International Symposium on Renewable Feedstock for Biofuel and Bio-based Products -The Roles of Fiber Crops: Kenaf, Jute, Hemp, Flax, and Allied
August 11-13, 2010, Austin, Texas, USA |
The vision of bio economy keeps growing in today’s global economy. Use of renewable feedstock for biofuels and bio-based products has become imminent and substantially drawn public attentions and industrial investments. With favorable national energy policies to develop a green industry and protect the environments, plant-based biomass becomes a new focus on the production of value-added and environmentally- friendly bio-based products, including biofuels.
Biofuel must be derived from feedstock produced with much lower life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions than traditional fossil fuels and with little or no competition with food production (Tilman et al., Science, July 2009). The same principle applies to producing bio-based products in order to achieve sustainability and the economy of scale.
Most commonly studied crops for the production of biofuels and bio-based products include switch grass, poplar, willow, and bast fiber crops like jute, kenaf, hemp, and flax. Although the cultivation of bast fiber crops gose back to 5,000 years ago, as a group of high-quality fibers, their utilization has been limited to traditional products. Physical, chemical, and biological properties of these fibers have made them quality materials for many industrial applications like paper pulp, biofuels, thermoplastics, absorbents, composite, non-woven, and animal feed, etc. New products developed from bast fibers have been used for automobile, packaging, construction, and environmental cleaning. Also, high biomass production (for example, kenaf can yield 25-30 ton/ha dry mass), wide ecological adaptability, and rich cellulose and semi-cellulose contents make these fiber crops good feedstock candidates for bio-based product and biofuel production.
CCG has years of experience promoting the production and utilization of non-wood cellulose fibers including, but not limited to kenaf, jute, hemp, flax, and ramie. Previous Symposiums organized by CCG have brought together participants from around the world with common interests in exploring the use of these plant fibers for environmental protections and renewable energy production.