生物经济在美国(1)

2009-01-23 编辑：Traveler 来源：欧洲生物经济网站http://www.bio-economy.net

The United States sees the development of industrial biotechnology as a key strategic objective. The intention is to move towards a bio-based economy, where production and use of energy and industrial products has been fundamentally changed. Initially, the key driver was energy security, to reduce America's dependence on the supply of crude oil from unstable regions of the world. However, the commitment entered into for one reason has now opened up a range of other possibilities, and the US has now shifted its focus to include bio-based chemicals manufacture and the creation of a domestic bio-industry. The main targets at present are power generation, bio-fuels for transport and bio-products.

 

I. Research and Innovation（研究与创新）

The Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) is the multi-agency effort to coordinate and accelerate all Federal biobased products and bioenergy research and development.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the nation's primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development (R&D). NREL's mission and strategy are focused on advancing the U.S. Department of Energy's and American nation's energy goals. The NREL has constructed a pilot facility to test bioprocessing technologies for the production of ethanol (or other fuels or chemicals) from cellulosic biomass. The pilot plant facilities are available to industry and academia to support R&D.

The NREL Biomass Program is involved with major biorefinery development projects that are focused on new technologies for integrating the production of biomass-derived fuels and other products in a single facility. The emphasis is on using new or improved processes to derive products such as ethanol and various other chemicals.

In 2003, the US Department of Energy (DoE) spent $125 million on biomass utilisation research, and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) contributed a further $259 million.

In addition, the DoE is spending nearly $100 million in support of bio-refinery demonstration projects. These will integrate the conversion of biomass into fermentable sugars and their subsequent use to produce value-added products. At the same time, the necessary logistics of collection, storage, transport etc are being studied. The US government is working closely with industry on these initiatives, involving agro-industrial, chemical companies and specialist biotechnology companies. Finally, the DoE has recently commissioned a report entitled Industrial bioproducts: today and tomorrow, highlighting both the huge opportunities offered by bio-refineries and the obstacles to be overcome.

        

Figure1:USA Plant producing biomaterials         

Figure1 Robert Anex, an Iowa State associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, examines a plot of hybrid sorghum-sudangrass for high-yielding biomass.

 

II. Policy（研发政策）

The US policy on biofuels and bioproducts is well integrated and coordinated from biomass production to market incentives as well as large research programmes for biofuels, bioproducts and biorefineries.

Political commitment has emerged quite rapidly in the last ten years, due primarily to high-level debates about the country's increasing dependence on foreign oil. The first major policy initiative to emerge from this debate was President Clinton's Executive Order of 1999, setting a goal of tripling the use of bio-based products and energy from biomass by 2010 and establishing a permanent council to develop a detailed research programme to be presented annually as part of the Federal budget. Legislation was then introduced to create a focus on producing energy and value-added products from a wide range of agricultural and forestry residues.

Continued commitment has taken this a step further with the recent publication (2007) of a Roadmap for Biomass Technologies in the United States . This was an initiative coordinated by the government-sponsored Biomass R & D Technical Advisory Committee, a body bringing together a wide range of stakeholders (including academia, industry, government, farmers and NGOs) to provide guidance on how to make the aspirations a reality. While describing the great potential for the use of biomass to produce both energy and a range of products, the report also highlights the challenges and presents a plan for a focused, integrated and innovation-driven R & D effort. It also covers ways in which societal approval can be gained, by public outreach programmes, and gives examples of market incentives likely to be necessary. Finally, it provides policy recommendations to remove barriers (including existing regulatory obstacles) which could impede the economic and sustainable expansion of industrial use of biomass in the USA.

 

III. Market access（市场准入与激励手段）

While the government continues to provide a high level of backing for industrial biotechnology research, it also supports market development via a range of incentives (激励). For example, the 2002 Farm Bill mandates federal procurement (政府采购) of bio-based products when they are available and are equivalent to alternatives from a fossil fuel base (the "buy bio" programme ). This is being facilitated by the setting of procurement standards and targets for federal government purchase of bio-based fuels, power and bio-products. Other standards (e.g. the renewable fuels standard ) will provide market pull, and farmers are being incentivised to grow crops for industrial use.

This effort is already paying dividends: the demand for corn-derived chemical products is predicted to grow at an annual rate of over 13% and total bio-product production is expected to reach 30 million tonnes annually by 2020.

All the signs are that this is a long-term commitment by the USA to develop a large, sustainable, biomass-based sector of the economy by development and application of the tools of industrial biotechnology.

 



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