By Barney Smith Back in the bad, old, coal-fired days, Drax produced more electricity than any other British power station - 1,326 MW or 4.59 per cent of British Grid Demand. Drax still produces more electricity than any other power station, but it now produces electricity by burning, not fossil fuels but biomass, in the [...]
By Barney Smith On 17 October, BP announced that, subject to regulation, they have agreed to purchase Archaea, a top American producer of Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), which already has some fifty RNG and landfill gas-to-energy sites across the US. Under the agreement, BP will pay some three point three billion dollars for Archaea, together [...]
By Julian Singer Biofuels form part of many plans to reach net zero. When burnt they may emit as much CO2 as a fossil fuel, but since the biomass withdrew CO2 from the atmosphere while growing the net effect on the atmosphere is small, even after taking into account the carbon emitted collecting, transporting and [...]
By Barney Smith In view of all the attention it has received, it is perhaps somewhat surprising to state that energy is not the only component of the climate agenda. Certainly it is the most structured, for no other sector has anything like the IEA Road Map as an accepted basis for further work. Biomass [...]
By Barney Smith When I wrote recently about Biofuels in rather general terms. (See Greenbarrel of 16 July), my interest was aroused by an aspect of Biofuels, namely Biodiesel, which is usually seen as an element in renewables. But, if truth were told, its importance lies more in its decarbonisation attributes than in the claims [...]
By Barney Smith The other great debate of our times is about the future of the planet and global warming. In this, an important place goes to “decarbonisation”, where there is an undoubted place for Biofuels; the question is how important that place is, or should be. (An obvious distinction has to be made between [...]
Most motorists have heard of biofuels but not many know much more about them. But as we progress towards an electric-powered future, biofuels should become an important medium term fuel for motor vehicles because of the environmental advantage they will provide, at least until 2040. That is the year, when the UK Government will ban the [...]
Figures for 2016 show that global palm oil production was over 62 million tons. This is the highest production volume of all vegetable oils, exceeding the second biggest oilseed crop by more than 10m tons and thus of considerable significance in terms of renewables. This tonnage is mainly produced by Indonesia (53 per cent) and [...]
In London, the responsibility for heating rests on individual arrangements with the various gas and electricity companies, while it is the boroughs which are responsible for providing local waste and recycling collections and the subsequent treatment of the waste. In terms of coverall coordination, the operations of the boroughs merely have to be “in general [...]