[greenyes] Special issue of JIE on Biobased Products & the Environment

[Suzanne Logan <suzanne.logan@no.address>]

The Journal of Industrial Ecology, a peer reviewed international
quarterly published by MIT Press and owned by Yale University, has
recently published a special issue on Bio-based products and the
Environment.  The entire special issue is available on the web at
<<http://mitpress.mit.edu/JIE/bio-based>http://mitpress.mit.edu/JIE/bio-based> 
at no charge.

This issue delivers insightful, even provocative research covering a
wide range of topics relating to the environmental impacts -- good and
bad -- of the production, use and disposal of bioplastics, biofuels and
other industrial products derived from agricultural products, residues
and wastes.

A description of the special issue appears below. For more information,
please contact Reid Lifset, Editor-in-Chief, at reid.lifset@no.address


Biobased Products: The Sustainability Solution?
Insights from the <http://mitpress.mit.edu/JIE>Journal of Industrial Ecology

Interest in the use of agricultural products and wastes for energy and 
industrial materials is growing throughout the world. Optimists foresee a 
new system of production that will produce a virtuous cycle of benefits for 
the environment and society. Envisioning a return to renewable raw 
materials in lieu of feedstocks and fuels based on petrochemicals, they 
predict a reduction in demand for fossil fuels, a decrease in greenhouse 
gas emissions, as well as the mitigation of a host of other environmental 
threats.

A more pessimistic outlook for the bioeconomy also exists, which foresees 
the increased use of synthetic fertilizers, a related reduction in water 
quality, and an increase in soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions.

Emerging research, published in the prestigious Journal of Industrial 
Ecology (and available free in full text at 
<http://mitpress.mit.edu/jie/bio-based>http://mitpress.mit.edu/jie/bio-based) 
examines the environmental implications­good and bad­of increased use of 
biobased materials and fuels using the concepts and tools of industrial 
ecology.

Articles in the special issue analyze the opportunities, processes, and 
environmental impacts of biofuels, bioplastics, biolubricants, and 
biosurfactants.  Government initiatives to support biobased products are 
summarized and leading biobased product companies are profiled. The special 
issue also features a look at the predecessor to today?s efforts to make 
greater industrial use of agricultural crops and residues, the American 
chemurgy movement of the 1920s and 30s.

Research published in this issue suggests:

·        New analysis methods can, without detailed product-specific 
information, predict the environmental performance of bioproduction 
strategies such as capacity to displace fossil fuel use.  These tools can 
rapidly screen new processes and identify promising opportunities.
·        Surprisingly, making composite materials and plastics from 
biobased resources is superior to energy production from energy crops, in 
terms of energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions, when these impacts 
are computed per unit of agricultural land rather than per unit of product.
·        Using ethanol fuel made from corn stover, the residues left over 
in corn fields after the grain is harvested, to produce a mixture of 
ethanol and gasoline (known as ?E85?), can yield important benefits. For 
each kilometer fueled by the ethanol, the car uses 95% less petroleum. 
Total fossil energy use (coal, oil, and natural gas) and greenhouse gas 
emissions are lower on a life-cycle basis. Air quality impacts are mixed, 
however, with some pollutants increasing and others decreasing.

Robert Anex, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering 
at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, USA, served as the guest editor for 
the special issue. Support for the special issue was provided by the U.S. 
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).


Sincerely,
Suzanne Logan
Editorial Assistant
Journal of Industrial Ecology