CENTRE FOR ALTERNATIVE

TECHNOLOGY

www.cat.org.uk

PETER HARPER

THINKING OUT OF THE BOX

BIOFUELS FOR TRANSPORTBIOFUELS FOR TRANSPORT

WHAT I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT

• Defining terms and time-frames

• The contex: why?

• Bioenergy in general

• Liquid fuels for the transport sector

• Problems in the present situation

• Possible futures

TERMINOLOGY

• Bio-energy is the generic term

• Biomass usually means solids

• Biofuels usually means liquid fuels

• Biogas means gas

• They all involve processing the raw

material to make a usable commodity

RIGHT

NOW

NEXT

FEW

YEARS

POST

2012

2020 SUSTAINABLE

LOW-CARBON

WORLD

UK

EUROPE

WORLD

UK

REGIONS

LOCAL

THE FRAME

WILL I GET A

GOOD PRICE FOR

MY RAPESEED?

MORATORIUM

ON

INTERNATIONAL

TRADE IN

BIOFUELS

TRANSFORMATION OF

THE UK TRANSPORT

FLEET

SUBSTITUTION

TARGETS FOR

SCOTLAND

AGRO-INDUSTRIAL

COMPLEXES IN

REMOTE AREAS

FOSSIL FUELS ARE MARVELLOUS

• Cheap

• Abundant

• Self-storing

• Easily converted to other useful forms of energy

• High energy density

• Easily transported and traded

• A hard act to follow!

BUT…• Rising demand is outstripping shrinking supply,

particularly for oil

• The combustion products are changing theclimate

• Climate change could ‘pull’ bioenergy– Through measures required to prevent it

• Or it could ‘push’ it– Through changing agricultural conditions

• But Peak Oil would make the biggest difference

BIOENERGY

EFW, LFG

15-20%

ELECTRICITY

SOLAR

THERMAL

5-10%

GEOTHERMAL

5%VARIABLE

RENEWABLES

30-50%

HYDRO

5%

NUCLEAR

0-5%FOSSIL

FUELS

10-20%

TRANSPORT

HEATING LOADS

COOLING LOADS

HYDROGEN

CHP

HEAT

PUMPS

PUMPED

STORAGE

KEY

PRINCIPAL USE SECTORS

SOURCES

ADJUCT TECHNOLOGIES

FIRM SOURCES

ELECTRICAL LOADS

CARBON CAPTURE

AND STORAGE

IDEALISED SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

SYSTEM FOR UK

BATTERY STORAGE

SCENARIOS FOR THE UKSHOWING A DISTINCTIVE PROBLEM FOR TRANSPORT

GRIPESABOUT BIONERGY

AND LIQUID BIOFUELS IN PARTICULAR

• They create a ‘silver bullet’ illusion

• They interact with land-use and farming

• They gobble up huge areas of land

• They compete for food

• They affect biodiversity

• Net carbon reduction is often poor

• There are ethical and sustainabilityimplications for globally traded biofuels

PHOTOSYNTHESIS IS NOT VERY

EFFICIENT

Annual Energy yields in kWh/m2

• Rapeseed oil 1.2

• Willow coppice 2.3

• Grass via anaerobic digestion 2.5

• Wind, good site 22

• Photovoltaic, good site 100

• Using all UK set-aside land, biodiesel or bio-alcohol productioncould displace between 4-7% of existing transport fuel demand

• BUT bio-energy is storable—an essential component of the long-term mix

• More UK land? Import the stuff? What else?

An interesting

combination?

WHAT ELSE COULD WE DO?FAR MORE RADICAL APPROACHES ARE NEEDED

• Trade for electricity within Europe?

• Improve efficiencies?

• Explore new technologies?

• Switch transport to other propulsion?

• Rationalise demand?

• Consider major changes of land use?

TRADE ELECTRICITY FOR BIOFUELS?

POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS IN EFFICIENCY AND

NET CARBON REDUCTION

STRAWWHOLE PLANT

AT HARVEST

OIL SEED

PRESS

CAKE

PRESSING

CLEANING

CLEAN PLANT OIL

RAW OIL

FILTER CAKE

100 kg rapeseed

2-4kg filter cake with 35-

50% oil content

62-70 kg cake with 12-

17% residual oil

content

28-36 kg clean oil

30-38 kg oil

PURIFICATION OF OIL

Centrifugation, sedimentation,

filtering

90 kg dry weight straw

Mid-Wales Energy Agency/RRU Sheffield Hallam University

SOURCE: RELU

BIOGAS FOR

PUBLIC SERVICE

VEHICLES

“SECOND GENERATION”

COMBINING HYDROGEN AND

BIOENERGYIMPROVES YIELD 40-60% FOR GIVEN CO2 EMISSIONS

LIKELY DISPLACEMENT OF STOCK BY BIOENERGY,

BIOREFINING AND SEQUESTRATION CROPS

• If GHGs are priced, net-emitting processes will attractpenalties

• If GHG emission targets are very low, such processeswill need balancing by net-negative processes or ‘sinks’

• Sinks are going to be scarce and expensive

• ‘Carbonomics’ will tend to displace stock in favour ofcrops, bioenergy or managed sequestration

• This will affect at least 50% of UK agricultural land

• Haber-Bosch nitrogen will have to be very carefullymanaged or severely reduced

THE LOGIC OF CAR CLUBS

• Some trips need a car

• So we all have one, or three

• Then nearly all trips are made by car

• Car share schemes break out of this ‘trip trap’

• They reduce car mileage enormously

• Biofuels can reduce, even eliminate, theremaining emissions

• This ‘reduced demand’ logic radically alters themismatch of demand and land take

MACHYNLLETH CAR CLUBA FEW STATISTICS

• 25 households share three cars, used when other

modes are not suitable

• The vehicles are run on 50% biodiesel from waste

catering oils.

• Carbon emissions per household per year are less

than 10% of UK average for car travel, and there

are 17 cars less on the street

• If the cars were run on 100% rapeseed oil the

land required would be 0.1-0.2ha per household

LOCAL PRODUCTION FOR

LOCAL CONSUMPTION?A worked example, regional community of 5000 households

(Dyfi Valley)

1,685,000TOTAL

750,000CAR SHARE AT TYPICAL USAGE

80,000TAXIS

305,000BUSES

555,000TRAINS

CONSUMPTION

LITRES PER YEAR

USE SECTOR

LAND REQUIRED

TO MEET LOCAL BASIC DEMAND

• Conventional production 1200l oil/ha

• Would therefore require 1400ha

• Organic yields about 70% conventional, then2000ha

• This is about 0.15ha per head

• For a five-year rotation this demands a localarea of around 100km2 arable land

• This is about 0.8ha per head, shared with otheruses for the land

• Similar to horses in 1910?

‘SLOW ENERGY’

FROM LOCAL FARMS?

• Increasing reasons for reducing lengths of

transport legs

• Personal relationships between farmers and

their energy clients?

• Farmers could produce their own added-

value products, some for their own use,

some for sale

EXAMPLE: THE DYFI VALLEY

COULD

THIS

HAPPEN?

THE

END

A BIOFUEL ENTHUSIASTS’ SOCIETY

IN THE DYFI VALLEY?

• A game in deadly earnest

• Grow our own?

• Or import oilseeds, press them on a demo and hobbybasis

• Wacky vehicles– Using bio-alcohol, bio-butanol

– SVO modifications

• Methanol and charcoal, black-carbon sequestration– Trials with ‘terra preta’: does it work here?

• Trials and experiments to synergise biodiversity

• Recycling of sewage and other nutrients to fuel crops

• Competitions between systems– E.g. biodiesel and electric cars

SOURCE: RELU