Biofuels for use in road transport

Sustainable road transport for Europe

ERTRAC’s research road map for the decarbonization of road transport:
View Presentation by Zissis Samaras from SPM4 (917 Kb PDF, 15-09-11)

It is recognised that liquid transport fuels from renewable sources are just one aspect of the transition to a more sustainable transport system. Following the introduction of the directive on the promotion of clean and energy efficient vehicles, the EC has launched a Clean Vehicle Portal to advise buyers (domestic and public and private fleet managers) on the environmentasl impact of all new vehicles. This takes into account energy consumption, CO₂ emissions and pollutant emissions over the lifetime of each vehicle (from manufacture to disposal). The website also includes useful information on procurement rules and incentive schemes for clean vehicles and EU-wide information about market-shares of clean vehicles.

The Clean Urban Transport pages on the EC Mobility and Transport website discuss recent policy, reports and research in this area.

The 'Transport GHG: Routes to 2050?' project, commissioned by DG Climate Action, has now entered it's second phase and will continue to develop an understanding of potential impacts of transport GHG reduction policies, and evaulate various potential pathways. Project reports and the SULTAN illustrative scenarios tool, which was developed as part of the project, are also available on the website.

As part of the Commission's modern industrial policy, the CARS 21 (Competitive Automotive Regulatory System for the 21st century) process, which was initially launched in 2005, aims to make recommendations for the short-, medium-, and long-term public policy and regulatory framework of the European automotive industry. This framework enhances global competitiveness and employment, while sustaining further progress in safety and environmental performance at a price affordable to the consumer. Among other topics, CARS 21 addresses alternative fuels.

Other Recent Reports on Transport

Report of the European Expert Group on Future Transport Fuels published January 2011

ERTRAC Road Transport Scenario 2030+ published by ERTRAC, 2009

Reducing Transport Greenhouse Gas Emmissions - Trends and data 2010
published by OECD, May 2010

Main recent evolutions in biofuel use and distribution

Biofuel share of the EU market for road transport fuel is rising, with increasing appetite for distillates to serve markets for transport fuels (road, aviation, marine).
Higher level of biofuel blends due to increased biofuel targets creates new challenges with regard to specifications/standards.
Renewable Energy Directive (RED) and Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) provide incentives for RES across all transport sectors, including aviation and marine, increasing the overall demand for biofuels.
Development of specific infrastructure for gaseous fuels and liquefied biofuels such as methane/SNG, DME is ongoing in the EU on a local basis for fleets.
New scenarios for road transport needs have recently been developed (ERTRAC21). Biofuels represent one of several solutions, together with increasing energy efficiency, inter-modality, electrification and non-technical measures to encourage changes in consumer choices and behaviour.

R&D recommendations

Continuous improvement of distribution and end use system performance, also to implement optimised value chains.
2008 R&D&D priorities remain valid, Renewable Energy Directive (RED) 10% target confirms the relevance of tackling the challenges posed by higher blends, e.g. fuel distribution and end use in vehicle.
Marine, and particularly aviation applications: new issues with regard to fuel specification and fuel/engine (current & future) compatibility.

Use of biofuels in vehicles

From the 2010 Update to the EBTP Strategic Research Agenda

Requirements concerning fuel distribution systems and end use vehicles have remained stable over the past years and thus have not changed since the 2008 SRA/SDD was published. It is obviously advantageous that alternative fuels be compatible with existing technologies and infrastructures, be it in transport, storage, handling or engines. This is especially important in view of new regulations since 2008 (e.g. the RED target of 10% RES in transport by 2020, but also international developments such as in the USA), which will result in higher blend ratios for biofuels not yet compatible with current specifications.

Fuel standards should be adapted to allow increased biofuel shares within existing infrastructures and end-use vehicles. As value chains are optimised, distribution and end use systems must be continuously adapted and public awareness has to be ensured as well.

The RED now applies to all transport sectors, not merely road transport. Aviation and marine transport were taken into consideration due to their high GHG emissions, as well as other environmental concerns, and incentives are now being provided to use RES in these sectors, too. These additional potential consumers pose new challenges for biofuel production, and therefore for research and development: aviation absolutely depends on fuel qualities meeting the same quality requirements worldwide and is also extra sensitive with regard to energy density of fuel. Standardisation is therefore a crucial issue for the sector, as is fuel-engine compatibility. Marine transport, on the other hand, is a low-end fuel market, and thus much more price-sensitive than other transport sectors. It is therefore essential to establish the economic feasibility of fuels to be used in the marine sector.

Upstream of these specification issues, aviation and marine fuels mostly rely on the same feedstocks and industrial processes that apply to road transport fuels. Hence, it is anticipated that biofuel processing technologies already developed for road transport fuels will apply. The “finishing” processing to fine-tune specific products should preferably be dealt with using currently available refining technologies.

While various gaseous biofuels for land transport are currently being developed throughout Europe (methane/SNG, DME), these require a specific distribution infrastructure and are therefore best suited to metropolitan areas and fleets for local public transport. Such local fleets (public or private) may also be fuelled by electricity or pure biofuels, while liquid biofuels will likely remain the renewable option of choice for long-distance freight transport and aviation.

EU-funded research on use of biofuels in road transport

The following EU-funded projects cover R&D on biofuel end use in road transport (a more comprehensive list of related biofuels R&D projects are included on the funding page):

2NDVEGOIL - Demonstration of 2nd generation vegetable oil fuels in advanced engines

BEAUTY - Bio-ethanol engine for advanced urban transport by light commercial & heavy-duty captive fleets (DG Research)

BEST - BioEthanol for Sustainable Transport

OPTFUEL - Optimised fuels for sustainable transport (paving the way for large scale BtL production).

RENEW- Renewable Biofuels for Advanced Powertrains

A number of other projects relating to conversion technology and market development are also listed on the fuel production page