Microbial fuel cells: a green and alternative source for bioenergy production

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) represents one of the green technologies for the production of bioenergy. MFCs using microalgae produce bioenergy by converting solar energy into electrical energy as a function of metabolic and anabolic pathways of the cells. In the MFCs with bacteria, bioenergy is generated as a result of the organic substrate oxidation. MFCs have received high attention from researchers in the last years due to the simplicity of the process, the absence in toxic by-products, and low requirements for the algae growth. Many studies have been conducted on MFC and investigated the factors affecting the MFC performance. In the current chapter, the performance of MFC in producing bioenergy as well as the factors which influence the efficacy of MFCs is discussed. It appears that the main factors affecting MFC’s performance include bacterial and algae species, pH, temperature, salinity, substrate, mechanism of electron transfer in an anodic chamber, electrodes materials, surface area, and electron acceptor in a cathodic chamber. These factors are becoming more influential and might lead to overproduction of bioenergy when they are optimized using response surface methodology (RSM)

Bioenergy and Food Security Modeling Income Effects in a Partial Equilibrium Model

Bioenergy has been politically promoted as a means to mitigate air pollution, climate change, and scarcity of fossil energy sources. This study addresses the question whether increased agricultural incomes from bioenergy production will improve food security despite increasing food prices. We use a small partial equilibrium to analyze bioenergy policies. Through an iterative procedure, income changes are used to shift food demand curves until equilibrium. Our results show that despite global reductions in food production, undernourishment may decrease in certain locations, where bioenergy production occurs.Food security, Bioenergy policy, Income changes, Partial equilibrium model, Food Security and Poverty, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Social media and sentiment in bioenergy consultation

Purpose: The push to widen participation in public consultation suggests social media as an additional mechanism through which to engage the public. Bioenergy companies need to build their capacity to communicate in these new media and to monitor the attitudes of the public and opposition organisations towards energy development projects. Design/methodology/approach: This short paper outlines the planning issues bioenergy developments face and the main methods of communication used in the public consultation process in the UK. The potential role of social media in communication with stakeholders is identified. The capacity of sentiment analysis to mine opinions from social media is summarised, and illustrated using a sample of tweets containing the term ‘bioenergy’ Findings: Social media have the potential to improve information flows between stakeholders and developers. Sentiment analysis is a viable methodology, which bioenergy companies should be using to measure public opinion in the consultation process. Preliminary analysis shows promising results. Research limitations/implications: Analysis is preliminary and based on a small dataset. It is intended only to illustrate the potential of sentiment analysis and not to draw general conclusions about the bioenergy sector. Originality/value: Opinion mining, though established in marketing and political analysis, is not yet systematically applied as a planning consultation tool. This is a missed opportunity

JULES-BE:Representation of bioenergy crops and harvesting in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator vn5.1

We describe developments to the land surface model JULES, allowing for flexible user-prescribed harvest regimes of various perennial bioenergy crops or natural vegetation types. Our aim is to integrate the most useful aspects of dedicated bioenergy models into dynamic global vegetation models, in order that assessment of bioenergy options can benefit from state-of-the-art Earth system modelling. A new plant functional type (PFT) representing Miscanthus is also presented. The Miscanthus PFT fits well with growth parameters observed at a site in Lincolnshire, UK; however, global observed yields of Miscanthus are far more variable than is captured by the model, primarily owing to the model's lack of representation of crop age and establishment time. Global expansion of bioenergy crop areas under a 2 ?C emissions scenario and balanced greenhouse gas mitigation strategy from the IMAGE integrated assessment model (RCP2.6- SSP2) achieves a mean yield of 4.3 billion tonnes of dry matter per year over 2040-2099, around 30 % higher than the biomass availability projected by IMAGE. In addition to perennial grasses, JULES-BE can also be used to represent short-rotation coppicing, residue harvesting from cropland or forestry and rotation forestry

Interdependencies in the Energy-Bioenergy-Food Price Systems: A Cointegration Analysis

The present paper examines a long-run relationship between the energy, bioenergy and food prices. In the recent years the bioenergy production has increased significantly around the world. The increase has been driven by rising energy prices as well as by environmental policies aiming at reducing the harmful effects of conventional sources of energy, such as climate change. Bioenergy, in turn, affects agricultural markets, because it uses agricultural commodities as inputs. The theoretical model we develop predicts that, because of price inelastic food demand, the agricultural price increase may be substantial. The empirical findings confirm the theoretical hypothesis that energy prices do affect prices of agricultural commodities. However, the co-integration is weaker than theoretically predicted. The price effect of bioenergy might be mitigated by new technological development, which improve yields and lead to an offsetting effect in the supply of agricultural commodities, and by fallow land brought into cultivation, when agricultural profitability is rising.Energy, bioenergy, crude oil, prices, cointegration.

Barriers to European bioenergy expansion

The European Commission has set challenging targets for renewable energy expansion in Europe as part of its strategy to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Expansion of existing bioenergy capacity has a key role to play in ensuring these targets are met. However, significant technical and non-technical barriers to deployment of biomass technologies remain throughout Europe, the latter often being more difficult to address. Non-technical barriers are fundamental obstacles to biomass development. They represent limits or boundaries to the extent of deployment, often related to institutional frameworks, perceptions, socio-economic issues or engagement of and interfaces with related technology sectors. This paper presents an analysis, characterization and prioritization of the current non-technical barriers to thermo-chemical bioenergy expansion in Europe. Policy, economics and stakeholder understanding are strategically important if bioenergy potential is to be realized. Detailed policy evaluation with case study history from 4 European member states shows continuity of policy instruments is critical and specific support instruments work better than more general mechanisms. Improved stakeholder understanding (with the general public as a relevant stakeholder group) is key to increasing the acceptability of bioenergy. This requires different parallel strategies for different sectors/target groups. Promotional campaigns, dissemination of information to key multipliers, provision of independent factual information to the public, appropriate frameworks for handling approvals for new plants, forums for stakeholder interaction and certification schemes all have a role to play in improving bioenergy acceptability

Support to organic farming and bio-energy as rural development drivers

The paper conducts an analysis of the potentials of organic farming and bioenergy as win-win-win strategies promoting economic growth, employment and the environment at the same time. Empirical evidence does not indicate that conversion to organic farming will enhance economic growth and employment, but there are environmental benefits primarily due to the absence of pesticides. If energy crops are grown on idle land bioenergy has the potential of generating economic activities and employment alongside with CO2 reductions. Liquid biofuel production is a relatively expensive way of reducing CO2, but there is a potential for technological breakthroughs making it economically viable to use low value feedstock like straw and waste for bioethanol production. It is recommended that the positive environmental effects of organic farming and bioenergy are internalised through green taxes on the negative externalities from conventional farming and fossil energy use

Interdependencies in the Energy-Bioenergy-Food Price Systems: A Cointegration Analysis

The present paper examines a long-run relationship between the energy, bioenergy and food prices. In the recent years the bioenergy production has increased significantly around the world. The increase has been driven by rising energy prices as well as by environmental policies aiming at reducing the harmful effects of conventional sources of energy, such as climate change. Bioenergy, in turn, affects agricultural markets, because it uses agricultural commodities as inputs. The theoretical model we develop predicts that, because of price inelastic food demand, the agricultural price increase may be substantial. The empirical findings confirm the theoretical hypothesis that energy prices do affect prices of agricultural commodities. However, the co-integration is weaker than theoretically predicted. The price effect of bioenergy might be mitigated by new technological development, which improve yields and lead to an offsetting effect in the supply of agricultural commodities, and by fallow land brought into cultivation, when agricultural profitability is rising.Energy, bioenergy, crude oil, renewable fuel, cointegration, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, International Development, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C14, C22, C51, Q11, Q13, Q42,

Bioenergy production in Finland and its effects on regional growth and employment

Finnish national climate and energy strategy sets the share of renewables in energy use to 38%, and a significant amount of this should be covered by biomass based energy. In 2020 forestry is set to contribute 24 TWh and agriculture 4-5 TWh to energy production. In particular, bioenergy resources are considerable in the rural areas. However, the regional aspects have gone without investigation before this study. This study is a general equilibrium analysis. We considered only the by-products and waste material from agriculture and forestry as the resources for bioenergy, and only heat and power production were considered as the potential end uses. A regional CGE-model (RegFinDynBio) was used to analyse the impact of increased use of bioenergy potential. Increase in bioenergy use will lower the levels of GDP and employment marginally but will, nevertheless, help to achieve the emission reduction goals. However, the regional results showed the uneven distribution of the costs. The regions that beforehand seemed to be the most promising ones fared the worst. Southern Ostrobothnia was the sole exception, because of its bioenergy export income. The greatest difficulties are seen in Kainuu. Eastern Uusimaa shows significant losses as well, but they can be traced back to the region's economic structure, which is heavily dependent on fossil fuel refining industries. Some regions that use gas as energy source are seen to gain marginally because of their more diverse energy production system. --bioenergy,agriculture and forestry,regional economy,growth,employment,CGE-modelling