Food-based ethanol is stumbling.
Not only is it contributing to rising food prices, it is also adding to the problem of global warming through the destruction of virgin wetlands and forest - which are being turned into fields of soya and palm oil. In addition, the rush to plant ethanol crops is disrupting food supplies in the developing world and leading to land grabs and human rights abuses.
As previously reported on this blog, ethanol that is produced from food waste as opposed to purpose-grown food crops may go some way towards overcoming some of these problems.
In Edmonton, Canada, the world's first industrial scale ethanol plant that uses food and other waste matter is about to be built. An estimated 100,000 tonnes of food waste, paper and plastics will be converted in the C$70 million plant which will produce 36 million liters of ethanol per year.
Not only is it contributing to rising food prices, it is also adding to the problem of global warming through the destruction of virgin wetlands and forest - which are being turned into fields of soya and palm oil. In addition, the rush to plant ethanol crops is disrupting food supplies in the developing world and leading to land grabs and human rights abuses.
As previously reported on this blog, ethanol that is produced from food waste as opposed to purpose-grown food crops may go some way towards overcoming some of these problems.
In Edmonton, Canada, the world's first industrial scale ethanol plant that uses food and other waste matter is about to be built. An estimated 100,000 tonnes of food waste, paper and plastics will be converted in the C$70 million plant which will produce 36 million liters of ethanol per year.
Source Reuters
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