Beyond the steady depletion of our fossil fuel reserves, there are several other environmental factors that make the utilization of biomass for a variety of products attractive. Many nations have come to this realization and the worldwide consumption of biomass for biofuels and biobased products has been on the rise. How quickly the technology has been adapted and accepted varies depending upon a multitude of social, economical, and political factors, but nearly every developed country in the world has now come to the realization that our petroleum-based society is facing a grave situation. This encyclopedia focuses on the woody biomass potential in the southeastern United States and the utilization nationwide, but this sub-section will discuss the utilization of the biomass resource elsewhere in the world.

• European Fuel Consumption Comparison
• India
• China
• Russia
• Mali
• Italy
• Ukraine

Gross consumptiion of energy, including all fuels, separately for renewables (Mtoe), and share of biomass of the renewables in 2001 for the European Union (Karjalainen et. al. 2004).

By comparison, the renewable energy in the United States accounted for 3 percent of the total energy consumption. Biomass was responsible for 47 precent of renewable energy sources (EIA 2004).

2001 Energy Consumption for the European Union

In 1987, the village of Pura in the Karnataka state of India replaced their traditional means for obtaining water and electricity with a biogas-based Rural Energy and Water Supply Utility. The system was developed at the Indian Institute of Science and improved the living conditions of the 500 residents. The system was competitive with central station, coal-based power and the low demand for power enabled the village to sale excess electricity to the utility grid. The International Energy Initiative launched a proposal, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, in 1995 to replicate the success of the Pura system. Nine additional villages in Karnataka have replicated the system under the IEIs supervision.  A report on their success was prepared by the IEI.

China produces over 1 Billion tons of woodwaste on an annual basis. As the nation's industrial and economic power has grown so has its search for alternatives to fossil fuels. China has increased its biomass technology and utilization research by 25 percent over the past three years and as a result it produces 5.5 Billion cubic meters of biogas annually. The host nation for the 2008 Summer Olympics will use bioplastics in all of its packaging for the games.

The Chinese government has issued a need to be even more dependant upon biomass resources in the future. They issued a biomass target of 10% total consumption by 2020 and the production of 500 Million tons of pelletized fuel by 2015. A fermentation plant in Harbin in Manchuria has recently developed a pathway to produce hydrogen for fuel cells.

Contact: Dehua Liu, Tsinghua University

The Russian Federation is one of the world's leaders in the production and ownership of coal, oil, and forest materials; nearly 25 percent of the world's biomass resources exist within its borders. With the current world markets up for fossil fuels, the Russian Federation has not invested large amounts of capital nor scientific effort into the processing and utilization of biomass resources for energy. With over 10 million people without central heating, small scale and community-based bioenergy and biofuel production sites have great possiblity should the government turn its attention to a renewable resource.

Contact:

Nikolay Sviridov- Russian Federal Agency for Energy, Science, and Innovations.

Mali is just one example of the growing need for alternative fuels and energy on the continent of Africa. Nearly half of the energy produced comes from wood; with 80 percent of the total energy consumed coming from biomass resources. Partners for Africa is jsut one of many organizations that are trying to address the issues of energy and community development in these third-world nations as they slowly incorporate modern technology and enter into the global economic arena.

The Household Energy and Universal Rural Access (HEURA) project is supporting the government of Malis efforts to provide basic energy services to poverty stricken regions of the nation. The $44 Million project is one of many that the World Bank has entered into over the past five years. The World Bank estimates that if just 1 percent of the capital that is currently invested into ethanol research is directed towards projects on the African continent, over 120 billion liters of biofuels could be produced yearly. This investment would produce 30 million new jobs and the result could be $20 billion in biofuels exports.

Contacts:

Mali- Philippe Girard, CIRAD and ISOMET

World Bank- Boris Utria

Italy has incorporated short rotation woody crops through copice regeneration methods into their biomass supply for several years now. The nation has 35 biomass powered plants with a capacity of 297 MW and 41 district heating plants with a capacity of 193 MW.

Harvests of the poplar species used for the short rotation plantations are being paid 40 Euros per ton green or 80 Euros per ton dry. The nation has also adopted a recent national subsidy that pays landowners 45 Euros per hectare per year for growing energetic cultivations.

Contact: Luigi Pari, ISMA, ismapari@uni.net

The Ukrainian energy and fuels industry has estimated that it can produce 46 million tons of biobased fuels by the year 2010. The nations current production capacity is estimated to be around 640 million tons but due to lack of government support and the publics lean towards fossil fuels, very little is being done.

The Scientfic Energy Centre in the Ukraine has encouraged the planting of Rapeseed for biobased fuels and expects to produce 2 million tons fo ethanol yearly by 2010 and 2 million tons of biodiesel by 2015 for local consumption.

Contact: Tetyana Zhelyezna, Engineering Institute of Ukraine