BIOHEC-LIFE - Advanced Biodiesel in Circular Economy for Low Carbon Public Transports.

November 08, 2016

Print This Article Share it With Friends

(European Commission) ... Used cooking oils (UCOs) are processed from food industry and catering waste; cheap and widely available, they are playing an increasing role in the development of advanced biofuels. However, although the legislative framework is in place, less than 40% of discarded UCOs are collected, and the biofuels processed from these are still associated with negative environmental impacts. Moreover, current biofuel production chains still mostly resort to the import and long-distance transport of material to large-capacity processing units: freight accounts for up to 20% of the GHG impact of these biofuels' life-cycle.

BIOHEC-LIFE aims to achieve the following:

Validate an eco-designed, compact and flexible demonstrator in order to produce competively-priced advanced biofuels derived from UCO and bioethanol;
Provide French local authorities’ transport fleets with locally-produced biofuel;
Validate the economic, social and environmental model of the production chain in the city of Lille and Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region;
Prepare the replication and deployment of this model in subsequent French and European territories through partnerships and franchises; and
Develop and promote new methods enabling the optimised recovery of UCOs.

Expected results: The project expects to achieve the following beneficial results in terms of the prototype technology, recovery chain and replicability:

Construction of an eco-designed, compact and flexible 2 000 L/day demonstrator allowing the processing of UCOs with up to 50% acidity for biofuel production;
Production of UCO-derived biofuel and bioethanol, allowing a 93% reduction in GHG emissions in the life-cycle compared with classic gasoline and a 22% reduction in comparison with other biofuel processes;
Reduced environmental impacts compared with gasoline including -86% consumption of non-renewable energies, -97% photochemical oxidation, -98% human toxicity (health impact), and -46% eutrophication;
High-value recovery chains for glycerol (minimum objective of €400 /tonne);
Creation of a local and economically-competitive supply chain for second generation bioethanol;
Successful running of the city of Lille's vehicle fleet for 19 months;
Supply of 245 000 L of fuel – i.e. 50% of Lille's fuel consumption, bringing GHG emission savings of 200 teqCO2 during the project;
Air emissions from the vehicles compatible with European emission standards 4 to 6;
Methods and tools necessary to reach a rate of household waste recovery of 0.1 kg/inhabitant in participating local communities– i.e. avoiding 0.27 Mt eqCO2 of emissions;
Technical, socioeconomic and environmental data validating the creation of a circular production chain for the processing of UCO-derived biofuel for the use of local communities. The targeted selling price is 10% below the expected price of gasoline by 2022;
A methodology to accompany and support the setting-up of production chains in order to ensure their replicability; and
The signing of three franchise agreements in three target countries identified as the most favourable for replication, along with three other agreements signed in France.

Gecco is an SME established in 2007 whose goal is the sustainable management of waste and energy by developing and deploying large-scale local recycling systems. The company collects and recycles used cooking oil (UCO) in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardie regions for biodiesel and bio-lubricants, as well as carrying out research and development in these fields.

Partners:

RREUSE, Belgium Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille - Lille1), France NEOECO DEVELOPPEMENT, France Pour La Solidarité, Belgium READ MORE