Assessing the aggregated environmental benefits from by-product and utility synergies in the Swedish biofuel industry

ABSTRACT

The production of biofuels in Sweden has increased significantly in the past years in order to reduce fossil fuel dependence and mitigate climate impacts. Nonetheless, current methodological guidelines for assessing the GHG savings from the use of biofuels do not fully account for benefits from by-products and other utilities (e.g. waste heat and electricity) from biofuel production. This study therefore reviews the aggregated environmental performance of these multi-functional biofuel systems by assessing impacts and benefits from relevant production processes in Sweden in order to improve the decision base for biofuel producers and policymakers in the transition to a bio-based and circular economy. This was done by (1) conducting a mapping of the Swedish biofuel production portfolio, (2) developing future production scenarios, and (3) application of life cycle assessment methodology to assess the environmental performance of the production processes. Special focus was provided to review the potential benefits from replacing conventional products and services with by-products and utilities. The results provide evidence that failure to account for non-fuel-related benefits from biofuel production leads to an underestimation of the contribution of biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts when replacing fossil fuels, showing the importance of their multi-functionality.

KEYWORDS:

• Biofuels
• industrial symbiosis
• by-products
• LCA
• scenarios
• benefits
• consequential

Acknowledgements

This publication is the result of a project within the Renewable Fuels and Systems program (Samverkansprogrammet Förnybara drivmedel och system), financed by the Swedish Energy Agency and the Swedish Knowledge Centre for Renewable Transportation Fuels (f3). The f3 Centre contributes, through knowledge based on science, to the development of environmentally, economically and socially sustainable and renewable transportation fuels, as part of a future sustainable society (see www.f3centre.se). We would also like to thank Bio4Energy and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute for financial support to complete the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. If double-counting according to the Renewable Energy Directive is applied for advanced fuels, the share of biofuels in transport amounted to approximately 23% in 2015.

2. A significant share of the total Swedish biofuel production is today exported to countries that reward the use of fuels with better greenhouse gas reduction performance and/or apply double-counting in obligation schemes, mainly Germany and Finland.

3. A pilot plant for upgrading of lignin to lignin oil, for further processing to biofuels in a refinery, is currently under construction in Bäckhammar and is planned to be operational in 2017. Several other lignin fuel projects are currently also ongoing in Sweden but none has yet reached pilot scale [22].

4. For example, 94% of the rapeseed oil used for biodiesel used in the Swedish transport sector originated from abroad in 2015. The corresponding number for hydro-treated vegetable oil is 86%, and for ethanol 84%. It should, however, be noted that a relatively large amount of ethanol from Swedish grain feedstocks is currently exported. In contrast, biogas is produced primarily from domestic substrates [22,45].

5. Even though the term HVO (hydro-treated vegetable oil) strictly only applies to fuel originating from oils of vegetable origin, such as crude tall oil, palm oil or rapeseed oil, it is in this paper applied also to fuels from non-vegetable origin (e.g. slaughterhouse waste and tallow).

6. This classification scheme is in line with the categorization used in Swedish biogas statistics [37]. Landfills and industrial plants have been excluded from this study as no by-product utilization takes place in these plants.

7. Only two gasification-based biofuels were considered in this analysis – SNG, for which there is already existing infrastructure for natural gas/biogas in place in many locations, and methanol, which similarly to ethanol can be utilized in low- or high-blend fuels. Other possible end fuels, such as synthetic diesel (Fischer–Tropsch diesel) or dimethyl ether (DME), could be expected to have similar environmental performance from the production, due to significant process similarities.

8. When comparing the impacts to the avoided emissions, the term ‘credits’ is primarily used in the figures. Otherwise, in the text the term ‘benefits’ is used to refer to these credits.

9. The data from Börjesson et al. [15] was included as this source provides a collection of data for biofuels produced in Sweden.

10. A total of 13 TWh of biofuels were consumed in Sweden in total in 2015, which can be compared with the 5.2 TWh produced in Sweden in the same year.

11. As well as other potential refinery-based drop-in fuels that have not been explicitly covered in this study.

12. Once again, in this study the use of sludge for agricultural purposes was kept constant in all scenarios.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the f3-Swedish Knowledge Center for Renewable Transportation Fuels and the Swedish Energy Agency [grant number 40771-1].