Phosphate and soil carbon

High yields generally require sufficient fertilizer, e.g. phosphate. Phosphorus is an element essential to plant growth. But whereas nitrogen fertilizer is synthesized, the only way to produce fertilizer containing phosphorus, is to mine it as phosphate. World phosphate resources are … Read more

First versus second generation

In the biofuel debate, it important to distinguish first and second generation technologies. First generation technologies produce biofuel from edible feedstock like starch (from maize), sugar (from sugar cane) or rape seed oil. Second generation technologies produce biofuel from wood … Read more