Global ethanol and biodiesel 2000-2011

Fossil fuel for electricity has several competitor in the market nowadays, such as nuclear power, windpower, wave energy, geothermal, hydropower, etc. However, the diesel and gasoline as fuel do not have so many competitors in the market.

The renewable fuels are dominated by ethanol by 86 million m3/year that is about 4% of the gasoline market. It is followed in large scale by biodiesel with 21 million m3 per year in 2011. Biogas is the third largest biofuel in the market. There are also two other source that is hydrogen and electricity. However, they are still negligible in the market. Ethanol market in 2011 might be negatively affected by the drought in the US this year. We'll see how it is developed!


(Ethanol and biodiesel production in the world adapted from REN21)

A review on small biogas reactors

Biogas is probably one of the oldest biofuels in the world. However, this gas has a great contribution to our current global warming now, since it is well produced from e.g. landfills and rice fields in the world. On the other hand, if biogas is captured in the reactors, it is a great source of energy for cooking, heating, electricity and fuel for the cars.

We have recently reviewed different designs and other aspects of the small reactors used for biogas prooduction. There are several millions of such reactors in the world with different designs, and it is interesting to see the development of such reactors. You can here download the review article.



(Schematic sketch of a janta model fixed dome digester for biogas production)

Canada vs. Sweden: Energy and environment?

Canada and Sweden are both located somewhere in very cold part of the world, and they have many similarities. However, when it comes to the energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Canada and Sweden are quite different. Canada produces 3 times GHGs more than what Sweden do (c.f. picutre below). I think Cananda needs to accelerate energy saving programs.

One of the aspects that I got a surprise is about the energy consumption in the houses. I saw even in the fine hotels, they use aluminium windows with one layer of glasses, while in Sweden, we are using 3-layers windows since 1980s! I believe Canadians pay a lot for the energies in the winter to warm up the houses, as their windows are perfect to loose the energy!


(GHGs emission of different countries according to IEA)


(Photo of a window at a hotel in Canada with one-layer glass and aluminium)