The European Council has committed to a highly energy-efficient and low greenhouse-gas-emitting economy. Yet, as this blog erroneously reported, one of the consequences of implementation of the European Commission criteria for sustainable biofuel would be the exclusion of bio-gas from municipal waste. Jonas from the Biopact team corrected my presumption; such an exclusion would occur only if the European Commission adopted very stringent criteria for biofuel life cycle assessments, in which case landfill gas fails to meet a 35% cutoff.
Although a growing sector in Europe. landfill gas cuts emissions only by a little more than 20 %, according to the Zah study. It would seem to be another example of the clash in values that more frequently will occur as ecology becomes a much more important factor in policy decisions.
“Global gas spot prices began their sharp up-trend around the year 2000 which just happens to coincide with the year of peak gas production in the UK. Since 2000, UK gas spot prices have increased almost 4 fold and this along with higher coal and oil prices is beginning to have a significant impact upon UK inflation.”
In the most recent consideration of natural gas supply and demand over at The Oil Drum, Euan Mearns warns that in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, “Higher energy prices are feeding through to rampant consumer energy price inflation.
And yet the authorities and many investment houses still see energy prices falling in the future. This naive view of global energy supplies is starving energy markets of the capital required to expand conventional and alternative energy supplies.
Curiously, the author fails to expound upon the biogas potential, nor does any subsequent commentary. One wonders if the focus upon Peak Natural Gas is laying the groundwork for the Syngas Solution?
As this blog, recently reiterated, when calling for explicit carbon accounting by utility companies as a poor substitute for a carbon tax:
While the production of Syngas by the gasification of carbon-bearing feedstock does well in an economic analysis, it does less well environmentally, i.e., in terms of aggregate increases in greenhouse gases or toxins.
“Upgrading on digestion gas has been practiced since 1935 and, in Germany, there was large scale injection into the gas grid between 1982 and 1999. Since 1992 there has also been injection into the gas grid in Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Injection currently only occurs in local distribution gas grids, though. In these cases, relatively small volumes are added, at low pressures, mostly for domestic end-users. As far as is known, no major problems have been reported related to the addition of biogas to natural gas.”
With sufficient scrubbing and monitoring, conversion of organic waste by means of anaerobic digestion seems indicated, especially as fossil fuels become scarcer and more expensive. Bio-gas would seem preferable to entrained flow gasification technology, yet there remain significant environmental and health risks. particularly when safeguards are overlooked.
Certainly, un-linking clean energy development from emissions reductions is more likely to occur as a greater energy shortage occurs. The rising price of natural gas and its inflationary impact would seem a critical indicator. Let us hope that Europe can lead the way in choosing alternative energy supplies that generate less emissions and have less overall environmental impact.
Political leaders pay little more than lip service to dealing with climate disruption (most visibly in the U.S., but few Kyoto signatory nations have actually met their required targets). As the signs of climate chaos mount, however, we’ll start to see climate taking on greater prominence in public and political discourse, often eclipsing other big issues. If global warming was the sole big driver for the next twenty years, I’d pessimistically assume that we wouldn’t see real action until the first big impacts start to appear. The interaction of the climate change driver with other drivers, however, may accelerate that timeline.
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The amazingdrx has been “talking up” mechanized, organic agriculture for quite a while.
The technology and infrastructure for efficient handling of bulky biomass can be challenging. Bio-energy facilities need to be close to the sources of feedstock. Some estimate within 50 miles.
Part of his vision for agricultural revolution of sorts is connecting energy production from anaerobic digestion to organic farming. The digestate, i.e., the residual coming from biogas digestors, can be an organic fertilizer, i.e., used as a soil ammendment, much in the same way that BECS (Bio Energy with Carbon Storage) proponents envision the application of agri-char.
By means of co-generation, i.e., combined generation of electricity and heat, biogas farms distributed throughout a region could provide clean, storable energy backup for a renewable smart grid.
“We have a vision of restoring a lot of prairie throughout the Midwest, and having something that will be mowed every year for hay and then either pelletized and burned, or converted into ethanol,” says University of Minnesota Professor David Tilman, who has conducted prairie grass research at the Cedar Creek Natural History Area for 12 years. A world-renowned ecologist, Tilman is lead author of a new study about prairie grasses as a biofuel source.
My commentary on the post / Gristmill commentary by the amazingdrx was “How does that saying go?” “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”
Doug Low recently saw an article in the UK’s Sunday Times, which warned that, “although UK natural gas prices are already at historically high levels, they are set to increase by 25% by next winter.”
Josh Nelson tells some things that you should know about natural gas.
“Consumption of natural gas in the united states has remained relatively stable for the past 35 years.”
“But natural gas imports in the United States have more than quadrupled in the past 20 years.”
“And the price we pay for imported natural gas has more than tripled in the past 15 years.”
“This probably has something to do with the fact that production of Natural Gas in the United States peaked about 35 years ago, in 1973.”
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