HR: 11:05h
AN: B51F-04 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: BIOENERGY, THE CARBON CYCLE, AND CARBON POLICY
AU: * Kammen, D M
EM: kammen@socrates.berkeley.edu
AF: Energy and Resources Group, 310 Barrows Hall #3050 University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3050 United States
AU: * Kammen, D M
EM: kammen@socrates.berkeley.edu
AF: Goldman School of Public Policy, 310 Barrows Hall #3050 University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3050 United States
AB: The evolving energy and land-use policies across North America and Africa provide critical case studies in the relationship between regional development, the management of natural resources, and the carbon cycle. Over 50 EJ of the roughly 430 EJ total global anthropogenic energy budget is currently utilized in the form of direct biomass combustion. In North America 3 - 4 percent of total energy is derived from biomass, largely in combined heat and power (CHP) combustion applications. By contrast Africa, which is a major consumer of 'traditional' forms of biomass, uses far more total bioenergy products, but largely in smaller batches, with quantities of 0.5 - 2 tons/capita at the household level. Several African nations rely on biomass for well over 90 percent of household energy, and in some nations major portions of the industrial energy supply is also derived from biomass. In much of sub-Saharan Africa the direct combustion of biomass in rural areas is exceeded by the conversion of wood to charcoal for transport to the cities for household use there. There are major health, and environmental repercussions of these energy flows. The African, as well as Latin American and Asian charcoal trade has a noticeable signature on the global greenhouse gas cycles. In North America, and notably Scandinavia and India as well, biomass energy and emerging conversion technologies are being actively researched, and provide tremendous opportunities for the evolution of a sustainable, locally based, energy economy for many nations. This talk will examine aspects of these current energy and carbon flows, and the potential that gassification and new silvicultural practices hold for clean energy systems in the 21st century. North America and Africa will be examined in particular as both sources of innovation in this field, and areas with specific promise for application of these energy technologies and biomass/land use practices to further energy and global climate management.
UR: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael
DE: 0322 Constituent sources and sinks
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
DE: 6620 Science policy
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting