Commercializing Conventional and Advanced Liquid Biofuels from Biomass: Task 39 Update

(IEA Bioenergy Task 39) ... Task work that has recently been completed and will soon be posted on the “publically available” sections of the Task 39 website (http://task39.ieabioenergy.com/) includes the final report entitled, “Survey of Advanced Fuels for Advanced Engines” which Task 39 carried out jointly with the IEA Advanced Motor Fuels (AMF) Technology Collaboration Programme (TCP). This report contains up-to-date information on current and prospective advanced biofuels – especially biomass-based liquid fuels – for road vehicles. Performance attributes, such as fuel properties and exhaust emission characteristics in compression or spark ignition type engines, are discussed in detail and show how results are influenced by the specific advanced biofuel that is used. It is likely that the area of co-optimizing fuel engine
systems to maximize transport performance efficiencies and associated greenhouse gas reduction potentials using advanced biofuels will continue to be an important research topic of joint interest. In addition to providing a useful reference for Task 39 stakeholders, this report also serves as an updated and complementary resource
to AMF’s online fuel information portal (http://www.iea-amf.org).

Other work that is currently being discussed and progressed is an update on assessing
GHG emissions and energy balances for advanced biofuels. The current project involves a comparison of four well-recognized biofuels LCA models (GREET, BIOGRACE, GHGenius and VSB), focusing on how each of these models estimates GHG emissions. This project has helped identify the commonalities and main differences in the models’
methodological structures, calculation procedures, assumptions, etc. It has also highlighted the most influential parameters impacting the determination of missions associated with the production and use of diesel-type biofuels (both fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) and renewable diesel (also known as hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO) or hydrotreated esters and fatty acids (HEFA). Through a “harmonization” procedure, it is possible to successfully align the results of the models to agree with one another. After the report is assessed internally in early 2019, it will made publicly available.

We anticipate continuing joint work with the IEA Bioenergy Sustainability Task in this area in the next triennium as these types of assessments continue to gain importance to policy makers and regulation. The group also discussed how to further harmonize and extend LCA modeling approaches going forward, e.g., how to more broadly consider other key aspects influencing LCA such as system boundaries and specific assumptions about soil carbon changes and how coproducts are handled (i.e., by displacement, energy or economic allocation, etc).

A draft of the updated report, “The potential and challenges of ‘drop-in’ biofuels” is nearing completion and will soon be circulated within the Task and is expected to form the basis for ongoing/increased collaboration with other Tasks (such as the Gasification and Thermal Liquefaction (Pyrolysis/HTL) Tasks as well as with allied organizations such as IEA HQ, IRENA, GBEP, etc). Future work in this area will include: a) assessing the various methods used to measure/follow the “green” molecules when adopting co-processing and upgrading strategies within existing petroleum refineries; and b) extending LCA studies to examine the life cycle/sustainability aspects of drop-in biofuels production. A more detailed description of Task 39’s focus for the coming
triennium will be provided in the first newsletter of 2019. READ MORE