Title:
The End of the Biodiesel Age in Europe? - A Scenarios-Report from Austria Beyond 2020
Author(s):
Jungmeier, G.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
The purpose of the work is to analyze the implications on biodiesel from fresh vegetable oil of the proposed changes on the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) regarding the limitation of 5% of food based biofuels and the greenhouse gas emissions of indirect land use change (iLUC factors). A scenario analyses for Austria in a European perspective is made to fulfill the 2020 targets of having 10% renewable fuels in 2020 according to the RED and a 6% greenhouse gas reduction in the greenhouse gas intensity of fuels used in road transport and non-road mobile machinery according to the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD). Austria is producing about 630,000 t of biofuels in 2011, of which biodiesel is about 500,000 t. So Austria has already reached 7.7% of renewable fuels (renewable electricity for railways and biofuels) in the transportation sector and 6.4% biofuels in the road transport fuel market. The greenhouse gas reduction of biofuels produced in Austria is about 58% for biodiesel and about 70% for bioethanol. With this the greenhouse gas intensity of fuels in road transport is reduced already by about 3.5%. Based on the proposed changes of the RED and FQD a scenario analyses is made to judge on the effects of the Austrian biofuel production. Main effects on the Austrian biodiesel production from fresh vegetable oils are analyzed in detail and its possible consequences for a relatively young biodiesel industry. The scientific innovation is to apply the proposed changes of the RED and FQD on biodiesel production in Austria, especially the limitation of 5% food based biofuels and the iLUC-factors for oil crop based biofuels. The relevance of the results is of vital interest for the Austrian biodiesel industry to develop strategies and new business opportunities for their future market activities under changing political framework conditions. The results of the greenhouse gas analyses show, that Austria already has about 5% of food based biofuels on the market and no further increase is possible to fulfill the 2020 goals. The biodiesel industry has to explore new markets in neighbor countries and also must try to get access to further nonfood raw materials for biodiesel. If the greenhouse gas emission factors for iLUC that are part of the new RED proposal are applied to the Austria biodiesel production from oil crops, than the Austrian biodiesel cannot fulfill the sustainability criteria set in the RED of a greenhouse gas reduction of currently 35% and 50% in 2017. Including the proposed iLUC factors this even leads to about 20% higher greenhouse gas emissions of biodiesel compared to fossil diesel. This will lead to a “market disaster” of selling biodiesel from fresh oil in Europe beyond 2020. The goals of the FQD cannot be fulfilled with the current strategies in Austria. It can be concluded that the proposed changes of the RED and FQD lead to major changes for biodiesel producers in terms of further increasing the market volume of biodiesel from fresh oil and of fulfilling the sustainability criteria for minimum greenhouse gas saving by including the proposed iLUC factors. So the whole biodiesel sector needs new business opportunities beyond 2020, e.g. going into new raw materials, and for Austria the 10% RED and 6%-FQD-goals become even more difficult to be met under the new proposed conditions. An updating and revision of the recently developed strategies must be basically take place to be prepared for the future.
Keywords:
biodiesel, bioethanol, greenhouse gases (GHG), life cycle assessment (LCA), land use change (LUC)
Topic:
Biomass Policies, Markets and Sustainability
Subtopic:
Sustainability assessment and criteria
Event:
21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
5EO.1.2
Pages:
1823 - 1825
ISBN:
978-88-89407-53-0
Paper DOI:
10.5071/21stEUBCE2013-5EO.1.2
Price:
FREE
