Land availability

Land availability and location in relation to existing buildings ... 

One fuel alternative involves the more widespread use of biomass produced fuels. More efficient biomass conversion techniques would help make biofuels more cost-competitive. Land availability and crop selection are major issues in biomass fuel usage. Biomass alternatives can be expected to grow to a significantly larger scale for providing fuel. 

Land availability may not be a major problem, but land use issues need to be coordinated. The long-term production of biofuels in substantial quantities will require a number of changes. Grain surpluses will not provide sufficient feedstocks for the fuel quantities needed. Producers will need to switch to short-rotation woody plants and herbaceous grasses, these feedstocks can sustain biofuel production in long-term, substantial... 

The global potential of conventional and emerging biofuels is limited by land availability for energy crops as well as the high cost of most existing and emerging conversion technologies (see also Chapter 7). In terms of land availability, estimates... 

The potential of biomass to make a large contribution towards replacing conventional fuels is constrained by land availability and competition with other end-use sectors. In particular, the potential for oil seeds to generate FAME is limited. Generally, yields of biofuels from purpose-grown crops depend on the species, soil type and climate.22 At a global level, it is estimated that biofuels could substitute up... 

Both in the USA and the EU, the introduction of renewable fuels standards is likely to increase considerably the consumption of bioethanol. Lignocelluloses from agricultural and forest industry residues and/or the carbohydrate fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW) will be the future source of biomass, but starch-rich sources such as corn grain (the major raw material for ethanol in USA) and sugar cane (in Brazil) are currently used. Although land devoted to fuel could reduce land available for food production, this is at present not a serious problem, but could become progressively more important with increasing use of bioethanol. For this reason, it is important to utilize other crops that could be cultivated in unused land (an important social factor to preserve rural populations) and, especially, start to use cellulose-based feedstocks and waste materials as raw material. 

Land availability could dictate the choice between throwaway and recovery processes. A considerable quantity of land is required for disposal of waste solids. 

Land availability for the wastewater treatment system should be determined. There are a number of tradeoffs that can be made in the biological processing step and biological solids disposal to reduce land requirements. 

The world production of cacao has increased from an annual average of 130,000 long tons for the period 1901 to 1905 to an average of 702,000 long tons per year in 1945 to 1954 (20). If suitable land available in the Western Hemisphere and in Africa were developed for cacao, the annual world output of raw cacao would be increased by 1,500,000 tons (5). Overproduction of cacao appears at present remote. 

The stabilization pond is practical where land is plentiful and cheap. It has a large surface area and a shallow depth, usually not exceeding 2 m (6 ft). Stabilization ponds have a long retention, ranging from 11 to 110 days [38], depending on the land available as well as the design requirement. 

It is estimated that there will be an additional 3 billion people to feed in the world by 2025 and, by 2050, the population is expected to exceed 11 billion, more than twice today s population.8 This means that within the next 50 years it will be necessary to produce more than twice as much food as is currently being produced.3 It must always be remembered that if the population increases, the land available for agricultural production will fall as these new people will have to live somewhere. Today, the amount of arable land available for the production of food per person is down from the half-a-hectare figure of the 1960s to about one-third of a hectare.9 Each available hectare must support more and more people as world population continues to increase at a rate of 1.7% per year (90 million more people to feed and clothe each year), whilst the rate of expansion of world cropland is less than one tenth of this rate (0.15% per year or 50 to 60 million new hectares of cropland by 2010).9 In less than twenty years each person will have to be supported by only 0.2 hectares. 

The potential of plant biomass transfers to contribute to soil fertility and crop nutrient supply will ultimately not only depend on land availability and vegetative productivity, but also on the availability of labour and capital for collection, transport and mulching. When considering issues of sustainability, it must be kept in mind that concentrating nutrients from a large area on a smaller area deprives most of the land of its fertility. 

We have adequate land available for the construction of the plant at Centralia, Illinois, and sufficient water and steam are available for a plant of the desired capacity. Please make your report as complete as possible, including a... 

Poultry wastes are equally problematic to meat wastes. Starkey (2000) reviewed the considerations for selection of a treatment system for poultry processing wastewater, including land availability, previous site history, publicly owned treatment work discharge, conventional waste... 

The number and length of basins will vary depending on land available, modification of the activated sludge process used, etc. 

The yield per hectare for these crops does not significantly exceed 1 Toe (ton oil equivalent)/ha/year, with only slight improvements in sight with this limited choice of oils. Furthermore, crop rotation is required to insure pest control and good yield this leads to much lower yield per hectare of land available each year for such crops. 

When the population was small, there was a modest amount of trash relative to the amount of remote vacant land available for its disposal. In this circumstance, landfill-trash-disposal could be tolerated. With the growth of cities, today there is little unused, unappreciated vacant land. With the current level of waste generation and limited available land, many severe problems have developed. 

---