An evaluation of the policy and techno-economic factors affecting the potential for biogas upgrading for transport fuel use in the UK

Gaseous biofuels including biomethane, which has been shown to be more environmentally beneficial than liquid biofuels, should contribute to meeting the challenging UK targets set for the supplying of biofuels to the road transport fuel market. Under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligations the financial incentives for the supply of biofuels have been volatile, e.g. 2008/2009 saw Renewable Transport Fuel Certificate values fall to zero. Any shortfall from the maximum value has significant implications for all biofuels. It is demonstrated that biomethane can be produced at a cost which is competitive with liquid biofuels and fossil fuels within the UK. Technologies such as water scrubbing, pressure swing adsorption and physical and chemical absorption are available to upgrade biogas generated by anaerobic digestion of organic wastes to transport fuel quality, and technologies such as membrane separation and cryogenic distillation are being modified for such an application. The manufacture and sale of biomethane as a transport fuel is also financially competitive with Combined Heat and Power. One limiting factor may be the additional cost of purchasing and maintaining biomethane fuelled vehicles. Support in this area could lead to the rapid expansion of biomethane transport fuel infrastructure and bring significant long term environmental and economic advantages.     

Governance and legitimacy aspects of the UK biofuel carbon and sustainability reporting system

Biofuel policy has become highly contentious in Europe. In this paper we discuss the governance and legitimacy aspects of the carbon and sustainability system of the UK Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), both before and after implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive. RTFO certification is of a meta-type, being built upon existing certification and labelling schemes, each of which are more or less contested by NGOs. Despite the RTFO being based on these non-state initiatives, so far the concerns of environment and development NGOs and others have not been given serious expression in regulatory terms. Indeed, biofuel policy development in the UK has arguably been unduly non-responsive to critical opinion, given the limited scientific base on biofuel impacts and the reliance of RTFO sustainability certification on non-state actors and schemes. Drawing on documentary evidence, interviews and three sets of literatures – co-production of regulation; post-normal science; and legitimacy of non-state certification and labelling processes – we suggest that until concerned voices are given a stronger expression in UK and EC biofuel policy development, the policy cannot yet be said to have achieved a wide social mandate.     

Potentials and prospects for renewable energies at global scale

Renewable energies (RE) represent a cornerstone to steer our energy system in the direction of sustainability and supply security. Generating electricity, heat or biofuels from renewable energy sources has become a high priority in the energy policy strategies at national level as well as at a global scale. Challenging goals for these “new” supply options to meet our energy demands have been set, e.g. at European level by the commitment of meeting 20% of the overall energy demand from renewable energy sources by 2020.     

The UK Renewable Energy programme

The UK Government has supported a programme on Renewable Energy since 1975. In 1988 progress was reviewed and this led to some redirection of the programme with greater emphasis on the commercial development of renewables, as published in Energy Paper 55.The climate in which Renewable Energy operates has been influenced recently by a number of factors including privatisation of the UK electricity supply industry, when the Government introduced the New Fossil Fuel Obligation and publication of the Government's 1990 White Paper on the Environment which noted that the Government is working towards a figure of new renewable energy generating capacity of 1000 MW by 2000.The paper aims to give an overview of the present state of development of the renewable technologies in the UK and to discuss some of the factors - technical and non-technical - which will affect their likely future development.     

Modeling and analysis of renewable heat integration into non-domestic buildings - The case of biomass boilers: A whole life asset-supply chain management approach

This study proposes a whole life asset-supply chain optimization model for integration of biomass boilers into non-domestic (non-residential) buildings, under a renewable heat incentive scheme in the UK. The proposed model aims at identifying the optimal energy generation capacities and schedules for biomass and backup boilers, along with the optimal levels of biomass ordering and storage. The sensitivity of these decisions are then analyzed subject to changes in source, types and pricing of biomass materials as well as the choice of technologies and their cost and operational performance criteria. The proposed model is validated by applying it to a case study scenario in the UK. The results indicate that a Renewable Heat Incentive scheme could incentivize the adoption of biomass boilers, with a 3 to 1 ratio for biomass and backup boilers' utilization. As such, the findings from this study will be useful for industry managers, tasked with the decision of which biomass boiler system to utilize, considering the support from RHI. On the other hand, it is shown that RHI does not provide encouragement for efficiency when it comes to the choice of biomass technologies and fuels. This presents itself as a major implication for the success and sustainability of the UK government's renewable heat incentive scheme.     

Biofuels for transport in Europe: Lessons from Germany and the UK

The utilisation of biofuels is attracting growing support from the European Union and member states as a strategy to tackle climate change, enhance energy security, and contribute to regional development. This paper describes, compares, and analyses the markets for biofuels in Germany and the UK. The introduction of biofuels for transport in these member states provides contrasting pictures, and the success or failure of biofuels here is pertinent to the development and diffusion of biofuels across Europe. This paper concentrates on the socio-political context for the biofuels industry in Germany and the UK, discusses the lessons learned from the German and British experiences, and presents general conclusions for policy-makers that are predominantly relevant for the early stages of a biofuels industry.     

Generating renewable energy from oil palm biomass in Malaysia: The Feed-in Tariff policy framework

The renewable energy (RE) industry in Malaysia began in 2001 in the context of the growing concern about future depletion of conventional fuels and the global environmental concerns about greenhouse gas emissions. The Small Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) is a tool that was first designed to drive the development of the industry based on the abundance of oil palm biomass reserves and other identified renewable energy resources. Due to the slow uptake of this scheme, a new system, the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) was introduced in 2011 to stimulate the industry. By considering the deficiencies of the previous scheme, this paper examines the sustainability of the FiT policy framework in steering the future expansion of small-scale biomass renewable energy businesses in Malaysia. Resulting from the evaluation of the current policy settings and a market based appraisal, this work outlines strategies for enhancing the scheme and suggests future studies aimed at improving the flaws in the present system.     

Sustainable ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass - Application of exergy analysis

The sustainability of the second-generation biofuels requests to confirm that the energy produced from lignocellulosic biomass is significantly greater than the energy consumed in the process. As lignocellulosic biomass does not affect the food supply, sugarcane bagasse was analyzed as a raw material for second-generation biofuels production. Exergy analysis serves as a unified and effective tool to evaluate the global process efficiency. Exergy analysis evaluates the performance of sugarcane bagasse and its sustainability in the bioethanol production process. In this work, four ethanol production topologies using the typical daily amount of residual biomass produced by the sugar industry were compared. The exergy analysis concept is effective in screening design alternatives with the lowest environmental impact for second-generation bioethanol fuel production from renewable resources. This study was executed by the use of the Aspen Plus^® program and other software developed by the authors.     

Dynamic analysis of policy drivers for bioenergy commodity markets

Biomass is increasingly being considered as a feedstock to provide a clean and renewable source of energy in the form of both liquid fuels and electric power. In the United States, the biofuels and biopower industries are regulated by different policies and have different drivers, which impact the maximum price the industries are willing to pay for biomass. This article describes a dynamic computer simulation model that analyzes future behavior of bioenergy feedstock markets given policy and technical options. The model simulates the long-term dynamics of these markets by treating advanced biomass feedstocks as a commodity and projecting the total demand of each industry, as well as the market price over time. The model is used for an analysis of the United States bioenergy feedstock market that projects supply, demand, and market price given three independent buyers: domestic biopower, domestic biofuels, and foreign exports. With base-case assumptions, the biofuels industry is able to dominate the market and meet the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) targets for advanced biofuels. Further analyses suggest that United States bioenergy studies should include estimates of export demand in their projections, and that GHG-limiting policy would partially shield both industries from export dominance.     

Prospects of biodiesel production from microalgae in India

Energy is essential and vital for development, and the global economy literally runs on energy. The use of fossil fuels as energy is now widely accepted as unsustainable due to depleting resources and also due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the environment. Renewable and carbon neutral biodiesel are necessary for environmental and economic sustainability. Biodiesel demand is constantly increasing as the reservoir of fossil fuel are depleting. Unfortunately biodiesel produced from oil crop, waste cooking oil and animal fats are not able to replace fossil fuel. The viability of the first generation biofuels production is however questionable because of the conflict with food supply. Production of biodiesel using microalgae biomass appears to be a viable alternative. The oil productivity of many microalgae exceeds the best producing oil crops. Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms which convert sunlight, water and CO₂ to sugars, from which macromolecules, such as lipids and triacylglycerols (TAGs) can be obtained. These TAGs are the promising and sustainable feedstock for biodiesel production. Microalgal biorefinery approach can be used to reduce the cost of making microalgal biodiesel. Microalgal-based carbon sequestration technologies cover the cost of carbon capture and sequestration. The present paper is an attempt to review the potential of microalgal biodiesel in comparison to the agricultural crops and its prospects in India.     

The policy and practice of sustainable biofuels: Between global frameworks and local heterogeneity. The case of food security in Mozambique

This study explores the relationship between different biofuel production systems, the context in which they operate, and the extent to which various types of frameworks and schemes are able to monitor and promote their sustainability. The paper refers to the European Union Renewable Energy Directive and two international certification schemes (Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels and NTA 8080/81) that can provide a ‘licence to sell’ biofuels on the EU market, and to the Mozambican policy framework for sustainable biofuels that provides a ‘licence to produce’ biomass for biofuels in Mozambique. Food security is used as a case study, and the food security impacts of two agro-industrial and two smallholder biofuel projects in Mozambique are described and analysed. The sustainability frameworks and schemes used in this study are able to address some, but not all, of the heterogeneity between and within different biofuel production systems. The emphasis is on monitoring agro-industrial projects while smallholder projects tend to slip through the net even when their negative impacts are evident. We conclude that globally applicable sustainability principles are useful, however, they should be operationalised at local or production system levels. This approach will support balancing between global frameworks and local heterogeneity.     

Trends and sustainability criteria of the production and use of liquid biofuels

Environmental impacts associated with the use of fossil fuels, rising prices, potential limitations in supply and concerns about regional and national security are driving the development and use of biomass for bioenergy, biofuels and bioproducts. However, the use of biomass does not automatically imply that its production, conversion and use are sustainable. Conflicts between various ecosystem services (economic production of food, fodder and fuels, biodiversity, social and cultural values, etc.) that are provided by fertile land are increasing as well. Hence, a developed thinking on how to balance between these services is desirable.There is a significant amount of information available on biofuels and their sustainability. In this paper, different initiatives and sustainability criteria for biofuels are presented and assessed.35 criteria were found in emerging sustainability assessment frameworks. The majority of 12 criteria were focused on environmental issues, 4 were social and only 1 was economic. Energy balance and greenhouse gas balance were perceived as especially critical, social criteria ranked generally low. Although being perceived as important, food security ranked very low.     

A model for sustainable land use in biofuel production: An application to the state of Alabama

The Renewable Fuel Standard aims to increase the production of biofuels to improve energy efficiency and decrease carbon dioxide emissions in the US. The effectiveness of this regulation is being debated by the scientific community regarding carbon emissions from direct and indirect land-use change. A valid alternative may be to design policies that stimulate sustainable land use in biofuel production. This article develops a model that simulates a voluntary program to increase the land use efficiency in production of biofuels. This stochastic dynamic model optimizes the sustainability of biofuels producible by including climate information and participatory decisions on land use. The model is parameterized using the Maximum Entropy econometric technique to present a simulation of the program in the State of Alabama. The results of this simulation show that participatory decisions on land-use may increase the net energy value of produced biofuel up to 215.68% and reduce the carbon emissions by 19.67% towards the state energy goals.     

Stuck between a ROC and a hard place? Barriers to the take up of green energy in the UK

This paper examines the UK mechanisms for ensuring future investment in renewable energy through consumer adoption of green energy tariffs and the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) system. Using a national survey and focus groups the stated willingness by UK customers to pay a premium for renewable or green energy and actual take up of such tariffs is assessed. Substantial differences between willingness to pay for and the adoption of green energy tariffs are reported. This disparity is linked to a range of factors including consumer confusion, lack of supply, complexities of constructing ‘green source’ tariffs under the ROC system and a lack of customer trust. It is concluded that the re-definition of the green energy market in favour of ‘green source’ tariffs, greater direct compliance with the Renewable Obligation by addressing supply constraints, and efforts in providing clearer information and choices for consumers via a compulsory green energy accreditation scheme are required if willing consumers’ are to contribute to investment in renewable energy.     

Opportunities to boost bioenergy in Lithuania

Significant efforts have been made in Lithuania to enhance the utilization of bioenergy since the early 1990s. While opportunities are large and signs of development visible, bioenergy still needs technical, institutional and policy-related support for further development side by side with other industries. This paper discusses the existing bioenergy potential in Lithuanian forests, biofuels market formation in the region and possible roads to boost development. The retrofitting of heat plants, forest management and policies are reviewed as a way to identify opportunities to promote bioenergy in the country. It is shown that the interplay between national and regional forces can promote technological and managerial improvements in the forest industry while also enhancing the biomass supply and sustainability of bioenergy systems.     

Interactions and implications of renewable and climate change policy on UK energy scenarios

As a response to the twin challenges of climate change mitigation and energy security, the UK government has set a groundbreaking target of reducing the UK’s economy-wide carbon emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. A second key UK energy policy is to increase the share of final energy consumption from renewables sources to 15% by 2020, as part of the wider EU Renewable Directive. The UK’s principle mechanisms to meet this renewable target are the Renewable Obligation (RO) in the electricity sector, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), and most recently the Renewable Heat Programme (RHP) for buildings. This study quantifies a range of policies, energy pathways, and sectoral trade-offs when combining mid- and long-term UK renewables and CO₂ reduction policies. Stringent renewable policies are the binding constraints through 2020. Furthermore, the interactions between RO, RTFO, and RHP policies drive trade-offs between low carbon electricity, bio-fuels, high efficiency natural gas, and demand reductions as well as resulting 2020 welfare costs. In the longer term, CO₂ reduction constraints drive the costs and characteristics of the UK energy system through 2050.     

德国最新《可再生能源法》及其对我国的启示

可再生能源法是推动可再生能源发展的重要制度保障,本文详细介绍了德国最新修订后的《可再生能源法》（EEG-2012）,EEG-2012首次明确了2050年德国可再生能源在电力供应中的份额要达到80％,同时EEG-2012对可再生能源电力的并网、收购、传输、配送等环节,对不同技术类型可再生能源电力的上网电价,对可再生能源发电的平衡方案、信息通报和公开义务、可再生能源发展追踪等都进行了详细和明确的规定.通过对德国EEG-2012的解析和思考,本文提出了对我国可再生能源电力发展的一些重要启示和政策建议.     

The current status of liquid biofuels in Chile

Chile depends on foreign sources for energy. A solution for this problem is needed to guarantee stability and economic development. Public policies have been proposed involving diversification of the power matrix with an increasing share for Non-conventional Renewable Energies (NCRE) from unconventional resources in the medium- and long-term. In this framework, new funding strategies are fundamental to encourage applied research in this field. Main research subjects are considered: survey, quantification and characterization of raw materials, introduction of energy crops and studies focused on transportation, management and conversion of lignocellulose for the second-generation biofuel industry. A recent regulatory framework allows the substitution of 2 or 5% of gasoline and diesel by ethanol and biodiesel, respectively; however, this is not mandatory because biofuel supply is still non-secured. On the other hand, the scenario for private initiatives focused on first-generation biofuels is not promising, and this may continue in time depending on the price of imported biofuels and local production costs. In 2015, production of second-generation biodiesel in Chile should be fundamentally based on forestry residues using Fischer-Tropsch processes. Local efforts consider biochemical transformation of lignocelluloses including agricultural wastes. Our group is focused on optimization of local second-generation bioethanol production; preliminary results are presented here.     

Natural resource demand of global biofuels in the Anthropocene: A review

The Anthropocene is the later part of the Holocene where human activity has become a major driver for global ecosystem development. The demand of natural resources, renewable and non-renewable, is a crucial aspect of environmental (un-) sustainability. When considering a societal transition scheme towards sustainability, bio-based options come to the fore. The article develops a global framework for the analysis of natural resource demand of global biofuels. The framework defines the biofuel system in terms of exergy at four levels, i.e., the foreground system, the supply chain, the anthroposphere, and the ecosphere. Various measures of resource demand, such as cumulative exergy demand, global and anthropogenic exergy budgets are incorporated into the framework. Based on reviews of global biofuel production and natural resource demand of the anthroposphere, the study finds that the production of conventional biofuels, i.e., first generation of biodiesel and bioethanol by key producer countries in 2008 consumed 9.32 E+11 MJ of exergy from non-renewable resources and accounted for 0.23% of the total anthropogenic non-renewable resource demand. In addition, it shows that the contribution to climate change due to the heat emission of the global biofuel production was 5.79 E−05 W/m², which would reach up to 0.002% of global greenhouse warming if anthropogenic heat flux is treated as a climate forcing.     

Assessing the sustainability of biofuels: A logic-based model

Over the last decade, the production and consumption of biofuels increased rapidly worldwide, in an attempt to reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, diversify transportation fuels, promote renewable energy, and create or maintain employment, especially in rural areas and developing countries. Although policy instruments being currently implemented in industrialized regions focus on sustainable biofuels, the definition and assessment of sustainability remains a highly debated issue. Several countries have adopted compulsory targets or financial incentives for promoting biofuels, and only a few countries have accounted for sustainability certification schemes for those biofuels within their policy framework. In this paper, a logic-based model for assessing the sustainability of biofuels is presented. The model uses a hierarchical structure to link multiple factors from the more specific variables to the most general one, sustainability performance. The strengths and limitations of the model are discussed and the anticipated improvements are provided.