Eyes on the track, mind on the horizon: The REFUEL EU Road Map for biofuels
Other conference contribution, 2008

The current hot debate on biofuels calls for a balanced and realistic long-term strategy for biofuels. The REFUEL project provides several ingredients for such a strategy. Analyses in this project indicate that domestically produced biofuels can cover a significant share of EU fuel demand in the coming decades, with the EU-12 new member states and Ukraine as most promising regions. This potential can be realised with residual streams and on existing agricultural land, without conversion of e.g. nature reserves. Second-generation biofuels are essential for the long-term success of biofuels due to their superior performance in many ways. But generally, the key challenge for the near future would be how to enhance the development of biofuels in a responsible way, i.e. stimulating the production chains with the best performance, and preventing negative impacts e.g., by paying careful attention to possible system impacts of biofuel production such as indirect land use changes and rising food prices. Finally, 2nd generation biofuels require specific policy: the precursor role of 1st generation is overrated, both in technical terms as well as in their role as market precursors. When it comes to synergies, 2nd generation biofuels might benefit more from other developments in the energy sector, such as initiatives in co-firing of biomass for (heat and) power, than from 1st generation biofuels, also because of the public resistance that the latter induce.

biofuels

strategy

resource potentials

Author

Marc Londo

Sander Lensink

André Wakker

Gunther Fischer

S Prieler

Harrij van Velthuizen

Marc de Wit

A. Faaij

M Junginger

Göran Berndes

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Julia Hansson

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Henric Duer

Jesper Lundbaek

G Wisniewski

Adam Kupczyk

Kurt Könighofer

Andrea Egeskog

Chalmers, Energy and Environment

Proceedings of the 16th European Biomass Conference & Exhibition - From research to industry and markets, Feria Valencia, Spain, 2-6 June 2008

Subject Categories

Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified

Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified

More information

Created

10/8/2017