A poster showing the area needed to generate 10% biodiesel by 2020, with uses for waste glycerol and straw. With how this equates to using biodiesel from other sources, such as palm oil.

1. The Impact of Producing 10% Biodiesel in the UK for 2020 The UK has signed up to the EU Biofuels Directive 2003/30/EC1. This stipulates that 10% of all transportation fuels must be derived from renewable sources. For this presentation the use of biodiesel derived from rapeseed was chosen as a replacement for diesel. 2020 Fuel Consumption It is important to predict the amount of diesel that will be used in 2020. A graph was constructed using data from Energy consumption in the UK transport data tables 2010 update2. Assuming a business as usual scenario, it can be seen that the use of diesel will rise to 25 million tonnes of diesel a year. Therefore 10% of this would be 2.5 million tonnes of biodiesel produced each year. Cultivated Area The area of land that will have to be dedicated to biodiesel is calculated below: Rapeseed ha yr-1 = biodiesel t / yield biodiesel 3tha-1 yr-1 = 2.5 x 106 / 1.19 t ha yr-1 = 2.1 x 106 ha yr-1 = 21,000 km2 yr-1 This is approximately 40% of all 5 million ha of agricultural land in the UK4. On a five year rotation this equates to 200% of the agricultural land in the UK. Waste Products For every 1000 kg of biodiesel, 100 kg of glycerol is produced5. This means that 250,000 tonnes of glycerol would be produced.. Glycerol has a calorific value of 19 MJ kg-1 this equates to 1,319 GWh yr-1or 1.5% total electricity consumption in the UK. Every hectare of oil seed rape produces 1.5 t6. This could be used to produce 275 L t-1 of bioethanol, that can be used in biodiesel production or as an additive in petrol vehicles. Using 40% of the agricultural land, to produce bioethanol from rape seed straw would fuel 4% of UK petrol vehicles. Importing Biodiesel Palm oil ha yr-1 = biodiesel T / yield biodiesel T ha-1 yr-1 = 2.5 x 106 / 3.07 T ha-1 yr-1 = 0.8 x 106 ha yr-1 = 8,143 km2 yr-1 This is 1% of agricultural land in Brazil. This is because of the increased yield from palms and also palm trees produce fruit for 30 years7. All UK Farm Land 40% UK Farm Land 200% UK Farm Land = 5 Year Rotation Reference List 1. Directive 2003/30/EC of the European Paliament and of the Council of 8 May 2003 on the promotion of the use of biofuels or other renewable fuels for transport. Official Journal of the European Parliament L 123/42; May 2003. 2. DECC, 2010. [online] Energy consumption in the UK transport data tables 2010 update. Available at: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/publications/ecuk/ecuk.aspx [accessed 4 April 2011]. 3. Thamsiriroj, T. Murphy, J., 2009. Is it better to import palm oil from Thailand to produce biodiesel in Ireland than to produce biodiesel from indigenous Irish rape seed? Applied energy. Vol. 86, pp. 595-604. 4. DEFRA, 2010. [online] Growing and crops. Available at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/food-farm/crops/ [accessed 8 April 2011]. 5. Pachauri, N. He, B., 2006. Value-added utilization of crude glycerol from biodiesel production: A survey of current research activities. 2006 ASABE annual international meeting, Portland, Oregon. 6. Mathew, A. Chaney, K. Crook, M. Humphries, A., 2011. Dilute acid pre-treatment of oilseed rape straw for bioethanol production. Renewable energy. vol. 36, pp. 2424-2432. 7. Petersen, C. Hustrulid, T., 1998. Carbon cycle for rapeseed oil biodiesel fuels. Biomass and bioenergy. Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 91-101. Daniel Wilson