Watching grass grow is not normally the most exciting activity--unless the future of New York’s energy needs and rural economic development depend on it.
From the lab to the field, Cornell researchers are analyzing every aspect of some field grasses in a multidisciplinary, high-octane search for the next generation of biofuels from such cellulose feedstocks as grasses and willow trees, which can be converted to ethanol and other products, Renewableenergyaccess.com reported.
Nationally, corn is the leading source of biofuel, but in the long run, researchers say, New York will be better off developing alternative renewable sources of cellulosic ethanol that will be healthier for the environment, address energy needs and potentially create new business for rural farmers and landowners.
In the past few years, Cornell researchers have planted trial plots of field grasses--cellulosic ethanol feedstocks--in six sites across the state. Along with dozens of other renewable energy research projects at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering, the grass trials hold an important key to the future of New York’s energy strategy for the 21st century.
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s new energy initiative calls for the state to obtain 25 percent of its energy needs from renewable resources, including biofuels, by 2013.
If all goes well, the grass trials, funded by the federal government through the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, with additional support from the New York Farm Viability Institute and the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, will provide development tools to create a viable industry.
The ultimate goal of Cornell biofuels research is to discover the best sustainable bioenergy crops for diverse bioregions and provide businesses and entrepreneurs with new technologies and systems to convert grasses, wood and other biomass to usable, renewable energy with minimal environmental impact.
“Because New York contains and is near other major population centers and has a large amount of agricultural land that could be used for producing feedstocks, it is uniquely situated to be a major player in the biofuels industry,“ says Donald Viands, Cornell professor of plant breeding and genetics and a lead principal investigator on the project.
Cornell, with scientists from multiple disciplines, is partnering with others to provide cutting-edge research and extension activities necessary “to realize the potential of biofuels in a safe and sustainable manner,“ says Viands.
Interest in biofuels is so high that at a recent demonstration of grass trials at the USDA/NRCS Plant Materials Center in Big Flats, New York, more than 100 people, including farmers, policy-makers and researchers, showed up on a 100-degree day for a tour of fields of big bluestem, switchgrass, coastal panic grass and other species, according to NRCS’ Paul Salon, who is working in partnership with Cornell and other universities.
Adding urgency to the so-called “green energy revolution“ is the fact that 90 percent of New York energy needs are currently met by imported oil and natural gas, which is higher than the national average, says Joseph Laquatra, professor of design and environmental analysis.
To reduce its vulnerability to high oil prices and potential supply disruptions, the state needs to develop more indigenous sources of energy.
In the long term, cellulosic ethanol and other forms of bioenergy from grasses, legumes and wood products are expected to play a significant role in energy supplies, especially in New York, where some portion of 1.5 million acres of idle and underused agricultural lands could be turned into fuel-generating crops.

A backlog of applications to build wind farms with a total operating capacity of 8,000 MW is still waiting for approval from the Turkish government.

Turkey is set to double the amount of its electricity supplied by wind power with the construction of the biggest wind farm to date. The wind farm in southeast Turkey will have an installed capacity of 135 megawatts (MW) when it is completed in 2009.
General Electric (GE) Energy will be supplying 52 of its latest generation of turbines with a capacity of 2.5 MW each.
“Turkey is a fast growing and very interesting market for the wind business of GE,“ Frank Hoersting, Communications Leader of GE Energy, Renewable Energy, Europe, told RenewableEnergyAccess.com.
The wind turbines have 3 rotor blades, each with a diameter of 100 meters, and are able to operate at wind speeds as low as 19 mph as well as sweep about 8,000 square meters, the company says, making them 12 percent more efficient.
But in spite of the huge potential of the Turkish wind power sector--the country is surrounded by the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Sea--so far Turkey has made a slow start in exploiting its wind energy potential.
In 2006, only 19 MW of wind power capacity were installed, and this year, installed wind capacity increased to a little under 140 MW.
There are ten wind farms--mainly on land --clustered together in the west of the country and in the Aegean region, including in Canakkale, close to the site of ancient Troy, Akhisar and on the island of Bozcaada,
Tanay Sydky Uyar, Vice President of the World Wind Energy Association and Associate Professor of Renewable Energy at Marmara University, said that Turkey had a huge potential for renewable electricity from wind, solar and geothermal sources. He estimated that Turkey could install a wind capacity of 100,000 MW of electricity.
Currently, Turkey has a total installed capacity of about 40,000 MW for electricity from all energy sources.
“Wind power could supply Turkey’s electricity needs twice over within five to ten years if the government had the political will to develop this sector,“ he told RenewableEnergyAccess.com.
However, Uyar said that the government was slow to give licenses to build new wind parks.
A backlog of applications to build wind farms with a total operating capacity of 8,000 MW is still waiting for approval from the government. So far the government has issued about 40 licenses for wind parks, each with an installed capacity of between 20 and 60 MW.
The country’s capacity for solar energy is also estimated to be huge, with an average of 7.2 hours of sunshine each day, according to the Research Institute for Electricity Affairs (EIEI) in Ankara.
Also, Uyar said that geothermal energy has the potential to supply 5 million households with heating.
In 2005, Turkey passed a new renewable energy law to bring it into line with European Union legislation to support renewable sources, including wind power, by giving a government guarantee to purchase electricity at a set price for a period of 7 years.
But the tariff of about 5 euro cents per kWh of electricity is much lower than in most other European countries, and economic studies say it discourages investment in the renewable energy sector.
“We have terrific geographic conditions for solar and wind power in Turkey. Exploiting it is already economically and technically possible, but the problem is that the government favors fossil fuels and nuclear energy,“ Uyar said.
Turkey is locked into long-term agreements to purchase natural gas at fixed prices and also nuclear energy technology and these agreements are a financial disincentive to developing renewable energy, Uyar said.
The government is planning to build 3 nuclear reactors with a total capacity of 4,500 MW by 2012.
Uyar also said that more needed to be done in Turkey to make energy use more efficient.
“There is a huge amount of energy waste. Turkey can cut its electricity needs by 50 percent if it uses more up-to-date energy efficient technology and so help keep down carbon emissions,“ he said.
The share of energy that comes from renewable energy sources in Turkey is tiny. In 2006, the country had an installed biomass capacity of 35 MW and 15 MW of geothermal energy.
In addition, Turkey had an installed capacity of 13,100 MW of hydro power, 38,867 MW of thermal power, 11,850 MW of natural gas, 7,491 MW of lignite, 1,845 MW of hard coal, 2,230 MW of oil.

Workers pile palm oil fruit into a truck before sending them to a actory at the palm oil plantation in Serdang Bedagai, North Sumatra province, on Aug. 30.

Southeast Asian nations are gearing up for a palm oil boom as interest in biofuels soars, but activists warn the crop may not satisfy a global thirst for energy that is both clean and green.
They caution that oil palm plantations require massive swathes of land--either what’s left of the region’s disappearing forests, denuded plots that would be better off reforested, or land critical to supporting local people, AFP reported.
Governments and companies have been scrambling to cash in since palm oil prices jumped last year due to spiking demand from China, India and Europe, where biofuels should comprise 10 percent of motor fuels by 2020.
Indonesia has launched a particularly ambitious biofuels expansion program, which aims to see Southeast Asia’s largest economy source 17 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2025.
Evita Herawati, an assistant to Indonesia’s minister of energy, said 5.5 million hectares (13.5 million acres) will be set aside for biofuel plantations by 2010, 1.5 million hectares of which are for oil palm.
“A lot of forest has been cut down but they didn’t use it at all. We would like to use it for this program,“ she told AFP, adding that so far 58 deals worth a total of 12.4 billion dollars have been signed with companies.
She estimated that just in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo island, about 5.5 million hectares are available for use--an area far larger than Denmark and a bit smaller than Sri Lanka. Nine million additional hectares are available elsewhere, Herawati said.
The issue of where the land will come from worries activists, who point out that much of Indonesia’s peatland forests have already been destroyed, releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide.
Rully Syumanda, of Indonesia’s environmental watchdog Walhi, said proposing palm oil plantations has been used in recent years in Indonesia “as a pretext to clear land and take the more valuable logs“.
He estimates that nearly 17 million hectares of Indonesia’s forests have been cleared ostensibly for oil palm plantations since the 1960s, but only six million hectares have been cultivated.
Rudi Lumuru, from Sawit Watch, an industry monitor, meanwhile said much of this “empty“ land is actually used by local people. He reckons more than 500 communities have been embroiled in conflicts with more than 100 palm oil companies, typically from Malaysia.
“This land has been used since a long time ago by the people. They live on the land, they grow on the land,“ he said. “The government says people can make money, but it’s about transition of culture. The culture of the farmers, it’s rice, coffee, cocoa--it’s not palm oil.“
The Indonesian industry says it is cleaning up its act.
“The industry now is trying to avoid destroying land,“ said Derom Bangun, executive chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association. “Companies no longer clear land by burning or in ways that harm the environment or wildlife.“
Indonesian companies have joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a WWF-led initiative to engage palm oil companies, and is trying to abide by their principles, he said.
Companies in Malaysia, the world’s largest palm oil producer--expected to be eclipsed by Indonesia this year--are being lured here by the vast expanses of already-cleared land.
Malaysian plantations minister Peter Chin insists palm oil production does not damage the environment and said Malaysian companies will boost productivity by replanting with higher yielding clones and adopting good agronomic practice.
According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, 65 percent of Malaysia’s total land area of almost 33 million hectares is comprised of forest. Palm oil plantations use 12 percent.
Alvin Tai, plantation analyst at OSK Securities, said most of the companies listed on the Malaysian bourse are expanding in Indonesia as landbank in Malaysia is limited.
He said most major plantation firms were RSPO members and “they have the resources to maintain those standards. It’s the smaller plantation owners that are a concern“.
Malaysia’s northern neighbor Thailand is also getting in on the game.
High prices for palm oil, driven by Bangkok’s search for alternative fuels, have driven more and more farmers to convert rubber and fruit plantations to grow oil palm, an official from Thailand’s agriculture ministry said.
Local prices of palm oil have almost doubled to more than four baht (seven cents) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) from two baht last year.
The Philippines meanwhile has about 25,000 hectares under cultivation, but some 454,000 hectares of “disposable land“--pasture or shrubbery--mostly in the south, has been earmarked as well, the agriculture department said.

A hydrogen service station for the refilling of fuel cell vehicles opened in the heart of the capital city, Seoul, on Sept.14. It is the first time that a hydrogen fuel station is set up in the metropolitan area, according to GS Caltex and the government.
GS Caltex held a ceremony for the completion of the hydrogen fuel station, with a total floor space of 522 square meters at Yonsei University’s Shinchon Campus, with some 200 dignitaries attending, Fuelcellsworks.com reported.
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Kim Young-ju, GS Caltex Chairman & CEO Hur Dong-soo and Yonsei University President Jung Chang-young were also present at the completion ceremony.
``We will continue to do this business with a sense of duty, though we cannot expect much profit from it,’’ Hur told reporters. Some 8.5 billion won ($9.1 million), including four billion won of government money, was invested in the construction of the station.
Located just beside the main road leading to Yeonhi-dong, Seodaemun-gu, the new filling station, where hydrogen is produced and stored in a high-pressure chamber, will be used for fuel cell motor vehicles.
South Korea’s first hydrogen fueling station opened in August last year at the Korea Institute of Energy Research in Daejeon.
Hyundai Motor and research institutes have so far only been able to conduct test-drives of hydrogen motor vehicles in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, due to the lack of refilling stations in Seoul, according to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE).
Since 1999, when Ford and Air Products set up the first hydrogen station in North America in Michigan, filling stations offering hydrogen have been opening worldwide. As of 2006, the number of hydrogen stations was estimated at around 150.
South Korea plans to put a dozen more hydrogen stations into operation on a trial basis until the end of this year and increase the number to 34 until the end of next year, according to the MOCIE.
Beside GS Caltex, other major refiners including SK Energy have also been engaged in the hydrogen project, managed by the National RD&D Organization for Hydrogen & Fuel Cell and supported by the MOCIE and the Korea Energy Management Corporation.
In the meantime, Hur expected that his company would see a ``synergic effect’’ if it could undertake Hyundai Oilbank from the Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), the largest shareholder of the oil refiner.

Japan’s Daihatsu Motor Co Ltd said it has developed a technology to make fuel cells without platinum, the precious metal used in the electrolyte process in existing hydrogen-based fuel cells.
By using alkali, instead of acid, anion exchange membranes, Daihatsu’s fuel cell can work with less costly metals which are less resistant to corrosion than platinum, such as cobalt or nickel, Daihatsu said in a statement, Reuters said.
Daihatsu, Toyota Motor Corp’s minivehicle unit, also said its newly developed fuel cell uses hydrazine hydrate, a liquid industrial material, instead of hydrogen, as an alternative fuel that emits no carbon dioxide.
The new fuel cell generates power similar to that of existing hydrogen-based fuel cell, far more than fuel cell using other liquid fuel, like methanol, the company said.
Now that more countries focus on curbing carbon emissions and environment protection, major auto makers are involved in developing fuel-efficient vehicles including those without using fossil fuels.
“The new technology is giving us diversification in addition to our existing hydrogen-based fuel-cell technology,“ said Naoyuki Wakabayashi, a Daihatsu spokesman.
Currently, Daihatsu uses about 100 grams of platinum per vehicle in its hydrogen-based fuel-cell vehicles under development. Ordinary gasoline vehicles use about 5 gram per vehicle of platinum as a catalyst to filter out carbon monoxide and particulate emissions.
Cash platinum traded at around $1,285 per ounce (31 grams) in early European trade on Sept.14, up more than 10 percent since the start of this year. Platinum is mainly used in jewelry and auto catalyst, and is also considered as alternative financial assets to stocks and bonds.
Supply-side issues and limited above-ground stocks have made platinum far more expensive than palladium, another metal used for autocatalytic converters.