Biogreen Biofuel Project
Name of Applicant: Biogreen Energy Products Ltd.
Grant Award: €249,812
Category: Shared Cost R&D
Completion Date: February 2005
Introduction
The EU Directive on Biofuels states that member nations should aim to produce 2% of all transportation fuels from bio-fuels or other renewable fuels by 2005. This figure should then be increased to 5.75% by 2010. Biofuels offer the potential to reduce emissions of CO2 from the transport sector in the short term without requiring major modifications to existing engine technology.
Liquid biofuels for transport can be divided into two types – those suitable for fuelling petrol engines and those for fuelling diesel engines.
In Ireland, liquid biofuels suitable for fuelling petrol engines may be made from the following list of feedstocks with current technology: sugar beet and wheat. Ethanol can be produced and can be blended up to 5% and used in standard engines. Blends of up to 85% ethanol can be used in Flexible Fuel Vehicles.
The fuels produced are alcohols, the first two feedstocks producing ethanol and methanol is produced from wood which is very toxic. These bio-fuels are hydroscopic (attract water) so present problems in use in the pure form in Irelands relatively wet and cold climate. They would best be blended with petrol in relatively small percentages as a fuel extender.
Liquid bio-fuels suitable for fuelling diesel engines may be made from the following list of feedstocks: oilseed rape, sunflower oil, soya oil, recovered vegetable oil and tallow (produced from the meat rendering process). There are two ways to use bio-fuels in diesel engines in Ireland a) produce bio-diesel from the raw materials to the required EU Standard and use it in diesel engines with up to a 5% blend or b) press pure plant oil (from rape seed) under very specific conditions to produce a fuel which can be combusted in modified diesel engines in a 100% pure form.
Bio-diesel in Europe is mainly produced from 100% fresh rapeseed oil or sunflower oil, it is possible to add some used vegetable oil and tallow to the process, however, using increasing percentages of these cheaper feedstock’s makes it difficult to attain the relevant EU standard for bio-diesel. Additionally, the main by-product of the bio-diesel process, is glycerine which represents 15% of throughput.
Pure plant oil can be used in a 100% pure form. When using pure plant oil, the vehicle’s engine will need to be modified. In this case however, the production process is cheaper and more energy efficient than bio-diesel production, but the need to modify the engine adds cost to the vehicle owner.
Pressed oilseed rape produces vegetable oil and a residual cake in the approximate ratio of one tonne of oil to two tonnes of cake. The cake can be sold as an animal feed supplement replacing imported soya and the oil may be filtered and used in vehicles which are modified appropriately. It is estimated that every tonne of oil used will result in a reduction in emissions of 2.2 tonnes of CO2.
Current Status
Biogreen intend to harvest 1,800 tonnes of rapeseed in 2004 to produce 600 tonnes of vegetable oil and 1,200 tonnes of animal feed supplement in 2004/05. The rapeseed will be supplied by Glanbia and local farmers under contract for energy crop production. For the 2005/06 season, Biogreen plan to process 6,000 tonnes of rapeseed.
The project will demonstrate the feasibility of producing and selling vegetable oil locally as a transport fuel. For this project Biogreen will modify 100 vehicles by fitting engine conversion kits to each vehicle. The main supplier of kits is expected to be Elsbett from Germany.
Teagasc will perform crop and oil quality monitoring tasks within the project. The University of Limerick will conduct power and tail-pipe emissions measurements for test vehicles to determine the environmental impact of using the rape-seed oil as engine fuel. The emissions to be measured include smoke opacity, CO, CO2, O2, NO, NO2 and SO2.
The Wexford Energy Management Agency will also participate in the project assisting with the promotion of the project and the search for additional participants.
To date, Biogreen have constructed their processing and storage facilities. 10 vehicles have been modified for operation. The Department of Finance has announced the inclusion of a pilot scheme for excise duty remission in the 2004 Finance Act. Biogreen are currently awaiting notification of excise duty remission before proceeding to modify the remaining vehicles.
For further information contact:
Anthony Browne
Cornerstown
Bridgetown
Co. Wexford
Tel: 053 35950
E-mail: biogreen@eircom.net
Website: www.rapoleum.com
