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Despite promises that they can contribute toward more environmentally beneficial transportation there are many sustainability concerns about liquid transport biofuels. In response to pressure from civil society, the European Union (EU) has introduced sustainability criteria for biofuels. A hybrid regulatory system involving state and non-state actors stipulates that retailers and producers must comply to be eligible for fiscal support such as tax exemptions. Flexibility in the system allows choice between different means of compliance, including a range of voluntary schemes. We present an analysis of views within the Swedish liquid transport biofuel sector in 2012 – a year after the introduction of EU sustainability criteria. Using document analysis, official statistics, and a survey, we use four key structures of global value chains — input–output structure, territorial configuration, institutional framework, and firm-level chain governance structure — to structure an analysis of biofuel value chain coordination. This yields three main findings regarding how the Swedish liquid transport biofuel system operates within, and views, the new regulatory framework. Firstly that it uses a broad portfolio of feedstock mainly from within Europe, seemingly avoiding countries where any supply conditions may be in doubt; second, larger retailers and producers achieve compliance without the need to provide additional social sustainability information; third, that actors exhibit predominantly Eurocentric perspectives on sustainability, express confidence that their supply chains have strong ‘sustainability performance’ and desire long-term policy stability. We conclude that despite a deep critique of the sustainability of biofuels amongst civil society and academia, EU regulation allows for production systems that reflect a European- and climate change mitigation-centred view on biofuel ‘sustainability’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The non-recyclable fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW refuse) represents over half of the total MSW production in Europe, with an energetic potential of 1250 PJ/year, a similar quantity to the current potential for energy production from agricultural residues. Currently, there are no alternative uses for MSW refuse other than landfilling or incineration. Thus, it represents an important untapped resource for biofuel production in Europe. Standard attributional LCAs have not been able to capture some of the bioenergy interactions with the climate system and neither to properly assess the climate change mitigation potential of bioenergy technologies. This study aims to fill this gap and properly assess the impact of the production of biofuels from MSW refuse on climate change by applying several methodological improvements in a time-dependent assessment, i.e., an explicit consideration of biogenic carbon flows using a dynamic LCA and an absolute formulation of the cumulative and instantaneous climate metrics. Two diverging examples of current MSW management systems are selected as references against which to assess the potential climate benefit of biofuel production: with or without dominant landfill disposal and with high or low GHG emissions from the power generation sector. The results show that in countries with current negligible landfilling, the production of biofuels would lead to a clear climate benefit. For landfill-dominant countries, the climate benefit would only be temporarily achieved in the medium term as the impact of landfills on climate decreases in the long term. However, considering a progressive banning of landfilling promoted by other policies for environmental protection and resource efficiency, the results would become positive for both countries with climate change mitigation guaranteed by using MSW refuse for biofuel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The progress made in the penetration of renewable energy (RE) sources in most parts of the world is not fast enough for achieving the international climate mitigation targets. Furthermore, there is a lack of energy planning strategies, methods and tools for assessing the implementation of RE technologies which considers the social support. In this work, we present a replicable multi-criteria spatial approach based on geographical information system to estimate the potential of solar photovoltaic (PV), wind and biomass energy technologies that could be implemented in the short-term in a given territory. This potential includes environmental, technical (with economic attributes) and geographical (with social-acceptability attributes) constraints, together with existing local power plants considerations for calculating the electricity generation by technology, and then estimating its jobs creation and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. The approach was applied to the province of Jaén (Southern Spain), which has a pronounced unbalance between its inner electricity production and consumption and apparently is a territory with great technical potential for the aforementioned technologies. Results show that this province has a short-term implementable potential that would annually produce 8.9 TWh from solar PV, 911 GWh from wind energy and 683 GWh from biomass plants; which is 3.8 times greater than the current electricity consumption and would require 1.5% of the total surface of Jaén. This potential can create about 92,800 direct jobs and avoid the emissions of 3.78–8.61 MtCO 2 to the atmosphere. The proposed approach can be useful for energy planning processes and for allowing decision-making to accelerate the implementation of RE power plants in order to achieve the climate mitigation goals. • A multi-criteria GIS-based approach with local consideration is proposed. • A renewable energy potential with economic and socio-acceptability attributes was estimated. • 6.6 GW of photovoltaic (PV), 0.6 GW of wind and 88 MW of biomass energy can be installed in the near-term in Jaén. • PV and wind energy installed capacity would occupy 1.5% of the total surface of Jaén. • About 92,800 direct jobs can be created and 3.78–8.61 MtCO 2 emissions avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shipping sector is seeking options to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and achieve ambitious climate change mitigation goals. Unlike short-sea shipping that can rely on electrification of coastal vessels, drop-in biofuels are among the most promising options for deep-sea shipping decarbonization. However, environmental sustainability analyses of marine biofuels are limited, and usually do not include the influence of future changes in the background energy system nor the climatic effects of near-term climate forcers (NTCFs). In our study, we assess the climate change mitigation potential of various marine biofuels produced from forest residues in Norway (a country with ambitious plans for emission reduction from shipping) using a prospective life-cycle assessment (LCA) where the projected trends in the energy and transport sectors are integrated with improvements in the biofuel value chain for the next decades (2030–2050). Relative to fossil-based alternatives, climate mitigation potentials of biofuels range from 65% to 85% with short-term (GWP20) and to 78%–87% with long-term (GTP100) climate impacts. The inclusion of NTCFs reduces the mitigation benefits of biofuels in the short term, while it slightly increases them in the long term. The explicit modeling of technology and socio-economic changes under future policy scenarios indicates a reduction in the climate impacts of biofuels by up to 54% in 2050 when compared to the current situation. The amount of residues potentially available in Norway is sufficient to meet the present demand for liquid fuels in deep-sea shipping, thus providing yearly climate mitigation of 0.9–1.1 million tons of CO 2-eq (equal to 6–7% of today's climate impacts from the entire transport sector in the country). Our analysis shows the large climate change mitigation potential of drop-in biofuels, and it provides new quantitative estimates that can help guiding a sustainability shift in the deep-sea shipping sector. [Display omitted] • Climate mitigation from biofuels can range from 65% to 87% relative to fossil fuels. • Future inventory databases can cut up to 54% of marine biofuel's climate impacts. • NO x and SO x lower the climate impacts of biofuels in the short and medium terms. • Marine biofuels can mitigate 6–7% of the Norwegian transport sector's emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimates of biofuel carbon intensity are uncertain and depend on modeled land use change (LUC) emissions. While analysts have focused on economic and agronomic assumptions affecting the quantity of land converted, researchers have paid less attention to how models classify land into broad categories and designate some categories as ineligible for LUC. To explore the effect of these land representation attributes, we use three versions of a global human and Earth systems model, GCAM, and compute the "carbon intensity of land-use change" (CI-LUC) from increased U.S. corn ethanol production. We consider uncertainty in model parameters along with the choice of land representation and find the latter is one of the most influential parameters on estimated CI-LUC. A version of the model that protects 90% of non-commercial land reduced estimated CI-LUC by an average of 32% across Monte Carlo trials compared to our baseline model. Another version that mimics the GTAP-BIO-ADV land representation, which protects all non-commercial land, reduced CI-LUC by an average of 19%. The results of this experiment demonstrate that land representation in biofuel LUC models is an important determinant of CI-LUC. [Display omitted] • Models of biofuel-induced land use change differ in how they categorize land. • Biofuel effects modeled with alternate land representations in a single model, GCAM. • Land representation affects estimates of climate change mitigation by biofuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biofuels are predicted to constitute a large proportion of fuel consumption in the global transport sector under stringent climate mitigation polices in future. In Brazil, sugarcane ethanol has been widely deployed at large scale and an oriented expansion of sugarcane is considered to be a key measure to ensure the expected positive outcomes from biofuels. In this study, more recent and accurate georeferenced information were combined with an enhanced land use classification system to update the original Sugarcane Agroecological Zoning (SAEZ). We also excluded environmentally relevant areas (ERA) in our updated SAEZ to create a new set of reference maps for supporting future prioritization of areas for sugarcane ethanol expansion. We mapped 41.7 Mha as suitable land for sugarcane expansion in center-south region of Brazil, differently from the 50 Mha indicated in the original SAEZ. After excluding the ERA, 33.7 Mha was found to be suitable for sugarcane expansion, of which 20 Mha is currently occupied with pasture lands. About half of these areas were located in Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais states and an exploratory assessment of two microregions from these states demonstrated the importance of conducting regional assessments to prioritize the areas for a more sustainable sugarcane expansion to meet future bioenergy demands. • Our analysis identified an area 17% smaller than original agro-ecological zoning suitable for sugarcane expansion. • By excluding environmentally relevant areas, the total suitable area for sugarcane expansion is reduced to 33.7 Mha. • About two thirds of that area is currently occupied with pasture lands. • About half of suitable areas occupied with pasture lands are in two Brazilian states. • Local conditions are fundamental for oriented expansion of bioenergy production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urgent need for climate change mitigation and the potential threat of energy crisis have allowed the popularity of biomass for biofuels to increase. However, the approaches to assess the climate change impacts of biomass utilization are still questionable. To allow a more accurate assessment, we developed a new framework by integrating six impact components including (1) fossil fuel-derived greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, (2) biogenic CO 2 emissions-loss, (3) biogenic CO 2 emissions-combustion, (4) emissions from land-use practice change, (5) regrowth for compensation, and (6) difference in carbon sequestration. To illustrate the performance of the framework, seven case studies, which covered the first-, second-, and third-generation biofuels, were conducted. The majority of the positive impacts were contributed to by the fossil fuel-derived emissions, biogenic CO 2 emissions, and regrowth for compensation. For the first-generation biofuels, the life cycle GHG emissions were much higher than those of energy-equivalent fossil fuels (144 and 218 kg CO 2 /GJ for Soybean-to-Biodiesel and Corn-to-Ethanol). The second- and third-generation biofuels had less accountable positive GHG emissions (−62 to 53 kg CO 2 /GJ) due to the offset of negative impacts from land-use practice change and difference in carbon sequestration. However, the negative effects are not determinist. High uncertainty from model-simulated carbon sequestration and decomposition is perceivable. High life cycle GHG emissions for the second- and third-generation biofuels are possible. Image 1 • A new framework was developed to estimate the GHG emissions from biomass utilization. • Different biomass feedstock and conversion technologies were studied as illustrations. • The GHG emissions from the first-generation biofuels can be higher than fossil fuels. • The second- and third-generation biofuels could have negative climate change impact. • High uncertainty is perceivable from model simulation for regrowth and decomposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a period of transition towards decarbonised energy networks, maintaining a reliable and secure energy supply whilst increasing efficiency and reducing cost will be key aims for all energy supply chain (ESC) networks. Renewable energy sources, such as biomass, will play an important role in future ESCs as climate change mitigation becomes an increasingly important priority. This paper seeks to address these requirements by presenting an optimisation model for the design and planning of biomass integration into the ESC networks. A supply chain model was derived and the governing equations were solved using the General Algebraic Modelling System software (GAMS) to achieve an optimal solution. The results of the study indicate that a reduction in the emissions cost of up to 4.32% is achievable on integration of 5–8% of biomass into the ESC network. However, a 4.57% increase in the total cost of the ESC network was recorded at the biomass fraction in the mixed fuel of 7.9%, with the fixed assets cost having the largest impact on the total cost of the ESC network. It has been shown that the cost increment in the assets and operational costs of a biomass and coal co-fired combined heat and power plant can be offset by the cost reductions obtained from reduced carbon dioxide emissions. Economic arguments for dual-fuel plants, therefore, require the introduction of effective carbon pricing legislation. It is concluded that such policy implementations can be effective at mitigating the effects of climate change and would assist in achieving a global carbon neutral economy. • Renewable energy sources are key to decarbonization of energy supply chain (ESC). • Optimisation model for ESC design and planning with biomass integration is derived. • State-task network approach was employed in GAMS to represent the ESC network. • ESC network with a 7.9% of biomass showed a 4.32% reduction in the emission cost. • Integration of biomass resulted in a 4.57% rise in the total ESC network cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]