The market
The global demand for biodiesel is expected to exceed 10 billion gallons per year by 2015. Currently, 30 countries have implemented objectives in biofuels and mix biodiesel with ordinary fuel. Europe is heading for a mixture of 7 %, while Brazil and Indonesia target 10 %. Development countries represent 50 % of global biofuels demand and their long -term commitment in favor of renewable fuels is demonstrated by the fact that 17 % of the global demand for Biodiesel is already concentrated in the South. The European Union is the largest consumer in Biodiesel with 44 % of demand, closely followed by the Asia-Pacific region with 39 %, long before the United States.
The agricultural land of Europe includes 164 million hectares of cultivated land and 76 million hectares of pastures. The agricultural residues of food and fodder crops represent an important source for the production of biofuels. The IIASA Multilateral Research Institute in Vienna, Austria, estimated that up to 246 biomass megatons for the production of biofuels and bioplastics could be made from culture residues, which represent 50 % of the harvested biomass. This can be used without risk of losing fertilizers and soil amendments. This approach to agricultural waste makes it possible to reduce the need of 15 to 20 million hectares of agricultural land which would have otherwise been used for planting crops only intended for the production of biofuels.
Innovation
The demand for fuel (or plastic) from biomass competes with food. Experts from Cornell University have calculated that to feed an average American car for a year with biodiesel or ethanol, 11 acres of agricultural land should be devoted, which would otherwise produce food for seven people. However, this is only part of the problem: it takes more energy to produce ethanol from agricultural cultures that the combustion of ethanol produces it. The main problem is that 8 % ethanol of a purity level of 99.8 % should be separated from 92 % of water. If we add to this the harsh reality that corn erodes the soil 12 times faster than it can be regenerated, and that corn irrigation undermines the water tables 25 times faster than the natural recharge rate, We cannot consider that this system is durable. If all the automobiles in the United States were supplied 100 % by ethanol, 97 % of the US area would be necessary to cultivate corn raw material. It is difficult to explain how plastics or fuel from corn can be considered a lasting substitute for fossil fuels.
Carl-Göran Hedén, member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Sweden and director for years of the microbiology department of the Karolinska Institute, introduced the concept of biraffinery in the early 1960s in order to get out of the food trap by food by relation to fuel and plastic. It introduced the concept of biomass treatment according to the same logic as crude oil, which is cracked and recominated in 100,000 different molecules, while producing energy. While many research institutes such as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of Wageningen continued the concept, it is Professor Jorge Alberto Vieira Costa of the Federal University of Rio Grande (Furg), in Brazil, who l 'Has put into practice, not with plants but with algae.
Professor Jorge Vieira launched in the 90s research on freshwater algae, from the Alkaline Lake Lagoa Mangueira, in southern Brazil, in order to fight against malnutrition in the region. His knowledge of large -scale production made it possible to extend the food security program to the mitigation of climate change. While the production of algae was a success, a better understanding of CO2 demand as a nutrient for algae presented a new opportunity: exploiting the excess emissions of the local power plant supplied with coal and converting the retention basin in an algae production unit. A detailed study of production capacity revealed that an overproduction of algae for human consumption opened the way to the extraction of algae lipids to produce biofuels. Michele Greque, a colleague from Professor Jorge Vieira, has bilfinery to the next level and identified the possibility of producing esters (and polyesters) from residues, thus presenting a solid case for bioraffinery producing food, fuels and plastics from CO2.
The first cash flow
The Brazilian team successfully set up its first unit in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2008. Although the project is in its initial phase, the technical and financial capacity to convert greenhouse gases for raw materials for These three basic needs generated the necessary research funds to perfect this path which would put the debate on biofuels from algae on a promising path.
In parallel, the Italian company Novamont, the largest producer of bioplastics in Europe, has evolved from an innovative company in the field of plastics to a company which is now focusing on the construction of Bioraffineries, and the first is already operational in Terni , in Italy. After an investment of around 100 million euros in innovative plastics and the constitution of a portfolio of 100 patents, Ms. Catia Bastioli, founder and CEO, has advanced in the implementation of this project by creating a joint venture With 600 local farmers who provide products intended for local consumption. This strategy aimed at putting non -cultivated land into production and guaranteeing the transformation of all biomass (and not only starch and vegetable oil) improves land income, factory production and cost Products, thus generating multiple cash flows, as the blue economy offers.
The opportunity
Oil, refineries and petrochemicals should encourage chemist engineers to seek comparable production methods for derivatives of complex biomass. Just as oil is cracked in 100,000 different molecules, biomass should not be produced in autonomous silos, leaving behind multiple volumes of waste. The time has come to adopt the concept of bioraffineries. Now that initiatives in Brazil and Italy have proven their technical, economic and social viability, other projects should soon be created.
