11 Top Low-Carbon Fuel Players, WCSBD Publish COP 21 Guide to Slashing Transport-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Switzerland, 11 leading low carbon fuel companies present a comprehensive guide that identifies a variety of available and accessible low carbon fuel solutions.

Today, only 3% of transportation fuels are low carbon. According to the International Energy Agency, 10% of fuels must be low carbon by 2030 if we are to satisfy economic growth while staying below 2°C.

The guide was developed to help countries and businesses identify the most suitable low carbon fuel technologies that will enable them to implement their climate commitments following this year’s climate talks in Paris. The initiative is part of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Low Carbon Technology Partnerships Initiative whose outcomes will be presented at COP21.

No one has yet produced a sharper, in-depth summary of the imperative for low-carbon fuels, the state of their development, and the critical policy supports needed to ensure their deployment. Without a transport solution, there is no climate solution, and the children of today will be direct beneficiaries of these science-based policies, if they are employed and enforced. READ MORE and MORE and MORE Download report

KEY TO A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY
5 What this report is about
6 What are low carbon transport fuels?
7 The present impact of transportation
8 How low carbon fuels can mitigate climate change
9 The main barriers to growth
11 Overcoming the barriers: policy asks
14 Country cases
17 The way forward
TECHNOLOGIES
21 Characteristics of transportation sectors
23 Technology showcase
24 Conventional Ethanol
26 Lignocellulosic Ethanol
28 Engineered photosynthesis
30 Power to fuels (gas and liquids)
32 Waste gas to fuels
34 Municipal solid waste to fuels
35 Hydrogenated organic oil

Excerpts from report: Decarbonizing the transport sector is indispensable for achieving the overall climate goal of staying below a 2°C rise of global temperature. Meanwhile, low carbon transport fuels have been widely acknowledged for their significant potential. Growth in this sector, however, must increase fivefold from today’s levels within fifteen years.

This report highlights the efforts of a new, growing coalition of twelve companies and four partner organizations to delivering these growth rates. Within the framework of the Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative on transport fuels, they share a common goal in developing these markets and technologies. After all, decarbonizing the transportation sector is their core business. But they cannot do this on their own. To secure this huge growth, the business community’s efforts and investments need to be backed by effective and stable policies.

Only with a consistent public private collaboration, will the transportation sector meet the urgent need to contribute to mitigating climate change.

Low carbon transport fuels are essentially liquid or gaseous fuels with a significantly better CO2 performance (defined by this group as at least 50%) than conventional fossil transport fuels. Low carbon fuels can be based on biomass or other short-cycled carbon resources. Compared with fossil fuels, their life cycles of production and use lead to (much) lower CO2 emissions. So-called (liquid) biofuels are the main group of low carbon fuels. This partnership distinguishes two main groups of low carbon technologies:

Mature Technologies: Conventional biofuel technologies include well-established processes that produce biofuels on a commercial scale. These biofuels, commonly referred to as ‘first-generation’, include sugar- and starch-based ethanol, and vegetable oil based biodiesel. Typical feedstocks presently used in these processes include sugarcane and sugar beet, grains like corn and wheat, oil crops like rape (canola), palm oil (see text box on sustainability later on in the report) and soybean, and waste streams like used cooking oil.

• Advanced biofuel technologies, commonly referred to as second- or third-generation, are still in the research and development (R&D), pilot or demonstration phase. They include biofuels based on lignocellulosic biomass, such as cellulosic-ethanol, biomass-to-liquids (BtL)-diesel and biosynthetic gas (bio-SG). The category also includes novel technologies that are mainly in the R&D and pilot stage, such as waste gas fermentation, algae-based biofuels and the conversion of sugar into diesel-type biofuels using biological or chemical catalysts.

• Non-biomass based fuels are technologies that use non-biomass feedstock. Similar to advanced biofuels, these technologies are still in the research and development (R&D), pilot or demonstration phase. These technologies include biodiesel from algae, power-to-gas and power-to-fuel, so called electro fuels and fuels from engineered photosynthesis.

Following rapid development of biofuels in the past decade, concerns have been raised about certain sustainability issues of low carbon fuels. Knowing that the starting position of these fuels is intrinsically more sustainable than their fossil equivalents, the industry supports even stronger sustainability requirements: regarding the performance in greenhouse gas emission reduction, preventing an impact on food security, and minimizing environmental impacts, e.g. at the feedstock production location.

One issue that has received much attention is the threat of Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC). Biofuels (and also other new biomaterials) produced from crops need increased production. At present, a large part of the biofuels on the market are the result of yield increases. But if additional agricultural land is created at the expense of tropical forests or peatland, as discussed within the framework of palm oil production, indirect carbon emissions can occur that may nullify the direct savings of low carbon fuels for many years.

Many organizations like the International Food Policy Research Institute IFPRI, the EU Joint Research Centre JRC and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization FAO have presented authoritative studies on the issue. At present, the industry focuses on growth options without causing ILUC, such as improving yields and supply chain efficiency, using degraded land, creating food-fuel synergy or pursuing non-biobased solutions.

Industry and policy makers should meet in setting sustainability requirements. While setting the general framework, policy makers should leave specific feedstock or technology choices to the industry. For instance, the EU has already set strict rules with regard to overall greenhouse gas emission savings. Also, using feedstock from land that was previously high in carbon or biodiversity should not be allowed. READ MORE