Because of the human cycles of production and consumption, our food, energy and environment are intricately linked. According to the projected growth of the world population (9.1 billion people by 2050) and consistent global development, it is increasingly difficult to satisfy our world with sufficient food and energy.
BFS blue technology presents a realistic proposal to address those 3 pressing issues with a feasible business model that can be applied starting today.
Healthy planet
Meeting the food and energy demand has a direct impact on the environment, especially through the emission of greenhouse gases, particularly atmospheric CO2, which is currently at an unprecedentedly high concentration of nearly 400 ppm (September 2013).
According to the global scientific and environmental community (UN, NASA, IPCC, EPA, etc), if current emission rates continue, we will soon reach a point of no return with irreparable damage resulting in a lack of potable water, changes in food production conditions and increased mortality rates from natural disasters such as floods, storms, and droughts. Climate change is not merely an environmental issue, it has deep economic and social implications. Though many of these natural phenomena have already been documented, energy from fossil fuels has allowed for most of society’s modern comforts, making it difficult to implement changes in behaviour.
According to the International Energy Agency, $1trillion is roughly the amount of investment needed worldwide each year for the next 36 years to stave off the worst effects of global warming and keep the Earth habitable. BFS technology presents a unique technology (3rd Cycle of CO2) to accelerate CO2 reduction based on Carbon Capture Conversion and Neutralization (C3N). C3N is an alternative, or in some cases complementary, to the CCS technology. In BFS technology CO2 is captured, but instead of being buried, this is used to feed marine phytoplankton (the building blocks of life) that capture the CO2 via photosynthesis and transform it into valuable bioproducts.
A clean renewable source of energy
Fossil fuels are non-renewable, and it is estimated that by 2025 the demand will be 120 million barrels a day. With this projection, we will see the oil reserves gradually decrease, and in the not too distant future, we will have supply problems. The increase in prices will affect the global economy, and if we add the environmental damage involving combustion, the search for clean renewable energy as an energy source is clear to see. The current green energy solutions don’t have the capacity of sequestering or neutralizing CO2. Additionally, they do not account for more than 10% of our global energy demand. As they will not significantly reduce the global level of fossil emissions, the risk of surpassing the 400 ppm of CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere will continue.
The growth of agricultural products to produce bioethanol and biodiesel have two big problems:
– Huge extensions of arable land are necessary. This technology competes with food and water, and to substitute the crude oil with this technology is not feasible (the land and water required is bigger than the real availability).
– These systems have the ability to recycle CO2 but not to permanently sequester or neutralize it.
In contrast, BFS blue technology has the ability to produce a clean renewable source of energy. To produce 1 BBL of crude oil, BFS technology permanently neutralizes 1 ton of CO2. Given the average combustion emissions of one barrel of oil being 390kg of CO2, BFS completely offsets 2.5 barrels for every barrel of blue petroleum, ensuring net emissions of 0 from the combustion of the 3.5 total barrels.
In this way, we can maintain our current energy model without changing our current lifestyle or infrastructure, even after the end of fossil energy. In essence, 3.7 Million of BBL per day of BFS blue oil will neutralize the CO2 emissions of the EU from the crude oil (EU crude oil consumption is 12.7 MBBL/day).
To reach this production of 3.7 MBBL per day of BFS blue Petroleum would require a much lower investment than $1Tn/year (According to the International Energy Agency, $1Tn is the amount of investment needed worldwide each year for the next 36 years to stave off the worst effects of global warming and keep the Earth habitable). In fact, the investment in total, from 2015 to 2050 would be €1.4Tn; €38.3Bn/year, around 0.4% of the GDP every year up to 2050; from this point on, no additional investment would be needed anymore and the plants would generate a revenue of €544Bn per year.
Nutrition for a growing world
According to the projected growth of the world population (more than 9.1 billion people in 2050) it is estimated that food production will be double by 2050. This implies that nutritional problems in the world will worsen. An increased demand for food, implies a greater demand for water and arable land. All in a time when the natural resource base for agriculture is degrading, large areas of land is being used for purposes other than agricultural production (biofuels), and climate change threatens to further reduce the amount of land suitable for cultivation.
BFS technology can be a source of proteins, energy and micronutrients; malnutrition is characterised by an inadequate intake of those proteins, micronutrients and calories. Figure 4 shows an example of a product with a really good ratio of proteins (high quality according to the amino acid score).
Conclusions – Reflexion
The BFS business model gives the opportunity to produce high-value products, blue Petroleum (fully competitive with fossil oil) or a combination of both depending on the market demand but always reducing CO2 from Industrial emissions.
Bernard A. J. StroÔazzo-Mougin
President
Eloy Chápuli Fernández
Scientific & Technical Management
BFS bio fuel systems
Tel: +34 966 388 278
echapuli@biopetroleo.com
