Advanced Biofuels Required for UK to See RED

17 November 2011

The UK is at risk of missing its renewable transport targets without significant investment in a new generation of biofuels, according to a recently published government study.

Under the EU's Renewable Energy Directive (RED), member states will be required to meet 10% of the energy used for road and rail transportation from renewable sources by 2020.

For the UK this means the equivalent of around 4.3 million tonnes of fossil fuels, the majority of which is likely to be met by a range of biofuels.

The government's latest report, Advanced Biofuels: The Potential for a UK Industry, has been written by the UK's National Centre for Biorenewable Energy, Fuels and Materials (NNFCC) and suggests that the UK will miss its target without significant investment in a new generation of biofuels.

Currently, most of the country's renewable fuel is derived from vegetable oils. However, due to limited availability and competing demands for sustainable vegetable oils, the study argues that conventional biofuels are likely to produce just 3.7% to 6.6% of the required 10% target.

According to the NNFCC, developments in gasification, pyrolysis and other new technologies previously confined to small scale laboratory facilities, are beginning to unlock a huge potential for creating biofuels from a wide range of sustainable materials, such as household waste.

The study's assessment of feedstock availability in the UK estimates that biological wastes could provide 0.33 - 3.28 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) of advanced biofuels, and hard lignocellulosic material including energy crops and forestry could provide a further 0.12 - 1.58.

In assessing the how and if the UK will meet the Eu target, NNFCC drew up two illustrative scenarios to examine how the industry could develop in the UK.

Under a modest development scenario, and assuming that advanced biofuels produced from waste feedstocks are eligible to count double towards the RED, advanced biofuel production in the UK could contribute 2.1%age points toward the UK's 10% renewable fuels in transport target.

Under the same assumptions, with favourable economic conditions and strong improvements in policy, a strong development scenario could see advanced biofuels produced from waste and lignocellulosic feedstocks could contribute 4.3% points toward the UK's 10% renewable fuels in transport target.

This would require around 1 million tonnes of woody biomass, 2 million tonnes of wheat (butanol) and 4.4 million tonnes of household, commercial and industrial wastes.

According to the report, at this scale advanced biofuels would save the UK 3.2 million tonnes of CO2 each year - equivalent to taking nearly a million cars off the road - and create 6000 full-time construction jobs and over 2000 permanent jobs supplying and operating the plants.

Dr Jeremy Tomkinson, chief executive of the NNFCC, comments: "Electric cars offer a sound long-term solution to our renewable road transport needs, but biofuels are currently the best way to decrease our carbon emissions from transport."

"The UK has ambitious carbon reduction plans and this report highlights the necessity for increased investment in advanced biofuels, which could meet almost half of our renewable transport needs by the end of the decade," he adds.


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