New uses
Developing Biofuels- Obstacles to Overcome and Tailor-Made Solutions
08/06/2010
The European Union is promoting the use of biofuels. Ambitious targets in terms of road fuel blending rates with sustainable production requirements have been set. With demand on the rise, researchers are working on developing new production channels that must to address technical, economic, and ecological challenges.
Ambitious Targets Set by the European Union
The European Directive of April 23, 20091 imposes strict targets on EU Member states. Each Member state must source 10% of their transport energy needs from renewable resources by 2020. To meet this target, France and its neighbors will be relying heavily on biofuels.
The directive stipulates that biofuels produced or sold in Europe must also meet sustainability criteria, in particular:
• They must not have been produced on land with high biodiversity value (protected areas and areas that are important for species reproduction);
• They must be produced in a way that protects soil, air, water and forestry;
• They must reduce CO2 emissions by at least 35% by 2013 and by 50% by 2017 for existing generating facilities, and by 60% by 2018 for new facilities.
How Can We Meet Biofuel Needs while Preserving the Environment?
To meet the European targets, EU countries are working on improving biofuel manufacturing processes available on the market. In particular, they are focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions throughout the production chain.
However, there is limited land available in Europe for energy crops. That is why European countries are also working to develop second-generation biofuels to complement the bioethanols and biodiesels already available on the market at the same time.
These new biofuels will be derived from a wider variety of resources – such as straw, wood, and agri-food waste – and new ways of processing biomass, like:
• Hydrotreating oil to obtain a high-quality synthetic biodiesel;
• Gasifying Biomass (plants, wood, etc.) followed by synthesizing biohydrocarbons (Fischer Tropsch process);
• Producing slurry or bio-oil through grass or plant waste pyrolysis (heat treatment without oxygen) and refining to make fuel and energy products;
• Converting Biological biomass (straw or wood) into cellulose ethanol or other energy vectors;
• Producing oil or biofuels from microorganism cultures;
and
• Catalytic conversion of biomass.
These new generation biofuels will become available, some in the next few years, others by 2020 or later. However, the development of these fuels requires substantial R&D investment, and production costs are still very high at the current stage of development.
How Can We Bring down the Cost of Producing Biofuels?
In Europe, it costs more to produce biofuels than fossil fuels because of the cost of raw materials required to make them. In fact, biofuels will be more competitively priced when their raw materials and manufacture are sustainably less expensive than for gasoline or diesel.
In France for example, the tax grant system currently comprises two instruments. They are:
• Partial tax relief for biofuel production facilities
and
• A polluting tax payable in the case of non-compliance with biofuel incorporation targets.
Scientists are exploring other production channels to reduce the cost of producing biofuels and increase resources in terms of raw materials. This is the case, for example, with waste recovery- i.e. used cooking oil, animal fat, agricultural and forestry residue.
Studies have been carried out on the biofuels of tomorrow to adapt these new channels to industrial requirements. To be economically competitive, these techniques must be capable of being applied on a large scale.
Resource availability will therefore restrict the share of biofuels in tomorrow's energy landscape.
[1] Source: See the official text at Eur-Lex portal
