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Farmer Bruce Nelson and a representative from biofuels company POET-DSM stand between square and round bales of corn stover stock piled outside of POET-DSM’s PROJECT LIBERTY cellulosic ethanol biorefinery. Selling the corn plant residue after their corn harvest has generated a new revenue stream for many farmers, including Bruce. Watch a video segment about Bruce’s story at the beginning of the film “Bioenergy: America’s Energy Future.”

In Africa we recommend to use the cobs, only or indigenous energy crops. We also have smaller biorefinery solutions, like the µ-Biorefinery or the GreenEnergyPark, which have the same economic outcome as in the USA: Additional income for the farmers.

The article below appeared on Energy.gov (US Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy):

For the past seven years, All-American football player and Iowa farmer Bruce Nelson has been using corn stover—the non-edible corn stalks, husks, and leaves of a corn plant—to generate extra income at his family farm in Emmetsburg, Iowa. Nelson, his father, and his uncle are traditionally corn farmers; however, ever since biofuels company POET-DSM began preparations for its new cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg in 2007, their leftover corn stover has been an additional new cash crop.

As preparation for constructing the PROJECT LIBERTY biorefinery began, POET, which later became POET-DSM through a joint venture, began experimental collection of biomass from more than 300 local farmers in Emmetsburg, including Nelson and his family farm. Just as in the scale-up process for the biorefinery and fuel conversion process, testing the equipment on local farms near the biorefinery helped POET see what worked and what needed improvements to efficiently harvest and transport corn stover in preparation for the opening of their biorefinery. POET received $100 million in Energy Department cost-shared funding for construction of PROJECT LIBERTY. This biorefinery held its grand opening in September 2014 and is now in the preparation stage for full-scale commercial biofuel production.

After two seasons of testing the equipment, POET began purchasing harvests of corn stover from the local farmers. They stock piled corn stover bales at the biorefinery for future production as construction of the biorefinery continued. Nelson and his family profited by selling their corn stover to POET and also started up a custom stover harvesting business to help local farmers who did not have the sufficient labor or equipment to sell their corn stover. Nelson said it was a great benefit to his farm—it helped him “add revenue without adding acres.”

“We’ve been harvesting biostover in a renewable and a sustainable way. Now we have a second cash crop,” Bruce said. Watch a video segment for more about his story.

To date, Emmetsburg is home to one of only three commercial-scale biorefineries in the country that are preparing for full-scale production of cellulosic ethanol. The others are Abengoa’s Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Hugoton, Kansas (using corn stover), and INEOS Bio-New Planet Energy’s facility in Vero Beach, Florida (using vegetative waste including palm fronds). The Bioenergy Technologies Office helps to fund integrated biorefineries across the nation that are helping to scale up biofuel technologies. The construction of biorefineries and biofuel production also create temporary and permanent biorefinery jobs.

As the market for cellulosic ethanol develops, it can continue to drive job creation and new revenue streams for farmers such as Nelson and his family. The Bioenergy Technologies Office has helped to make this new revenue stream possible by funding research, development, and demonstration projects to drive down the cost of advanced biofuel such as cellulosic ethanol.

Helping local farmers turn corn stover into a cash crop—just one of EERE’s energy impacts.

http://energy.gov/eere/articles/eere-energy-impacts-biorefineries-give-local-farmers-opportunities-additional-income

Filed under: Reblogged Tagged: bioeconomy, biomass harvesting, corncobs, green jobs, stover... image

Source:  https://greenenergypark.wordpress.com/2015/07/03/biorefineries-give-local-farmers-opportunities-for-additional-income/

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Image Source: USDA

Each job in the US bioeconomy adds 1.64 jobs in adjacent sectors.
An economic impact analysis of the US biobased products industry showed that in 2013 4 million jobs and US$369bn were added to US economy. In Africa, we can expect an even higher job creation rate (See: GreenEnergyPark™ biorefinery).
The following report was obtained from sustainablebrands.com:

A new report suggests the U.S. biobased products industry has a notable impact on the nation’s economy. It is the first research effort to quantify the effect of this industry from an economics and jobs perspective, according to U.S. Agricultural Secretary, Tom Vilsack.

“Before, we could only speculate at the incredible economic impact of the biobased products industry. Now, we know that in 2013 alone, America’s biobased industry contributed four million jobs and $369 billion to our economy,” Vilsack said.

According to report, each job in the biobased products industry generates 1.64 jobs in other sectors of the economy. In 2013, 1.5 million jobs directly supported the production of biobased products, resulting in 1.1 million indirect jobs in related industries, and another 1.4 million induced jobs produced from the purchase of goods and services generated by the direct and indirect jobs.

The report presents detailed U.S. maps showing the impact of the industry on individual states. Seven case studies are also presented from stakeholders such as The Coca-Cola Company’s PlantBottle packaging, Patagonia’s biorubber neoprene alternative and Ford’s soy-based auto components.

The seven sectors analyzed in the report include agriculture and forestry, biorefining, biobased chemicals, enzymes, bioplastic packaging and textiles (the report does not include biobased fuels or other energy sources except when analyzing co-products). But these sectors alone are contributing to a significant reduction in the use of petroleum; the USDA estimates that the use of biobased products currently displaces about 300 million gallons of petroleum per year, equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road.

In addition to the report, Secretary Vilsack also announced improvements to the 2014 Farm Bill that will create additional opportunities for growth in renewable plant-based materials, supporting the Obama Administration’s efforts to develop a new rural economy and promote creation of sustainable jobs. Updates to the Biorefinery Assistance Program enable biorefineries that receive funding (under the rule, up to $250 million for the construction and retrofitting of commercial sale biorefineries) to produce more renewable chemicals and other biobased products, instead of primarily producing advanced biofuels. In addition, biobased product manufacturing facilities would be eligible to convert renewable chemicals and other biobased outputs of biorefineries into “end-user” products. The new regulations also implement a streamlined application process.

These announcements build on the USDA’s recent report, “Why Biobased?,” which outlines opportunities for U.S. agriculture and forests in the emerging bioeconomy. The USDA’s BioPreferred® program granted the first BioPreferred labels to products in 2011, setting the standard for those products that are composed wholly or significantly of agricultural ingredients, including renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials.

An update to the BioPreferred program rules, also announced by Vilsack last week, no longer excludes mature market products — those that had a significant market share prior to 1972). This provides consumers with more innovative wood products and other materials carrying the BioPreferred label, according to the USDA.

June 23, 2015, by Brynn W. McNally, sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views

Filed under: Reblogged Tagged: bio-renewable chemicals, bioplastics, biorefinery, green jobs, greenenergypark, micro-BioRefinery... image

Source:  https://greenenergypark.wordpress.com/2015/07/03/bioeconomy-369bn-and-4-million-jobs-added-to-us-economy-in-2013/

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Co-ordination and Integration of Multi Value Chains

GreenEnergyPark™: Empowering Africa’s New Agricultural Economy

DalinYebo’s GreenEnergyPark™ will contribute to Africa’s food security and create permanent rural jobs, because these small economic hubs are located in the centres of agricultural areas and its profits will flow back to the farming community.

The anchor tenants of the GreenEnergyPark™ are a furfural biorefinery and an electricity co-generation plant, which will provide off-grid power to other tenants, such as micro maize millers (or to the surrounding villages). Furfural biorefineries have been operating since 1922 (e.g in the USA or China). Since 2001, our technology provider, International Furan Technology (Pty) Ltd (IFT), has modernised these old process and made them more energy efficient.   .. more

Filed under: Reblogged Tagged: Africa's food security, Agricultural Economy, bio-renewable chemicals, biomass, Empowering Africa, green jobs, greenenergypark, renewable energy, Value Chains... image

Source:  https://greenenergypark.wordpress.com/2015/07/02/connecting-the-dots-of-a-new-agricultural-economy/

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Originally Published in the ECOreport.

The biofuel industry has been enjoying a 19.6% annual growth since 2005. That is about to change. The World’s 53.2 billion gallon biofuel industry could grow to over 60 billion gallons during the next few years. Much of this will come from riskier next generation technologies.

Approximately 65.9% of global biofuel capacity

GreenEnergyPark™‘s insight:

Biofuels mainly use the C6-fraction of the biomass (sugars, starches and celluloses). This leaves the lignins and the C5-fraction (hemicelluloses), from which furfural is made. Furfural is a platform chemical for large variety of bio-renewable chemicals and bioplastics (http://j.mp/GQHGob).

Furfural has been industrially made since 1922. No risky technologies are need. It’s not rocket science: dalinyebo.com/it-s-not-rocket-science.

See on cleantechnica.com

via Scoop.itBiorenewable Chemicals & Energy

 

 

Filed under: Reblogged Tagged: biofuels, furfural... image

Source:  https://greenenergypark.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/the-non-food-biofuel-sector-should-grow-significantly/

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