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According to REFUEL project, which is project commissioned by the EU's Intelligent Energy Europe program to examine the biofuels potential in Europe, Europe has high biofuel potential. This REFUEL project, coordinated by the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, and implemented by a consortium of seven European institutes with different disciplinary backgrounds concluded that European biofuels target can be met with conventional feedstocks and current technology without major agricultural land use changes or environmental consequences.
Many people are worried that biofuels necessary mean shortage in food supply as biofuel production is direct transformation from food into biofuels but according to REFUEL results current biofuel targets can be met, without any negative effect on food supply and what is equally important current biofuel targets will not require conversion of forestland, grassland and nature conservation areas into arable land, mainly because there are new opportunities for increasing crop and livestock yields in some newest EU member states, which will mean more agricultural land for biofuel feedstock cultivation.
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| Closed biofuels carbon circle. Click on picture for full size. |
But as the report says although EU's biofuel 10 percent target for biofuels by 2020 can be met by with first-generation biofuels and moderate imports, only advanced, second-generation biofuels will deliver a substantial contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy security which are two main goals of EU's policy. Second biofuel generation, mainly produced from residues and woody or grassy plants, show substantially higher yields per hectare of land and therefore offers much better opportunities for the EU industry to develop a new energy sector. First-generation biofuels such as biodiesel from oil crops and bioethanol from sugar crops and cereals perform less adequately and so EU's new goal will probably be development of second-generation biofuels.
These new EU's goals will require substantial funds in order to fully activate this sector as new technologies will need to be further developed and deployed. This will also need development of new supply chains for agricultural and forestry residues and crops, but with sufficient funding and stable investment shouldn't be a problem, the report says.
The REFUEL project also shows that cross-sector strategies can help reduce these barriers. Examples are the initial development of biomass supply chains for power generation, or the integration of biofuel plants in district heating systems. In this context, the role of the Central and Eastern European countries will be pivotal, as this region has most of the feedstock potential, so the next stop are investments and development of new technologies.
As the report states, EU has excellent biofuel potential in its newest states and this potential will have to be exploited, especially since demand for energy is constantly growing and fuel is more expensive than ever before. It is therefore almost a certainty that biofuel (especially second generation) will play very important role in EU's energy sector in years to come.
Bore about bioenergy you can read here.
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