The environmental certification of biofuels – Discussion paper

Dec 2007

Assessing the actual environmental impacts of increased bioenergy and in particular, biofuel usage, will depend on the scale and mix of technology options employed and on the location. The fundamental factors that govern biomass productivity vary significantly accordingly to site, e.g. soil type, climate, including water availability and temperature. Biofuels differ one from the other, even when the final fuels are chemically and physically identical e.g. anhydrous ethanol derived from wheat, sugar cane, sugar beat, cassava or from residues.
This heterogeneity in impacts and opportunities arise because the feedstock production, conversion end-fuel supply chains for biofuels are often longer than existing or alternative transport energy supply chains. There is also uncertainty in a range of potentially import and factors that governs the assessment of the net impacts of biofuel production and use.
A substantial difference can be seen in biofuel supply chains in terms of environmental impacts. These include GHG performance, impact on biodiversity, water use, nitrogen use and flows, air and water quality impacts and on amenity. These variants in impacts justify those national policies in the UK, Netherlands and Germany that support the application of assurance and certification systems for biofuels. If these assurance and certification systems prove viable and valid, it could than be possible to reward individual fuel supply options (e.g. by batch), based on their actual performance. Such assistance could provide a powerful and flexible mechanism for incorporating externalities and encourage an approach towards improved productivity, efficiency and decreased impacts.
The rapidly expanding global biofuel market is been caused by the high current oil price and the expectation that these high levels with be maintained, driving a political agenda that is sometimes in advance of the evaluation, monitoring and policy environment.
New institution methodologies and science will be needed to ensure and assure that biofuels can meet new demands for supply, without causing major social and environmental damages. There is an opportunity to encourage innovation, and improve efficiency and lower inputs and impacts. This paper explores these issues and assesses the existing developments in national and regional assurance and certification schemes of biofuels.

By: Joint transport research centre

 
download this document:   317 kb
home