No Competition for milk and bread

A study by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has proven that biomass energy sources are gaining in significance. At the same time, growing conflicts of use could be diminished by new biofuels.

Biomass will continue to become more and more significant as Germany’s number one regenerative source of energy. At the same time, the competition between energy producers and food producers over the use of agricultural and forestry land is intensifying. New biomass energy sources point to a way out of this conflict as they use straw and logging remains. These are the main results of a recently published study by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) funded by Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry for Nutrition and Rural Areas. The KIT is a cooperation between the Karlsruhe Research Centre and the University of Karlsruhe.

Straw – a seminal energy source even for fuel production (Photo: KIT)

“Yet this will also create a controversy as to whether our fields should be used for the production of food or energy plants,” says Dr. Ludwig Leible (Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) of the Karlsruhe Research Centre), senior researcher of the study. This politically sensitive issue affecting both ethics and consumers could be partly offset by so-called second-generation biofuels. The great advantage of second-generation biofuels is that they do not compete with bread and milk.

The novel, fully synthetic biofuels will be produced from straw and logging remains - as opposed to biofuels that are produced from rapeseed or bioethanol that is produced from maize. These materials are not suitable either as foodstuff nor do they require additional cultivable land. In addition, second-generation biofuels are purer, ecologically safer and more adaptable (for example, they comply with more stringent CO2 limits) than petroleum fuel. Project leader Ludwig Leible: “The new biofuels will strengthen our non-dependency on petroleum and help us lower the CO2 emissions from road traffic according to the objectives set by the EU, without transforming our fields into fuelling stations”.

Diesel from straw and logging remains

bioliq® pilot plant at the Karlsruhe Research Centre (Photo: KIT)

With regard to the competitiveness of biofuels, the economic “break even” has not yet been reached, according to the calculations of KIT scientists. But it is within reach: If an efficient gathering and distribution of the biomass can be assured, it would already be possible to produce diesel from straw and logging remains for about 1 euro per litre. With petroleum costing 130 US$ per barrel (current price: 78 US$), this type of fuel would be able to compete with traditional diesel – even without subsidies such as petroleum tax exemptions.

In the conclusion to their research, KIT scientists advocate the development of innovative technologies for fuel production from biomass. This would include the bioliq® process developed at the Karlsruhe Research Centre. According to Ludwig Leible “bioliq® offers the additional advantage of dual use. As the need arises, biomass can either be processed as fuel or as important basic chemical materials such as methanol”. The bioliq® process is currently being prepared at the KIT Energy Centre for market introduction.

Source: Justus Hartlieb, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - 19.09.07