The Hindu Business Line : Europe shows the way in embracing bio-fuels

The European Commission is apparently quite serious about achieving its voluntarily set target of having biofuels make up a 5.75 per cent share of transport fuels by 2010. It has hiked subsidies for bio-fuel crops, increased the farmland set aside for growing them and has integrated all 25 member-nations in the scheme.

Ancient Indian classic literature, with the Vedas at its peak, provides an invaluable source of information on bio-fuels. We learn from the writings that, somewhere around 18,000 BC, the Asvin and Vailixi airships boasted of the capacities to travel undersea as well as in the atmosphere, and even into space.

Fanciful weapons (astras) bearing anti-gravity means of propulsion appear to be included in the writings. In all of these, the principles of propulsion as far as the metaphors are concerned, are clearly electrical, bio-chemical or solar energy-based.

Today, it is Europe that dominates the bio-fuel industry, with 90 per cent of global production. The EU produced almost three million tonnes of biofuels in 2006, amounting to 1 per cent of EU petrol and diesel consumption. Bioethanol made up one million tonnes, and biodiesel two million tonnes. Rapeseed oil is the main biodiesel feedstock, constituting just over 20 per cent of the EU-25's total oilseed production.

Biodiesel Manufacture

This appears a straightforward process, starting from oil. It is based on the chemical process of trans-esterification, in which fat or vegetable oil is reacted with a simple alcohol, such as methanol, in the presence of sodium hydroxide as a catalyst.

The methanol splits the fatty acids from the oil to form methyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerine. The glycerine is separated from the fuel and removed as a marketable by-product (for making soap, for example), while the biodiesel is washed with water and dried. Biodiesel can also be produced from waste cooking oils.

Way Forward

While fuel shortages and power cuts are uncommon in Europe, there is intense dependence on energy for transport, for heating homes in winter, cooling them in summer and running factories, farms and offices.

A tad over 80 per cent of the energy that the EU burns comes from fossil fuels — oil, natural gas and coal. A significant and increasing proportion of this comes from outside the EU.

Reliance on imported oil and gas, which is currently 50 per cent, could rise to 70 per cent by 2030. This will swell the EU's vulnerability to supply cuts or higher prices resulting from international crises. The EU also is under pressure to burn less fossil fuel in order to reverse global warming.

Amid this scenario, the European Commission has identified the way forward as a combination of:

Energy savings through more efficient energy use, and use of alternative sources;

More efficient use of gas-fired co-generation plants, which also produce steam and heat, more use of biomass from organic matter in energy production, and use of biofuels in transport;

Better integration of EU energy policy with other policies, such as agriculture and trade, and more international cooperation.

Biofuel Crops

In Europe, economic viability of farming biofuel crops is not a problem anymore. The European Commission has, in fact, widened the subsidies and increased the farmland set aside for the purpose of growing biofuel crops — including maize for biogas, sunflowers for biodiesel and barley for bioethanol. Extraordinarily, all 25 member-nations have been integrated in the scheme.

Leading the biofuels enterprise is Germany, which as of 2006 has virtually 250,000 hectares of land operating under the subsidy scheme — more than double the extent in 2004.

Next in the EU biofuels league is France, with 150,000 hectares under biofuel crops. Two biofuels mainly used in Europe are vegetable oil methyl esters (VOME) and ethanol, in the form of ethyl tertio butyl ether (ETBE).

Vegetable Oil Methyl Esters

VOME are produced from vegetable oils obtained by drying, baking, grinding and pressing seeds, such as rapeseed. This process yields the desired oil in addition to a solid residue (press-cake) that is generally used for animal feed. One tonne of grain yields about 0.6 tonne of cake and 0.4 tonne of oil. That is why the press-cake market trends significantly affects the economics of VOME biofuels.

At present, this type of motor fuel is sold at the pump, with complete transparency for users. Most French refineries add VOME to motor fuels for sale, in proportions ranging from 2 per cent to 5 per cent. Mixed up to 30 per cent, it is used in captive fleets without any particular technical constraints.

Ethanol and ETBE

Ethanol for biofuels is produced from sucrose-producing plants (sugarcane, sugar-beets), wheat or corn. Two countries, in particular, have developed this type of biofuel — Brazil and the US.

In European countries, ethanol itself is practically never added to motor fuels, but used in the form of ETBE (produced from isobutylene and ethanol), to ensure volatility properties and to avoid demixtion in the presence of traces of water (in separation of the alcohol and gasoline phases).

Next Generation Biofuels

An increasing number of voices are calling on the EU to focus its attention on "second-generation" biofuels. Stakeholders believe such biofuels to be promising because they:

have a more favourable GHG (greenhouse gas) balance compared to most current biofuels;

can be produced at cost-competitive prices, especially if low-cost biomass is used;

are able to use a wider range of biomass feedstocks; they do not compete with food production, and;

offer better fuel quality than first-generation biofuels.

Europe embracing biofuels

The current voluntary target to have biofuels make up a 5.75 per cent share of transport fuels by 2010 appears attainable. Europe is certainly showing the rest of the world that it pays to embrace biofuels.

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany. Feedback may be sent to mohan.murti@t-online.de)

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