Final Report Summary - RENEW (Renewable fuels for advanced powertrains)
The RENEW project aimed to achieve the following objectives:
- to extend the knowledge on liquid biofuels produced from ligno-cellulosic biomass (BtL) production pathways and investigate the suitability and use of BtL fuels in today's and future powertrains;
- to assess the regional biomass potential available in Europe and analyse environmental, economic and technical properties of BtL production; and
- to prepare commonly agreed recommendations to stakeholders on the future of BtL.
The investigation of biomass potential focused on the regional availability of ligno-cellulosic biomass including residues and energy wood on a regional level (NUTS 2) in EU-27 under the prerequisite of leaving the production of food, animal fodder and fibre unaffected.
A life cycle assessment from well to tank (WtT) was performed for all production routes. The life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed according to ISO 14040/44, reviewed by external experts and published in 2007. The economic assessment determined cost distribution and production costs of biomass and BtL production pursuant to the guidelines of the German standards VDI 2067 and VDI 6025. A multi-criteria technical assessment was used to evaluate key technological properties, the maturity of production techniques, as well as the suitability of fuels.
There are multiple opportunities for BtL production in Europe. Synthetic BtL fuels could exert a substantial effect on reducing emissions of transport. BtL-Diesel and BtL DME are favourable fuels for combustion in present power-trains and could lead to a further reduction of consumption and emissions in future power-trains. The environmental effects of BtL production result mainly from biomass production on the basis of present agricultural practice. Less environmental effects may be achieved by applying more sustainable biomass production and yield increase due to new species and by an increase of conversion efficiency.
In Europe's most promising provinces, technically sufficient residue biomass is available today to build around 50 industrial size BtL plants and substitute up to 4 % of the European diesel fuel demand in 2020. Among the regions with highest biomass density for the first industrial scale BtL plants, central France, East Germany and west Poland would be the most favourable choice. Concepts for integration to existing pulp and paper mills (some 65 in Europe) requiring less additional biomass are interesting for the respective countries Sweden, Finland, Spain, Portugal and France. Among the production routes studied, the most efficient, mature and ecological were concepts of Choren (cEF-D) for FT- Diesel and the BLEF-DME concept of Chemrec for the production of DME.
Site specific studies of biomass availability and respective prices are required. However, based on the findings of this project, the best regions for first industrial scale BtL plants for cEF-D or the BLEF-DME concept would be west Poland and Sweden.
West Poland is favourable due to the low costs at which the necessary amounts of biomass are available. The costs amount to 4.1 to 4.4 EUR/GJ for forestry residues and straw respectively, which are supposed to be the main feedstock for the first BtL plants.
Sweden offers a well established forestry industry which currently enables the delivery of forest residues at rather low costs, i.e. 3.9 EUR/GJ. Applying BtL concepts which require rather low amounts of additional biomass will take into account concerns about biomass availability, which might be not as high as in other regions.
- to extend the knowledge on liquid biofuels produced from ligno-cellulosic biomass (BtL) production pathways and investigate the suitability and use of BtL fuels in today's and future powertrains;
- to assess the regional biomass potential available in Europe and analyse environmental, economic and technical properties of BtL production; and
- to prepare commonly agreed recommendations to stakeholders on the future of BtL.
The investigation of biomass potential focused on the regional availability of ligno-cellulosic biomass including residues and energy wood on a regional level (NUTS 2) in EU-27 under the prerequisite of leaving the production of food, animal fodder and fibre unaffected.
A life cycle assessment from well to tank (WtT) was performed for all production routes. The life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed according to ISO 14040/44, reviewed by external experts and published in 2007. The economic assessment determined cost distribution and production costs of biomass and BtL production pursuant to the guidelines of the German standards VDI 2067 and VDI 6025. A multi-criteria technical assessment was used to evaluate key technological properties, the maturity of production techniques, as well as the suitability of fuels.
There are multiple opportunities for BtL production in Europe. Synthetic BtL fuels could exert a substantial effect on reducing emissions of transport. BtL-Diesel and BtL DME are favourable fuels for combustion in present power-trains and could lead to a further reduction of consumption and emissions in future power-trains. The environmental effects of BtL production result mainly from biomass production on the basis of present agricultural practice. Less environmental effects may be achieved by applying more sustainable biomass production and yield increase due to new species and by an increase of conversion efficiency.
In Europe's most promising provinces, technically sufficient residue biomass is available today to build around 50 industrial size BtL plants and substitute up to 4 % of the European diesel fuel demand in 2020. Among the regions with highest biomass density for the first industrial scale BtL plants, central France, East Germany and west Poland would be the most favourable choice. Concepts for integration to existing pulp and paper mills (some 65 in Europe) requiring less additional biomass are interesting for the respective countries Sweden, Finland, Spain, Portugal and France. Among the production routes studied, the most efficient, mature and ecological were concepts of Choren (cEF-D) for FT- Diesel and the BLEF-DME concept of Chemrec for the production of DME.
Site specific studies of biomass availability and respective prices are required. However, based on the findings of this project, the best regions for first industrial scale BtL plants for cEF-D or the BLEF-DME concept would be west Poland and Sweden.
West Poland is favourable due to the low costs at which the necessary amounts of biomass are available. The costs amount to 4.1 to 4.4 EUR/GJ for forestry residues and straw respectively, which are supposed to be the main feedstock for the first BtL plants.
Sweden offers a well established forestry industry which currently enables the delivery of forest residues at rather low costs, i.e. 3.9 EUR/GJ. Applying BtL concepts which require rather low amounts of additional biomass will take into account concerns about biomass availability, which might be not as high as in other regions.
