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Biofuels on the Rise
by Kris Truyens, European Sales Manager for Alternative Fuels Services SGS
Our experience in the biofuels sector helps customers navigate the myriad challenges they face as they seek to move energy from field to fuel. We provide assistance to customers with seed selection, precision farming and crop grading, feed stock management, plant project verification, laboratory processes for blending, trade inspection, batch marking, quality management certifications such as ISO 9000, and even carbon emissions reductions verification.
Feed Stocks and Blending
As the biofuels industry continues to grow, the food versus fuel relationship must be taken into account. This is why the development of second-generation biofuels is important. Equally important is identifying non-food crops, such as jatropha, which can be used to create biofuels without impacting demand for food crops.
While the production process technologies for biofuels are very well understood, the collective knowledge of blending biofuel components with standard or even modified mineral oil based fuels is rather limited. If one also acknowledges that, even with the best controls in the world, any product that originates from an agricultural source will vary in quality across time to some degree, then the challenges start to emerge. Much work is being done by commercial, governmental and academic bodies on the issues of blending, but it remains the single most difficult challenge to deal with.
As production and refining capacity and supply chains become more established, manufacturers will undoubtedly research and market helpful additives to assist with blending to address cold flow properties and use in areas of high humidity and other issues. At the moment, however, this industry is very much in its infancy. In the meantime, each blender will have to formulate product with great care and precision.
Regulatory Environment
As with all industrial and consumer products there is a need for both enabling legislation and some regulation of the product, simply to allow access to a stable, reliable product with predictable quality performance, adequate health and safety data and an idea of its environmental impact.
If trade between countries in biofuels is to be simplified, an international standard would be a great help. One possible solution to the internationalisation of a specification would be to adopt a modified version of the existing European Committee for Standardization (CEN) standards, with changes allowed for climate and local feed stocks. This standard could then be put forward as an International Organization for Standardization discussion document. This would at least provide a simple, well understood path for all countries and institutions to follow in the refining and production of biofuels. SGS is working with the European standards bodies, specifically the Netherlands Standardization Institute (NEN), on the next revision of the standards linked to biodiesel.
The Political Landscape
At the moment crude remains expensive, at least compared with both public expectations and the five and ten year moving averages. The costs of raw materials, processing, capital expenditures, operating expenses and taxation are likely to keep the cost at the pump high enough to encourage a number of supplementary technologies, including biofuels production, for some time yet.
The key words moving forward will be sustainability, continuity and quality. The great fear of many is that fuel security may be being purchased at the expense of food security and that the true net gain of some biofuels may be minimal or even negative. SGS is engaged in a number of areas along various supply chains helping companies and trade bodies assess the sustainability of given products, particularly feed stocks. Continuity of supply, operation and even taxation rules are vital if the infant industry is to blossom into maturity, and is proving to be the largest set of operational challenges faced to date.
SGS provides assistance to customers with seed selection, precision farming and crop grading, feed stock management, plant project verification, laboratory processes for blending, trade inspection, batch marking, quality management certifications such as ISO 9000, and even carbon emissions reductions verification.
Request more information via email.
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