LowCVP agreement on assessing biofuel
Sun 11 April 2004
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The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership has reached a consensus on the methodology for assessing the full life cycle energy and greenhouse gas balance for a conventional UK biofuel.
Renewable or biofuels produced from vegetable matter and used as a gasoline or diesel replacement may be one important route to reducing the greenhouse impacts of the road transport sector. Measuring the full life cycle environment and energy impacts of biofuels is complex and has often provoked controversy.
The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership is comprised of over 140 members from the motor and fuels industries, environmental and consumer groups, government and academia. The Partnership’s Fuels Working Group has forged a consensus approach to analyse the energy and greenhouse gas balances of a potentially significant biofuel.
The study, published today, focuses on a well-to-wheel evaluation for the production of bioethanol from wheat. Previous work on this particular biofuel showed large variations in results. The LowCVP study demonstrates that substantial greenhouse gas savings can be achieved by bioethanol. However, how the fuel is made and how its by-products are used strongly affects the energy and greenhouse gas balance of the final product.
David Rickeard of ExxonMobil said: “This work is a breakthrough because it shows clearly the importance of how the fuel is made, and the factors that maximise the greenhouse gas savings.”
Greg Archer, Director of the LowCVP, said: “The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership was established to deliver just this sort of work which will help the UK to move towards the rational and effective use of biofuels, based on a highly analytical approach. I welcome this report which results from an intensive period of work from Partnership members.”
Notes to Editors
1. The LowCVP bioethanol study was developed by a group of experts, led by British Sugar and ExxonMobil, and including Imperial College, Sheffield Hallam University, CONCAWE and the EU Joint Research Council, as part of the Partnership’s Fuels Working Group.
2. Key factors that the LowCVP study found to improve the energy and greenhouse gas savings from producing bioethanol are the use of combined heat and power (CHP), the use of straw as an energy source and the use of Distillers’ Dark Grains and Solubles (DDGS) as energy for power generation.
3. HM Treasury recently issued a discussion paper on Enhanced Capital Allowances for Biofuels (October 2004) that sets out plans to incentivise biofuel manufacturing plants and machineries that deliver greenhouse gas savings over and above traditional methods based on a lifecycle assessment (LCA).
(Press release issued 4 November 2004)
Related Links
Link to the full report
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