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Biogas and ethanol from wheat grain or straw : Is there a trade-off between climate impact, avoidance of iLUC and production cost?

Lantz, Mikael LU ; Prade, Thomas LU ; Ahlgren, Serina LU and Björnsson, Lovisa LU (2018) In Energies 11(10).
Abstract

Current EU policy calls for decreased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by i.e., replacing fossil fuel in the transportation sector with sustainable biofuels. To avoid indirect land use change (iLUC), the EU at the same time strives to limit the use of crops and to increase the use of residues. In this study we compare climate impact and production cost for biogas and ethanol based on wheat grain and straw, respectively, in a Swedish context. The economic competitiveness for ethanol from straw vs. grain is evaluated based on the mandatory emission reduction for fossil vehicle fuels implemented since July 2018 in Sweden. The result of this study clearly shows that biogas and ethanol from straw have the lowest GHG emissions regardless... (More)

Current EU policy calls for decreased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by i.e., replacing fossil fuel in the transportation sector with sustainable biofuels. To avoid indirect land use change (iLUC), the EU at the same time strives to limit the use of crops and to increase the use of residues. In this study we compare climate impact and production cost for biogas and ethanol based on wheat grain and straw, respectively, in a Swedish context. The economic competitiveness for ethanol from straw vs. grain is evaluated based on the mandatory emission reduction for fossil vehicle fuels implemented since July 2018 in Sweden. The result of this study clearly shows that biogas and ethanol from straw have the lowest GHG emissions regardless of the calculation method used, although biofuels from grain also fulfill EU GHG reduction criteria even when suggested iLUC factors are included. It was also shown that the cost of producing straw-based biofuels was higher, thus there is a trade-off between climate impact and costs. The GHG reduction mandate adopted in Sweden partly compensates for this, but is not enough to make ethanol from straw competitive from an economic perspective.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Biofuel, Biogas, Climate impact, Economy, Ethanol, ILUC, Policy instruments, Wheat grain, Wheat straw
in
Energies
volume
11
issue
10
article number
2633
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85056144584
ISSN
1996-1073
DOI
10.3390/en11102633
project
Energy@LTH
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
50effa82-d4cf-489a-b7ae-da7e461f65b4
date added to LUP
2018-11-22 14:01:19
date last changed
2022-04-18 00:26:48
@article{50effa82-d4cf-489a-b7ae-da7e461f65b4,
  abstract     = {{<p>Current EU policy calls for decreased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by i.e., replacing fossil fuel in the transportation sector with sustainable biofuels. To avoid indirect land use change (iLUC), the EU at the same time strives to limit the use of crops and to increase the use of residues. In this study we compare climate impact and production cost for biogas and ethanol based on wheat grain and straw, respectively, in a Swedish context. The economic competitiveness for ethanol from straw vs. grain is evaluated based on the mandatory emission reduction for fossil vehicle fuels implemented since July 2018 in Sweden. The result of this study clearly shows that biogas and ethanol from straw have the lowest GHG emissions regardless of the calculation method used, although biofuels from grain also fulfill EU GHG reduction criteria even when suggested iLUC factors are included. It was also shown that the cost of producing straw-based biofuels was higher, thus there is a trade-off between climate impact and costs. The GHG reduction mandate adopted in Sweden partly compensates for this, but is not enough to make ethanol from straw competitive from an economic perspective.</p>}},
  author       = {{Lantz, Mikael and Prade, Thomas and Ahlgren, Serina and Björnsson, Lovisa}},
  issn         = {{1996-1073}},
  keywords     = {{Biofuel; Biogas; Climate impact; Economy; Ethanol; ILUC; Policy instruments; Wheat grain; Wheat straw}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{10}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Energies}},
  title        = {{Biogas and ethanol from wheat grain or straw : Is there a trade-off between climate impact, avoidance of iLUC and production cost?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en11102633}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/en11102633}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}