Biofuels Development
Tracking Turn ahead, but Gaps Remain.Slew of projects started in your quest to be the hub for renewable energy.GRACE Chua,InitiativesNeste Oil opened the world's largest biodiesel plant that uses palm oil, waste and animal fats.
And no country in Asia has given that transportation fuel contains a certain amount of biodiesel.What Singapore can do:1 Charge a tax on carbon emissions or cap on the amount of kulstof that can be emitted.2 Build a larger-than-lab-scale plant to produce high quality polymers and chemicals from raw materials can be increased to commercial scale demonstration.
Singapore is Charing forward in an attempt to be a powerhouse for renewable energy. The beginning of this month, the Finnish company Neste Oil officially opened in Tuas world's largest plant to make biodiesel with palm oil, waste and waste animal fat.
The factory, which exports to Europe and North America, joins those of other renewable energy giants who recently opened: Danish wind power company Vestas and Norwegian solar energy company Renewable Energy Corporation. Earlier this month, Singapore hosted a conference on energy used from biological sources such as plants and algae. Part of the prestigious Keystone Symposia series, was attended researchers worldwide.
The Neste Oil plant opening, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean: "In Singapore, we actively project that could use biorenewable raw materials for the production of fuels, and for the manufacture of chemical products." "
European aerospace and defense firm EADS last year launched a year-long collaboration with the Directorate for Science, Technology and Research (A * Star) to examine the micro-algae can be used as a source of jet fuel. But it will take at least six years before algae fuels can be used effectively as a fuel feedstock, says Neste Oil CEO Matti Lievonen. Firm is also doing re-search on the algae biofuels overseas.
The Economic Development Board is conducting a study of materials, such as palm oil, sugar cane and vegetable biomass as feedstock for Jurong Island plants to pro-duce plastics, chemicals and other industrial polymers. Small companies like Alpha Biodiesel has seen some success in refining waste oil |. It could be a tax on carbon emissions, or an official cap on the amount of carbon that can be emitted, and allow companies to buy carbon credits .
Researchers and industry players believe more can be done. For one thing, the demand for biofuels is still driven by government mandate, and not on price. For example, governments in Europe and North America decided that fuel must contain a certain amount of biodiesel.
In the euro area 5.7 75 per cent of transport fuel must be bio-based. For USA is 800 million gallons of biomass-based diesel mandate for this year. This is why these countries represent the largest market for Neste and other biodiesel makers. No country in Asia has such a mandate and Mr. Lievonen said, in the next five years, Asia is "not going to be a grote market for us."
Malaysia, though, is expected to biofuel mandate in some countries, this year, of the land palm oil industry support. Singapore was the demand for renewable energy - not necessarily by adopting legislation, but by a higher price on the carbon emissions from fossil fuels.
But these plans can be too rich for Singapore, says a * Star Science and Engineering Mayor Charles Zukoski. "Singapore will not result in the form of carbon tax, but it is also clear that the government is not going to lag either," he said.
It's already taken steps to reduce energy consumption. He added:". Car allowances, energy efficiency, buildings consumption and smart grids for local people .. . These things are persecuted " 'said Mr Lim Chuan Poh, A * Star chairman, on biofuels conference: "Singapore has identified the clean energy industry as a strategic growth area since 2007, and had begun to implement a comprehensive plan to grow industry "|. lack of supply-side mandates also affect business. "
Normal interest in biofuels grows and decreases with the price of oil. In July 2008, for example, oil hit U.S. $ 145 per barrel And in September of that year, the U.S. Department of Energy offered six universities U.S. $ 4.4 4 million in biofuel research.Right now oil prices are high - around U.S. $ 99 per barrel. Operators in the industry and re-seekers worry, however, that if prices fall again, so the voltage across biofuels.
The total global production of biofuels currently account for about 1 percent of traded energy, or about 20 billion gallons per year, and a U.S. $ 40 billion (S 51 billion) market. But it is expected to reach 144 billion gallons annually by 2022, based on standards set by various governments for the use of vedvarende energy.
For example, Edwin Khew, whose company IUT Global converts food waste into biogas for electricity, complained long as the lack of laws to require eateries to recycle their waste.Local, what more can be done?
Dr. Wong Pui Kwan of A * Star's Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences is looking to produce high performance polymers and chemicals from raw materials. And protein byproducts of algae oil can be used for animal feed suggested algae fuel researchers Jeffrey Obbard, who is based in Hawaii.
Top of the wish list for A * Star's Mr. Zukoski Singapore is a larger-than-lab-scale demonstration plant to be built to show that it can be increased to commercial scale. A plant can handle high-density algal oil, for example propagated in a neighboring country, which has already undergone some basic refining there.
However, Dr Zukoski explained, when it comes to both biofuels and renewable energy in general, there is no single "silver bullet" technology that can replace fossil fuels. There must be a "silver shot" instead, he said.
Biofuels Development
