Bio-Based Manufacturing

November 4, 2011 — The Editors

In 2011, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry introduced her “Grow It Here, Make It Here” initiative to spur growth in the emerging bio-based manufacturing industry. The initiative would provide a 30% tax cut for new, expanded, or re-equipped bio-manufacturing projects. Bio-based manufacturing uses agricultural goods, such as soy and wheat, to make value-added products, such as car parts, cleaning products, and plastics. This is not a new concept. Henry Ford used Michigan-grown soy and other agricultural products in his automobiles. In recently years, more and more automakers are using parts made from agricultural products. An example: the seats of the new Ford Focus and the Chevy Volt are made of Michigan-grown soy material.

Currently bio-based products represent 4% of the plastic and chemical industry market. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture the potential market for bio-based plastic and chemicals could reach 20% by 2025 with federal policy support. Some studies show that if that 20% is reached, it would create more than 100,000 American jobs. This does, however, assume that agricultural production is able to keep up with strongly increasing demand and do so while maintaining competitive prices. Today’s market size is the estimated, current value of the bio-based economy in the United States.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2011
Market Size: $1.25 Trillion
Source: “Stabenow Announces ‘Grow It Here, Make It Here’ Initiative to Advance Emerging Michigan Industry in Zeeland,” October 24, 2011, available online here.
Posted on November 4, 2011

Posted in Agriculture, Chemicals, Fabric & Fiber, Natural Resources, Plastic. 1 Comment »

Fish Catch

July 13, 2011 — The Editors

While many spend summer hours in the often leisurely act of fishing, we look today to fishery production for our market size. The market presented below is the size of the domestic catch in the United States for 2008. This does not include, of course, all those Rock Bass, Walleye, Trout, Bluegill, Pike and Perch being pulled from lakes and streams all over the country by sports fisherman. Rather it is the size of the commercial catch.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2008
Market size: 8,326 million pounds
Source: “Table 889. Fishery Products—Domestic Catch, Imports, and Dispostion: 1990 to 2008,” Statistical Abstract of the United States 2011, January 2011, Page 566, available online here.
Original source: U.S. Census Bureau

Posted in Aquaculture, Food, Natural Resources. No Comments »

Minerals in Wyoming

June 2, 2011 — The Editors

Taxable value of WY minerals

Mining and extraction industries in Wyoming saw a significant decline in 2009 after peaking in 2008 for the decade but 2010 saw a strong recovery over 2009. The graph shows taxable value for all minerals extracted annually in Wyoming from 2001 through 2010. Wyoming’s mineral wealth is providing the state with a strong base for recovery from the recession that began in December 2007.

Today’s market size is the total value of all minerals extracted in 2010. The minerals included in this total are oil, natural gas, coal, bentonite, trona, uranium, sand and gravel.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2001 and 2010
Market size: $6.74 and $15.49 billion respectively
Source: Barron, Joan, “State’s Mineral Valuation Booms,” Casper Star Tribune, page 1, June 1, 2011.
Original Source: State of Wyoming

Posted in Coal, Energy, Metals, Mining, Natural Resources, Oil & Gas. No Comments »

Crude Oil Supply

May 13, 2011 — The Editors

Based on report recently issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the supply of crude oil for U.S. energy needs, from all sources, is anticipated to decline between 2009 and 2025. On a per capita basis this decline is rather large, 15.3%. This is because the population is projected to increase by 16.4% between 2009 and 2025 while the supply of crude oil is forecast to decline by 1.39%. Obviously, new sources of petroleum supply will be (are) in high demand, not to mention all other forms of energy.

Today’s market size is the daily supply in millions of barrels per day (mbpd) of crude oil in the United States, for 2009 and projected for 2025.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009 and 2025
Market size: In 2009, 14.33 mbpd and in 2025, 14.13 mbpd
Source: “Table C4. Liquid Fuel Supply and Disposition,” Annual Energy Outlook 2011, with Projections to 2035, page 175, April 2011, available online here.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration

Posted in Energy, Natural Resources, Oil & Gas, Population, Transportation. No Comments »

Electricity from Renewables

March 31, 2011 — The Editors

Renewable Energy Sources Worldwide

Hydroelectric power plants are the largest producers of electricity from renewable sources. As we saw in yesterday’s Market Size post, they represented 15.97% of world electricity production in 2008. That same year, electricity produced by all other renewable sources accounted for 2.4% of electricity generated. While responsible for only a small percentage of all electricity generation now, renewable sources are forecast to grow steadily through 2035 at which point the non hydro-power portion will account for 7.26% of global production.

The pie chart shows how electricity is generated worldwide and provides a detail of the small pie slice that represents non hydro-power renewables. The renewable energy source that is forecast to grow most quickly in the next decade is solar.

Please note that the Energy Information Administration (EIA) projections exclude electricity generated by so called off-grid sources, thus renewable energy consumed at the site of production. Energy producted by solar panels installed, for example, on a private home for the sole and exclusive use of the residents of that home is not counted in the EIA projections. If, however, those solar panels are tied into the public electric grid, then the electricity they generate is accounted for in the EIA projections. Time will tell how significant these off-grid electricity generation resources become.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2007 and 2035
Market size: 463 and 2,554 Billion Kilowatt hours respectively (please note this is the size of electicity generation from non hydro-power renewable sources)
Source: “Table 12. OECD and Non-OECD net renewable electricity generation by energy source, 2007-2035,” International Energy Outlook 2010, report available online here.
Original Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Posted in Electric Power, Energy, National Infrastructure, Natural Resources. 1 Comment »

Fishing and Aquaculture

March 7, 2011 — The Editors

As the world population grows, so do all efforts to feed that population. An important resource in this effort are our inland waterways, oceans and seas. Aquaculture—the cultivation of aquatic plants and animals also referred to as aquafarming—is the fastest growing sector within this industry. Fishing in the wild is, in many places, becoming more difficult because of either regulations to prevent overfishing or because overfishing itself has already caused a serious decline in the fish population, as happened to dramatic effect off the eastern coast of Canada in the early 1990s.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the aquaculture portion of this market.

The market sizes presented here do not include aquatic plants but do cover all caught and raised fish of any kind from marine and inland waterway sources.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 1998 and 2008
Market size: 117.2 and 142.3 Million tons respectively. Approximately 80% of both year’s totals were for human consumption—93.3 and 115.1 Million tons respectively.
Source: “Table — 1 World Fisheries and Aquaculture Production and Utilization,” page 3, The State of Fisheries & Aquaculture 2010, available online here. The data for 1998 are from the 2000 edition of this same report, same table number, page 6, and available online here.
Original Source: United Nations, Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), Fisheries and Aquaculture Department.

Posted in Aquaculture, Food, Natural Resources. No Comments »

National Park Visitors

June 17, 2010 — The Editors

The size of the market for national parks is provided based on visitors to these parks annually. The most visited of the national parks is Golden Gate National Park in San Francisco, CA.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 94.5 Million Visitors
Source: “National Park Summary Visitors Report,” May 2010 [Online] here.

Posted in Entertainment, Market Size, Natural Resources. No Comments »
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