in the form of turpentine. I had almost forgotten this story until Paolo Lugari explains the need to transform fuel sources for tractors, motorcycles and rescue generators. He had decided to transform turpentine into fuel, as Honda had done 70 years earlier. This process does not require any chemical reaction but rather a decantation purification. It is a simple concept that only requires patience so that impurities are deposited at the bottom of the tanks. The laws of physics would prevail and chemistry would no longer be necessary. The principle of the blue economy, which consists in first using physics, has given us the opportunity to demonstrate that turpentine, extracted from a tree at the rate of one gram per day, brings a remarkable additional income to The forest operator who already sells water and colophane, while generating topsoil, strengthening biodiversity and sequestering carbon dioxide ...
We had trouble containing our excitation but we agreed to keep This breakthrough under the radar until we are certain that there would be no involuntary and unexpected consequences at the start. There has been no surprise and since 2013, visitors can lead motorcycles operating to turpentine, tractors exploit the fields that smell like a pine forest and diesel generators purry all night without a drop of oil spent . The key figure is a drop per day and per tree. This represents a potential of 8000 liters per day, but it is limited to 2000 liters per day because all the trees are not exploited. If we consider that a liter of fuel costs 3 US dollars to land in this remote region of the world, this represents a potential income of + $ 2 million per year.
Fuel substitution as a source of income
First of all, the creation of income by the substitution of fuel is a solid monetary income. It is not a simple replacement of one product by another, but rather to circulate in the local economy the money which previously left it, thus increasing the value of the forest. If Las Gaviotas aimed from the start to eliminate gastrointestinal diseases by creating local water sources thanks to the regeneration of a forest, it has now been clear in autopoietic development1 where constant innovations lead to improvement continues operations. It is remarkable that the inhabitants of this part of the world, where the government excels in its absence, managed to move from the status of refugees to that of members of the middle class. The remarkable observation is that diesel and petrol engines can work with turpentine. The prerequisite is that the turpentine fuel is very well purified and that all the particles up to 3 microns have been eliminated. Las Gaviotas and the whole team are very aware of the change of deal that this represents. If the regeneration of the forest provides a fuel that sequesters more carbon dioxide in its system than it emits, then we have a company with zero emission which can succeed in creating sustainability with biofuels that do good. We are clearly going from the idea of doing less that of doing more good.
Nothing will appear if someone is looking for this breakthrough on the internet, because she remains discreet for the moment. It is important to carry out other tests and tests, and to study the resilience of these discoveries as well as the wear of the engines. For the moment, the diesel and petrol engines operating with the Gaviotas fuel from the trees are cleaner than any other. We still have to accumulate experience so that when close friends want to see the results by themselves, we can always organize a visit to the site.
Bhutan potential: income thanks to the exploitation of trees
While production was already operational in June 2012, the Bhoutani Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho, decided to return home with his colleagues from Rio+20 via Las Gaviotas. Forests represent 70 % of the Bhoutani territory but the nation had ceased to exploit the pines because this practice damaged trees and Indian competition did not leave much space for profit.
As a result, forests are abandoned.
When the Minister realized the opportunity offered by this tropical pine forest, and taking into account the increase in fuel imports to Bhutan, the option of starting to exploit trees seemed to be an opportunity. We agreed to cooperate and Paolo Lugari was ready to share his knowledge by starting with a Térébensine production test from Bhoutani resin. Then the government in place lost the elections and the new Prime Minister did not want to know anything about the exploitation of the trees. It wanted electric cars to be equipped with batteries, in order to promote mobility thanks to renewable energies. Unfortunately, we have no way of producing motors or batteries powerful enough to supply electric cars on the summits of the Himalayas.
We have been fascinated by figures concerning Bhutan: the country could produce 50,000 liters of pure turpentine per day by operating 10 % of pines and using at least 20 local treatment centers. This results in an income of nearly $ 60 million per year, the amount that Bhutan spends annually in imported oil. This is an opportunity to transform imports into income and jobs. The Bhutan biofuels industry would become the largest job generator in the space of a decade, easily creating 40 to 50,000 direct and indirect jobs. We have not had the opportunity to establish more detailed figures for other countries, but the message is clear: biofuels will constitute a major growth opportunity on the energy market, provided that we exceed The logic of ethanol from corn. Mr. Parks MPHO Thau, the executive mayor of Johannesburg, is sensitive to this opportunity. He decided to convert public transport to biofuels and with 70,000 hectares of mining land inappropriate for agriculture for human consumption, the introduction of biofuels on the model of Gaviotas and Bhutan could be an option that allows you to regenerate Arable floors and replacing oil while generating thousands of jobs.
The best durability options
If sugar cane and vegetable oils of corn and palm remain a priority in the minds of people and the community of investors, these are the breakthrough in the field of synthetic gas from heavy industries and forest management which will offer the best sustainability. These breakthroughs will grow the local economy and bring it the resilience it needs urgently in the wake of the next financial crisis. It may be surprising to note that the most polluting industries and the preservation of forests offer the most solidly proven game change. The production of neutral carbon biofuels is at hand.
We have followed investments amounting to $ 230 million in these revolutionary initiatives (Lanzatech, Scandinavian Biogas, Biosyntha) and soap that capital is ready to flock to this type of project. The possibilities for creating jobs are impressive. While technological companies behind the recovery have generated only 260 jobs as business and engineering business, the creation of indirect jobs by projects reaches 2400 employees, or about ten times more . As we say in conclusion of my fables "... and that is only just beginning".
Translation in Gunter Fables
The Business of Biofuels is Translatered Into Fable # 63 Entitled "Rabbit Fuel", Dedicated to Sean Simpson, and Fable # 41 Entitled "Fuel from the Tree" dedicated to Paolo Lugari. They are inspired the creation of this cluster Already Back in 1984 with my first visit to las gaviotas in colombia, and my discussions with Stephen Tindall in 2007.
Documentation
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xogjew_nlko
