Bioenergy

If you are looking for information on sustainability criteria for bioenergy sources, please click here.

Liquid Biofuels

Different projects were (and are) carried out in order to compare liquid biofuels with conventional liquid fuels.

In all cases, complete life cycle comparisons have been conducted. In some cases, different production sites (e.g. Germany, Europe), different production methods (conventional and organic farming) and different applications (passenger cars, buses, lorries, tractors) were looked at in depth. In some cases the biofuels are also used in different conversion technologies (internal combustion engine, fuel cell) as pure fuels or as additives to conventional fuels. A study conducted for FVV and UFOP investigated all available energy and CO₂ studies of biofuels for transportation world-wide.

Biofuels under investigation:

• Biodiesel (from rapeseed, sunflowers, soybeans, canola, coconut oil, recycled plant oil, animal fat)
• Plant oil (from rapeseed, sunflowers)
• Bioethanol (from sugar-cane, sugar-beet, corn, wheat, potatoes, molasses, lignocellulose)
• Bio-ETBE
• Biomethanol
• Bio-MTBE
• Bio-DME
• BTL
• Other (non-liquid) biofuels for transportation such as biogas and hydrogen

Other Biofuels

Different projects were (and are) carried out in order to compare solid biofuels with conventional fuels. In all cases, complete life cycle comparisons have been conducted. Different production sites (e.g. Germany, Europe), different time frames (present, future), different production methods (conventional and organic farming), and different usage technologies (power plants, heating plants, CHP with different sizes) were under investigation. In some cases the biofuels were also used in different conversion technologies (gasification, pyrolysis, biogas production (in German) and as pure fuels or as additives to conventional fossil fuels (light oil, natural gas, coal, and heavy oil). Some raw materials for the biofuels under investigation:

• Wheat, barley, rye, triticale
• Miscanthus sinensis
• Arundo donax
• Cocksfoot grass
• Willow, poplar from short rotation forestry
• Wheat straw, rapeseed straw as agricultural residues
• Spruce and beech as a residue from forestry
• Grass cuttings

Press Commentaries

Contact

Guido Reinhardt (06221/4767-31; guido.reinhardt(at)ifeu.de)