"Bioethanol from wood & straw", assessment of energy carriers and technologies for bioethanol from wood and straw ¿ Possible role and perspectives for an Austrian Demonstration project

01.03.2009 - 28.02.2011
Forschungsförderungsprojekt
Use of sustainably produced biofuels can make a significant contribution to transportation reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. Due to the 2003 EU Directive (¿Biofuel-Directive¿) which requires use of biofuels, efforts to develop and deploy such fuels have intensified. In March 2009, the EU established renewable energy guidelines which set a 2020 goal of 10 percent for biofuels. In addition to biodiesel from oil and fats and bioethanol from sugars and starches, these goals can be achieved through ligno-cellulosic resources. Ligno-cellulosic materials can be used to produce both bioethanol and synthetic biofuels. The technology to produce bioethanol from lingo-cellulosic resources, particularly from wood and straw, is currently under development. Due to the large, mid-term potential of lignocellulosic bioethanol, and its lack of competition with food and feed, International R&D-activities are focused on bringing these technologies to commercial status. The goal of the project is to develop Austrian perspectives for the production of bioethanol from wood and straw. Together with stakeholders and the partners of the ¿Bioenergy NoE¿, technological options to produce bioethanol from wood and straw will be evaluated against economic, environmental and energy criteria. Energy, mass balances and environmental impacts will be evaluated using life cycle analysis (LCA). Integrated concepts (e.g. biorefineries) will be drawn up and analysed. To optimize the system, the synergies of an Austrian demonstration plant with the energy sector and existing infrastructure (e.g., the current wood- and paper-and-pulp production chain and conventional bioethanol installations) will be taken into consideration. Stakeholders from agriculture and forestry, technology provider, conventional bioethanol and power plant operator, and the transport sector groups with participate in a ¿Project advisory board¿ and two workshops. To assess cellulosic bioethanol¿s potential significance, its technological characteristics, investment and production costs as well as possible future barriers and challenges for commercialisation will be compared to production of synthetic biofuels via gasification.

Personen

Projektleiter_in

Projektmitarbeiter_innen

Institut

Grant funds

  • FFG - Österr. Forschungsförderungs- gesellschaft mbH (National) Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)

Forschungsschwerpunkte

  • Efficient Utilisation of Material Resources: 20%
  • Modeling and Simulation: 80%

Schlagwörter

DeutschEnglisch
LignozelluloseLignocellulose
Bioethanolbioethanol

Publikationen