GreenFleet

It seems that not a week goes by without some warning about the effects of climate change appearing in the newspapers. Whether it is about the loss of the ice caps, future droughts, extinction of species or flooding, it is clear that global warming is a real and present threat to humanity and the planet.
    
A substantial fraction of the UK’s emissions come from road transport, so we must ask: “How do we reduce road transport emissions?” This is a question that does not have just one answer, but demands a range of measures working together. This can include driving less, eco-driving, good fleet management and more efficient vehicles. For instance, the government offers training in ‘Safe and Efficient Driving’ (SAFED) for HGV and van drivers that can help reduce carbon emissions.
    
It can also include the use of biofuels, which have the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions from road transport, both through drop in fuels in the existing fleet and through specialised vehicles.
    
Unlike using a fossil fuel, when you burn a biofuel in a car engine you are not releasing carbon that has been stored away for millions of years – you release carbon recently taken out of the atmosphere by plants as they grow.

Potential drawbacks
In an ideal world, this would make biofuels entirely carbon neutral. In reality, however, biofuel production requires energy input, and when biofuel crops are grown, processed and transported fossil carbon is released. There are also potential drawbacks: if biofuels are grown in an unsustainable way; if their cultivation leads to the release of large quantities of carbon stored in the soil (even on agricultural land, significant amounts of carbon may build up in the soil and can be released when the soil is disturbed to plant a new crop); or if growing them causes richly bio-diverse habitats to be destroyed.
    
The role of the Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA), the UK’s biofuels regulator, is to run the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) mandating the use of biofuels, while monitoring and reducing any negative impacts from their cultivation.
    
Different levels of emissions are caused by producing biofuels from different feedstocks from different countries. The feedstock for a biofuel is the raw material from which it is manufactured. This could be a crop like oil seed rape, or a waste like used cooking oil. In the future, feedstocks could include algae and wood.
    
We assess in detail the greenhouse gases released by fertilisers, agricultural machinery, processing and so on for the biofuels supplied in the UK, so that we can report on the actual carbon savings achieved. Clearly, for biofuels to be effective as a tool against climate change they must deal substantial net emissions reductions once everything has been considered.

Set of criteria
We also have a set of sustainability criteria, the RTFO meta-standard. Suppliers of biofuels must report whether their feedstocks have been assessed against the criteria directly, or have been certified by a scheme that covers enough of the criteria to be a ‘qualifying standard’. Fuels meeting the environmental standard must be grown with due regard for protecting biodiversity, carbon stocks and soil, air and water quality. To meet the social standard, workers’ rights and land rights must be respected.
    
The RFA’s reporting on the carbon emissions and sustainability of biofuels is world leading, and as other nations in the EU and elsewhere introduce their own biofuels incentives and mandates many of them are looking to us for guidance and leadership.
    
We are neither advocates nor opponents of biofuels. In the Gallagher Review last year, we concluded that there is a significant risk that due to indirect effects current biofuels use may be doing more harm than good, and called therefore for UK targets to be reduced – the government took this advice.
    
If we are to be certain that biofuels are genuinely sustainable, we need not only to continue to develop our understanding of the lifecycle carbon emissions and encourage the sourcing of fuels meeting rigorous sustainability standards, but address the indirect effects that will occur if we allow demand for biofuels to drive land use change.

Biofiel blends
Under the RTFO, your vehicles are probably already running on low blends of biofuels – up to five per cent biofuel can be supplied blended in petrol or diesel without any special labelling. There are also opportunities available for fleet managers looking to achieve more significant cuts in their carbon emissions with higher blend fuels. These include high blend biodiesel, such as highly sustainable biodiesel from waste cooking oil; pure plant oil for use in converted engines; and biomethane from waste for use in vehicles able to run on compressed natural gas, which can offer big carbon savings.
    
Remember though that biofuel is not automatically sustainable. We believe in supporting the best biofuels, and fleet managers and consumers should be ready to challenge their suppliers to prove that their fuels are truly sustainable.

Supporting development
We report every month on the biofuels supplied to the UK market, and the results show some grounds for optimism. We are well above the government target for the voluntary reporting by companies of data about their biofuels, indicating that the necessary chains of custody to track biofuels back to their origins are starting to be put in place. Also, based on a lifecycle analysis, the direct emissions (though not yet including all emissions from direct and indirect land use change) from biofuels supplied in the UK are around 45 per cent less than they would be from fossil fuels.
    
The supply of fuels meeting sustainability standards, on the other hand, continues to lag the government’s target for the year, at 18 per cent (below the target of 30 per cent). We are working to support the development and creation of certification schemes, and to encourage companies to run their own sustainability audits, and hope to see the reporting of certified fuel increase as more certified feedstocks become available.
    
There are both good and bad biofuels, and only by systematic and critical appraisal can we point the way forward to true sustainability.

What is biofuel?
Biofuels are fossil fuel substitutes that can be made from a range of agricultural crops including oilseeds, wheat and sugar, and from wastes like used cooking oil and tallow. The two most common current biofuels are bioethanol, which can be blended into petrol, and biodiesel, which can be blended into diesel.
   
Biofuel technology has been around as long as the combustion engine, but concerns about fuel security, climate change, and the wish to support rural economies has led to plans for significant expansion in biofuel production across the globe, and has also stimulated research and development into ‘second generation’ fuels. These advanced biofuels are not yet commercially available, but offer the prospect of better environmental performance and of using a wider range of feedstocks, including additional wastes.

For more information
www.renewablefuelsagency.org

Written by Nick Goodall, CEO, Renewable Fuels Agency