LIQUID FUELS Bioenergy International No 82, 6-2015 35 Advanced Biofuels Conference Held in mid-September at Stockholm-Arlanda airport, Sweden the inaugural edition of the Advanced Biofuels Conference proved an intensive affair. Organised by the Swedish Bioenergy Association (Svebio), the overall intention was to attract national and international stakeholders across the board interested in “creating a sustainable transport sector.” It succeeded. SOME 200 DELEGATES COMPRISED of a mix of national and European Parliament politicians, policy-makers, researchers and senior executives from industry made their way to Stockholm Arlanda airport for two intensive days of knowledge-sharing and networking. The event also included optional pre-conference site visits to the Svevia asphalt plant and the DriveLab Stockholm test lab both located in close proximity to the airport as well as a hydrogen refuelling station opening. Know your oil At first glance, David Livingston, Associate in Carnegie’s Energy and Climate Program, University of Southern California, seemed to be the cat amongst pigeons as he began speaking of oil. By slide nine he was a golden eagle. – Climate research consensus is that twothirds of fossil fuels – including one third of oil reserves – should not be burned if global warming is to stay below the 2 °C target. The question is which one-third of oil supplies, and are biofuels displacing them, asked Livingston. Carnegie’s Oil-Climate Index compares global oils’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout the supply chain in a bid to assist stakeholders in developing a targeted climate strategy for fossil fuels. According to Livingston there is at least an 80 percent difference in GHG emissions between global oils. – If carbon isn’t priced, explicitly or implicitly, business as usual won’t consider the climate. Therefore there is a need for informed policymaking to ensure biofuels are displacing the right oils, Livingston concluded. 2030 Renewable Energy Package On the subject of policy, Sarah Sheridan, Senior Policy Officer, European Commission DG for Climate Action reminded delegates that with 24 percent (in 2012), the transport sector is the second largest source of GHG emissions in the EU and toughest to deal with, before outlining the current policy landscape for advanced biofuels. Looking post-2020 Sheridan highlighted a number of points agreed by the Commission under the Energy Union Package earlier this year that Opening of the largest renewable hydrogen refuelling station in Sweden at Arlanda Airport. Hyundai and Toyota (shown) showcased fuel cell models. Gustav Melin, Svebio (left) in lunch time conversation with Jukka Horelli from Diffenbacher. – Know your oil and which oil biofuels replace, said David Livingston, Carnegie Oil-Climate Index. – Are we really running out of land globally, asked Jeremy Woods, Imperial College. Short answer, no. pertain to biofuels 2030. Amongst other things the Commission will propose a new Renewable Energy Package in 2016-2017. – The new Renewable Energy Package will include a new policy for sustainable biomass and biofuels as well as legislation to ensure that the 2030 EU target is met cost-effectively, she said. Food and fuel for thought A clearly thought-provoking and educational presentation was given by Jeremy Woods, Imperial College UK and one of 137 experts that contributed to a major SCOPE assessment report “Bioenergy & Sustainability” published earlier this year. – Conflicts surrounding bioenergy are nearly always to do with land use or availability, said Woods citing the ‘food cap’ revisions to the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) as a recent example affecting transportation biofuels. Food security and development are critical dimensions. A conclusion of the report “One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed The World?” was ‘global population over the past fifty years has increased 110 percent while global cropland has only increased by 10 percent, indicating a lack of available new land’ serves to illustrate a widely held assumption that relationship between food production and land-use is that of land constraint. – Are we really running out of land globally? For farmers it has been less costly to increase yields rather than expand into ‘new’ land, said Woods drawing from the report. Woods illustrated with pastureland revealing that 40 percent of world’s 3 500 million ha pasture may have no livestock on it, that it represents 26 percent of the world’s land but currently provides less than 5 percent of the calories and less than 3 percent of dietary protein. – Much of the world’s pasture land is extremely unproductive not because of fundamental biophysical constraints but due to socio-economic and developmental reasons, said Woods adding that bioenergy is not a competitor to food security but an “enabler” for more resilient, higher carbon and productive landscapes. Text & photos: Alan Sherrard BI82/5032/AS
Bioenergy no 6 October 2015
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