Aussie conference questions biomass / food trade-off

Bioenergy Australia, a government-industry forum to foster and facilitate the development of biomass for energy, liquid fuels, and other value-added bio-based products recently put on The Bioenergy Australia 2006 – A Growth Opportunity for Energy and the Environment Conference. Presentations at the conference were given on bioenergy projects and project development case studies, and covered bioelectricity, liquid fuels, gasification and pyrolysis and their applications, anaerobic digestion, energy from waste, plus overarching aspects such as green house gas emissions and lifecycle analyses of bioenergy systems. Of note was the panel discussion covering the trade-off between land use for biomass and food and fodder.

Two technical tours took place, one to investigate the mass planting of oil mallee eucalypts which can be used as a feedstock for bioenergy and value-added biobased products such as activated carbon and eucalyptus oil; and another that included visits to an algae-to-biodiesel related site on the Peel Inlet near Mandurah, and the Australian Renewable Fuels 44 million litre / 11.6 million gallons per year biodiesel plant at Picton.

Related:

• Fourth annual Sustainable Biodiesel Summit scheduled for Feb. 4 in San Antonio
• Department of Energy wants to put bacteria to work
• Biofuel Web site launched by Purdue University

[Source: Bioenergy Australia]