Non-GM biofuel crop acceleration for faster returns and CO2 offset

The European Commission in its Renewable Energy Roadmap 21 has agreed a binding target of increasing the level of renewable energy in the EU's overall mix from less than 7% today to 20% by 2020. Targets beyond 2020 are being assessed in the light of technological progress.

Biofuels must make up 10% of vehicle fuels by 2020.

·       The EU Commission assumes that 55% of all fuel used in the 27 EU countries will be biodeisel by 2020.

·       Even taking the most optimistic 40% second generation biofuel increases in bio-oil yields, this will need 7 million hectares of arable land, which will still force the EU to subsidise every gallon of biofuel used while meeting the regulated overall requirement of 36.2 Million Tons of Oil Equivalent (MTOE) by 2020.

A feature of this EU framework is the need for coordinated development of biofuel farming and refining throughout the EU. However the current EU biofuel report states that:

·       Production is sustainable and does not lead to competition as regards food production;

·       The emissions reduction potential of many first generation biofuels in comparison to conventional fuels has been revised downwards, in some cases substantially, following a comprehensive life-cycle analysis, and whereas issues of sustainability, environmental impact and the availability of arable land in competition with food production have still not been satisfactorily resolved;

·       A sustainable biofuels policy should be geared to setting sustainability criteria for the manufacture of biofuels;

·       The petroleum industry will only put in place the necessary comprehensive infrastructure for new fuels when there is a sufficient demand for biofuels, but the motor industry has made technological advances permitting any mixture of petrol and biofuels to be detected by a sensor in the vehicle, a device which will also enable older vehicles to run on biofuels, thus achieving CO2 emissions reductions over the whole range of existing vehicles.

Ultra Green’s Boreal Argentis seed produces 6 tonnes per hectare of convertible diesel oil in Year 3 (2013) 12 tonnes in Year 6 (2016) and 20 tonnes by Year 10 (2016).

This means it would require 20% of the land needed to meet the biodeisel obligation for biodeisel by 2020 even allowing for the most optimistic second generation oil yields from current targeted crops.

As the seeds will grow in harsh climates in temperatures as low as minus 50 and as UG can increase the root mass of the trees by a multiple of 30, the choice of land is much wider. Northern part of Europe or the colder Eastern countries can grow as much  biodeisel as they require in poor crop yield lands.

The higher yields and the use of much lower cost biodeisel refineries means that the cost per tonne of biodeisel can be brought in line with fossil oil import costs.

Sustainable tree based fuel crops have been rejected as short term CO2 sequestrators, primarily because of CO2 earth disturbance in the planting and later harvesting stage coupled with the high CO2 production in the industrialised oil crushing and refining stages.

UG technology addresses these points in 4 ways:

1.    Fewer trees per hectare –because of the higher yields, fewer trees create less earth disturbance per tonne of fuel.

2.    Low impact drilling rather than ploughing reduces CO2 leakage during the nursery and planting stages.

3.    Fungal root mass expansion means that the trees reach maturity faster and so begin the CO2 sequestration stages at a much earlier point.

4.    Oil crushing is powered by waste from the seeds and other waste biomass so that the CO2 impact of the oil crushing technology is offset. Ultra Green’s modular refineries use less power, which can be from sustainable sources, so as to create less CO2.