Download Steve Shaffer UCLA biofuels 1006 Shaffer

An Overview of Biofuels
UCLA Transportation - Land Use - Environment
Connection Symposium
Global Energy and Climate Change
New Vehicles, New Fuels II: Exploring the Alternatives
UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center
October 23, 2006
Steve Shaffer
Office of Agriculture and Environmental Stewardship
California Department of Food and Agriculture
Overview
• What can biofuels be made from?
• How are they produced?
• What are these biofuels – now and in the
future?
• What must we consider?
– Global energy and natural resources trends
– Issues – opportunities and challenges
• Summary and conclusions
Back to the future?
The first self-propelled combine used straw as fuel!!
The Berry Combine, Lindsey, California 1886
Feedstock Sources
• Conventional crops – corn, sorghum, sugar cane,
sugar beets, soybeans, canola/rapeseed, other oil
seed crops, trees –pine, fir, poplar
• Residuals – Agriculture, urban, forestry
– Manure, trees and vines, straws, food precessing
– Green, food, paper and cardboard, wood
– Mill, pulp, slash, thinnings
• Dedicated crops – grasses, trees, other plants,
aquatic systems (algae) and other microbial
systems
Biomass Energy Potential
Feedstock Quantity
• USDA/DOE – 1.3 billion tons/years –
optimistic?
• California – Biomass Collaborative
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Over 80 million tons produced
Potential sustainable use - 30 million tons
By 2050 - 48 million tons
Current use – 5 million tons
Biomass Energy Potential
• 1 billion tons of biomass =
– 35 billion to 70 billion gallons of gasoline
equivalent (GGE)
– 1 million MWe
Conversion Processes
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Combustion
Gasification
Pyrolysis
Thermal depolymerization
Hydrolysis – chemical and enymatic
Synthesis
Extraction
Fermentation
Concentration – distillation and filtration
Global Trends
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Human Population
Arable land
Water supplies and use
Energy supplies and use
Atmospheric chemistry - (GHGs) and criteria
pollutants
• Biodiversity
• Consolidation versus decentralization
United Nations Data
• 1997 Report by the Commission on
Sustainable Development
• Population Trends
• Land Use Trends
• Water Use Trends
• Food Supply Trends
Population
• The current global human population stands
at six billion. It is expected to grow to 8.3
billion by 2025 and to 9.3 billion by 2050.
Global Water Consumption
Land and Water
• 20% of the world’s cropland is irrigated, but
produces over 40% of the food supply.
• The UN report estimates that to provide a healthy
diet to the world’s population in 2025, a 50% to
100% increase in water for food production will
be needed. The bulk of the increase in food
production will have to come from irrigated land.
• A series of local and regional water crises with
global implications may put global food supplies
in jeopardy.
Oil Price Trends
US CO2 Emissions
Issues – (Sustainability)
• Life cycle cost analyses
– Wells-to-Wheels; LEM/LCA; cradle-to-grave;
– Wang; Delucchi; Kammen and others
• Energy quality/utility
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Density
Flexibility
Transportability
Storability
Efficiency
Issues - continued
• Multiple objectives management
– A new definition of agriculture – food, feed, fiber,
flowers, fuel, fauna,
• Public Policy
– Agriculture – crop subsidies; land use; food vs. fuel
– Energy – supply, cost, security
– Environmental – climate change; forest health; urban
waste management; AQ; WQ; soil conservation;
biodiversity
– Economic – balance of trade; local jobs and taxes
– Geopolitical – national security
Issues – still more
• Technology
– Genetically modified organisms
– Nanotechnology
– Competition – nuclear and (hopefully) clean
coal; wind and solar
– Environmental justice and NIMBY
• …and Energy Efficiency
Conclusions
• Biofuels will contribute to sustainable energy
supplies – how much and in what form are yet to
be determined.
• Several Keys –
– Informed policy based on continuous research and
development
– Strategies that achieve multiple objectives and benefits
– Public policies that recognize multiple benefits and
internalize external disbenefits