With the production of sustainable biofuels from waste products for hybridcars is it possible to make ourselves independent from crude oil and reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector.
Just when we were all getting used to the idea, that biofuels give us a green alternative to oil, suddenly new studies are being published that tell us, biofuels are not so good after all, that they have in fact even negative consequences for the environment.
The point is, the evaluation of it depends on the kind of raw material used for the production of biofuels. If biofuels are produced from energy crops such as oilseed or wheat – so called first generation biofuels – the energy balance and the CO2 reduction are only marginal. The use of sugarcane, as is the case in Brazil, is however highly effective in its farming and most studies show clearly, that there is a certain positive effect for the environment when you compare the use of crops with oil. But not, if the production of these crops is based on the clearing of rainforest, as is happening in Indonesia and Malaysia, which also has a number of other negative effects.
But when bioethanol is produced from waste products from agriculture, forestry or household waste, so called second generation biofuels, the situation is a completely different one. The use of these waste products is not competing with food and compared to the use of oil the CO2-reduction is up to 90 per cent and more.
It is therefore that decision-makers all over the world are focussing on the use of this type of biofuels and its technology. Even though there is no commercial plant in operation today, the future is not far and today there are numerous activities in this field, especially in the USA.
Denmark is one of the countries worldwide where the technology in this field is most matured. Therefore is BioGasol, a spin-off from the Technical University of Denmark, DTU, at high pressure to build a demonstration plant in the village of Aakirkeby on the Danish island of Bornholm. The plant will be a multi-feedstock plant that uses waste products such as wheat straw, garden waste, woodchips and grass as raw material for the production of bioethanol as well as solid fuel, hydrogen and methane, which can be used for electricity and long-distance heating.
The plant, that will be worldwide the first of its kind, will run 100 percent energy self-sufficient – that means it will not be dependent on energy from coal-fired power-plants. The energy effect per unit biomass will be about 70 percent – that means that about 2/3 of the energy in the biomass will actually be converted in some energy product.
By this the energy effect is much higher than what is reached with so called highly-effective coal-fired power-plants. BioGasol’s concept does not “steal” biomass from a potential use to reduce CO2-emissions from the powerplant. It just cleans the biomass from those parts, which can not be burned, like the alcalisalts, and delivers the burnable parts back, ready to be burnt but in an energy richer form.
There are therefore sustainable biofuels, which are able to reduce the big CO2-emission from the transport sector and at the same time reduce our dependency on oil.
How can we promote this change? We can do this with a certification for biofuels. It seems that some general rules within the EU are on the way in this field. Californien has already in 2007 introduced a low carbon emission standard that obliges producers of transport fuels to reduce CO2-emissions in the transport sector. That means, sustainable biofuels are of much higher value than less sustainable fuels.
But why biofuels when the car, running on electricity, is on is way? Electricity comes in Denmark mainly from coal, and even when we plan to build some more wind farms, are there no plans to change the use of coal for energy because of the set up of our electricity- and heating market. That means above all, that we export greater parts of our wind power to other countries at a very low price.
Even if there is some progress in the field of batteries, it is the hybridcar, that runs on a mixture of liquid fuel and electricity, where the near future can be seen. In contrast will it take some time, until the electric car will prove to be an alternative for those, who need their car to drive longer distances.
A liquid fuel such as bioethanol has furthermore some more advantages. It is energy-compact, easy in transportation, storage and can easily be converted into hydrogen, when the hydrogen-technology is ready developed. The future lies therefore within the production of sustainable biofuels based on waste products, and using hybridcars, we can reduce our dependence on oil, reach a higher effectivity with our means of transport and eventually reach a significant reduction in our CO2-development in the transport sector.