The European Union has set itself the target of meeting 10% of road transport fuel needs from biofuel – fuel produced from biomass – by 2020

However work by researcher Anna Sues at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands shows that there is not enough biomass available in Europe to meet this target. Sues gained her PhD this week at TU/e.

Even if all available biomass in Europe is used in the most efficient possible way for the transport industry, a biofuels proportion of no more than 9.5% would be achievable, Sues says in her doctoral thesis. But in fact that figure of 9.5% will be nowhere near achievable in practice. “It will never be possible to collect absolutely all the available plant and wood wastes”, Sues explains. “And a further problem is that most European woodland is privately owned, which means contracts would have to be made with numerous different parties. So the European Commission’s ambition is unrealistic”, concludes the new PhD of the Chemical Engineering and Chemistry department at TU/e.
Sues researched the amount of biomass that can sustainably be produced by nature in Europe. That means without felling forests, and without specially planted woodland, but simply by collecting biomass – such as forest and straw residues – as prescribed by the EU directives. For this purpose she gathered statistical data from all EU countries.
In her view the solution can’t be found by importing biomass, for example from South America. The transport of the relatively heavy biomass would cause extra CO2 emissions and excessive price increases. Increasing the available biomass by planting new ‘energy crops’ isn’t an obvious choice either. These crops, planted solely for conversion into fuel, are a controversial subject against today’s background of rising food prices and shortages.
Electric cars the best option
The doctoral candidate also looked at whether it is more efficient to make biofuel for use in vehicles with internal combustion engines, or to use the biomass to generate electricity and then to promote the use of electric cars. In answering this question she used three criteria: the efficiency of energy conversion, the economic benefits and the environmental impact. To do this she used computer simulations of production processes, and she calculated the above indicators from the mass and energy balances.
The best option proved to be converting biomass into electricity and using that to power electric cars. First of all, biomass can be converted efficiently into electricity. Electricity can also be generated in smaller plants, which reduces the need for transport. And finally, electricity is a clean and efficient energy source for vehicles.
Sues also looked at the type of biofuel that is best suited for meeting the EU targets. She compared synthetic natural gas (SNG), methanol, Fischer-Tropsch fuels, hydrogen and bioelectricity. SNG emerged as the best choice, and can be added directly to the natural gas grid. But unfortunately the maximum achievable production is only 4% of the total natural gas consumption. Methanol and hydrogen were eliminated because they are too expensive and cause higher emissions.
New tax system
In her thesis Anna Sues introduces the idea of a new tax system to support the further introduction of biofuels. Her basic principle is that vehicle users should pay the same prices for biofuels and conventional fossil fuels, and that government revenues should remain the same. As long as the production of biofuel is more expensive than that of fossil fuel, users of fossil fuels are subsidizing biofuel. However Sues’ calculations show that this subsidy always remains limited: the price of fuel at the pump is increased by no more than a few cents per liter. And the introduction of this system means that all users are contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions.
Sues defended her doctoral thesis ‘Are European Bioenergy Targets Achievable?’ on Tuesday 1 March. Her first supervisor is prof.dr. Hubert Veringa, professor of Energy and Environmental Technology.