While there has been considerable study about co-generation, i.e., converting biomass, especially agricultural, lumber and municipal solid waste to heat and power, there remain areas for further development.
More CHP (Combined Heat and Power) from biomass is a recommendation of the IPCC Synthesis Report. According to European Commission Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, there has been a marked growth in European electricity generation from solid biomass “with a 16.2% increase between 2004 and 2005 (+6.1 TWh, i.e. a total of 44.1 TWh).” The aim of the Seventh Framework Programme is to improve electricity generation from the combustion of solid biomass, i.e., principally wood and wood waste, but also straw, crop harvest residues, vegetable and animal waste.
JCR (Joint Research Centre) is the scientific institute of the European Commission. Circulating last year in the Commission was an unpublished, unreviewed report that stated biomass reduces fossil fuel consumption and coincident greenhouse gas emissions much more in other sectors than transportation. Greenpeace leaked the report at a time “when criticism against biofuels has reached an all-time high,” reports the Biopact team.
Moreover, the report states that “The decrease in welfare caused by imposing a biofuel target is between 33 and 65 billion euros within an 80 per cent probability range,” it adds. This is so because European biofuels cannot compete without subsidies and trade protection.
The only liquid biofuels the JCR sees as viable are highly efficient fuels like sugarcane ethanol.
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The report buttresses worries over biofuels that suggests they may actually contribute to global warming through the deforestation and peat bog burning that is required for biofuel sources such as soya and oil palm trees.
The criticism includes a demand for truth in advertising when it comes to promoting something as a biofuel. One proposed target is a 50% CO2 reduction against fossil fuels.
Under the 50% reduction European Parliament target (red line) “almost all conventional types of biodiesel and ethanol produced both in the EU and the US would be banned, except for cellulosic ethanol (from wood and grass) and ethanol made from sugarbeets.” Biopact also reported that the “European Commission target (blue line) [is] likely to be a 25% CO2 reduction, [which would mean] a wider group of biofuels that reduce emissions would be allowed onto the market as green fuels.”
According to Frauke Thies, Greenpeace’s EU energy policy campaigner for renewable energies, a much better use of biomass in the electricity and heating sectors. Since the report “shows that the 10% target for biofuels in transport could even undermine the overall EU target for renewable energy, …Greenpeace therefore demands that the 10% transport target be dropped.” The 10% target for biofuels in transport forces the use of biomass in an inefficient way.
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