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Innovation in Biofuels and Bioproducts |
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Targets: |
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BioFuels |
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The biofuels industry is undergoing considerable growth driven by the global climate of energy diversification, legislation, public perception and advancing technology. Certain high yielding biomass crops are grown specifically for biofuel production. These crops include sugar cane in Brazil; corn, switchgrass, and soybeans, primarily in the US; sorghum and cassava in China; rapeseed, wheat and sugar beet primarily in Europe; palm oil and miscanthus in South-East Asia; and jatropha in India. Hemp has also been shown to work as a biofuel.
DOE Projection of Future US BioFuel Sources.
“First-generation” biofuels refer to biofuels made from sugar, starch, vegetable oil, or animal fats using conventional technology. “Second-generation” biofuel production is based on waste biomass, the stalks of wheat, corn, wood, and special-energy-or-biomass crops (e.g. Miscanthus). “Third generation” biofuel, includes biofuels from algae. Whilst first generation biofuel production competes with food/feed production and raises concerns about “food vs fuel”, second and third generation biofuels do not compete directly with food/feed production.
Recent UNL Publication on Energy Efficiency.
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Fig1: Regional variability in corn-ethanol system performance due to differences in inputs to and outputs from crop production: (A) Net energy yield of the corn-ethanol production life cycle, given a new natural gas biorefinery (MW-NNG). (B) Greenhouse gas intensity of corn production (kg CO2e Mg−1 grain), and life cycle GHG reductions of corn-ethanol compared to gasoline (%), given a new natural gas biorefinery. Results were calculated with the BESS model (http://www.bess.unl.edu) Fig2: Net energy yield (NEY) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction compared to gasoline from different types of corn-ethanol systems used as default scenarios in the BESS model (http://www.bess.unl.edu). NEY includes ethanol plus coproduct energy credit minus energy inputs. MW = Midwest; IA = Iowa; NE = Nebraska; HYP = high-yield progressive; NG = natural gas; NNG = new natural gas; NGW = natural gas with wet distillers grains only; CL = closed-loop facility with anaerobic digestion.
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