Foreword
As demand for resources
continues to grow, ascertaining where those resources are going to be available
and sourced from is becoming an increasingly important area of research.
Particularly where biomass in concerned, this is an issue, as there is
regularly a conflict of interests: biomass can be utilised either as food or as
a raw material, which creates competition for agricultural land, further
exasperating the situation as available cropland becomes constrained. However,
there is one key aspect that favours biomass’ use as a raw material: the fact
that wastes from agricultural and forestry can provide a useful and significant
volume of resource with little conflict on other uses if sourced carefully. The
Rehap project was established to look into the potential use for such waste
biomass resources and has produced a tool which can be used to forecast the
future availability of agroforestry waste. The tool takes into account the current
uses and demand for these resources for example.........
Other News this Month Includes:
Policy
- Recipients of US Department of Energy
funding announced
Markets
- Dry weather continues to hit EU crop
forecasts
- Corn prices jump with
Chinese biofuel commitment
- Enviva makes healthy profit despite
Chesapeake fire
- The circular economy future of the chemicals
industry
Research & Development
- Plastic fully metabolised by microbes
- Analysis of over 30 years of global land-use
change
- Tool to forecast future availability of
biomass
- Research into fungus resistance in sorghum
- Novel breeding strategy for bigger sugar
beet
- Vast majority of earth's biomass is plants
- Irish forest bioeconomy
Wood & Crop
- UK Consultation on domestic wood burning
- The profound effects of climate change on US
agriculture
- S&W breeding sorghum with reduced
moisture for increased efficiency
- Metsä plant produces millionth tonne of wood
pulp
- Mobilising the Irish private forestry sector
- Analysis of Swedish willow for bioenergy
Events
Feedstock Prices