Mar 5 2011
A recent research by Anna Sues, a researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands, demonstrates that the target set by the European Union to use 10% biofuel in transport vehicles by the year 2020 is unachievable.
She claims that even if all the available biomass in Europe is efficiently collected it will not reach 9.5% and even reaching that figure is practically impossible. She explains that most of the woodlands that produce biomass in Europe are privately owned and it will be impossible to establish contracts with all of them for collecting biomass. For this purpose Sue collected details about the quantity of naturally generated biomass in Europe such as straw and forest remainders as indicated by the European Union directives. She was specific in not including the biomass generated out of felling trees or the biomass developed by special plantations.
She explained that the import of biomass from South American countries will not only increase the cost of biomass but will also cause excessive carbon dioxide emissions during the transportation of the heavy biomass. Sue in her report dismissed the idea of planting new energy crops exclusively for the purpose of biofuel as they tend to create disputes due to current food shortages and rising prices. She utilized computer simulations to prove that instead of utilizing biofuel in cars the use of electric cars powered by the electrical energy derived from biomass will be a more viable and efficient option.
In her thesis, she has suggested for a new tax system to sustain the use of biofuels. She explained that both the conventional and biofuel must be sold at the same price and such price will make the fossil fuel users to pay more to match the price of the biofuel and in other words the extra price will subsidize the price of biofuel. She calculated that this subsidy for the biofuel will remain limited and will only result in the payment of few extra cents per liter by the fossil fuel user. Finally, such an introduction will enable all the users to contribute for the offsetting of carbon dioxide discharges.
Source: http://w3.tue.nl/nl/