Kent Biofuel Project

About the Project

Led by a consortium of 7 industry stakeholders drawn from the SEEDA region, the focus of this project has centered on measures that could be adopted to reduce CO₂ emissions and energy requirements in the region. The use of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) could cut energy requirements, greenhouse gas emissions and costs incurred by a range of manufacturing industries by as much as 50%, and if delivered using engines that burnt liquid biofuels instead of fossil fuels, would reduce emissions to zero provided the fuel used was vegetable oil and not biodiesel. This is because production of the latter uses the fossil fuel methanol for transesterification and produces an energy-rich ‚waste‘ product, glycerol. By the same token, conversion of plant oil to biodiesel for use in the road transport industry should be discouraged. However to meet demands for food and fuel will require modifications to existing supply chains, the establishment of ‚biomaterial handling stations‘ and introduction of new biotechnologies to process food wastes and agricultural residues to liquid and gaseous biofuels sustainably.

Rationale

Analysis of the impact of rising energy use In China and India has recently led the International Energy Agency to conclude that the world’s energy needs could grow by 55% between 2005 and 2030, to reach 17.7 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, with fossil fuels –oil, gas and coal – dominating the fuel mix (80%). CO₂ levels would increase commensurately to 42 Gt in 2030, up 57% from 2005. Against this background, and with the realisation that a coherent EU energy policy was needed the European Council last year agreed to a common strategy for energy security and climate change, which included a commitment to source 20% of the EU’s energy from renewables by 2020 (covering electricity, heat and transport) and a 20%/30% GHG emissions reduction depending on wider international effort. For the UK, this has been translated into a target of 15 per cent of final energy consumption to be accounted for by energy from renewable sources.

Renewable energy is an integral part of the UK’s longer-term aim of reducing CO₂ emissions by 60% by 2050 compared with 1990 levels under the Kyoto protocol. Currently around 60% of the UK’s energy consumption is as electricity and heat; a further 31% is consumed in transport and the remainder as feedstock. In 2002, the Renewables Obligation (RO) was imposed on electricity suppliers to achieve a target of 10% of electricity supply from renewable energy by 2010 compared to 1.8% in 2002, and the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation was announced in 2005 to ensure that 5% of all road vehicle fuel should be supplied from sustainable renewable sources by 2010. Despite these targets, by 2006 electricity supplied RO eligible sources stood at only around 4% of the UK’s total electricity, whilst the targets for biofuels in road transport, a central plank of the programme to combat climate change, are likely to be redjusted downwards to 4%.