The way forward – EECA Biofuels and Electric Vehicles Conference 2008
New Zealand is well placed to see a significant part of its future transport energy coming from renewable sources – both sustainable biofuels and electricity.
That is the conclusion from the annual EECA Biofuels and Electric Vehicles Conference, New Zealand’s principal industry symposium on the topic, held in Wellington in April.
The conference is an opportunity for the industry to come together to discuss the current and future state of biofuels for New Zealand. This year the programme was extended to include electricity as a transport fuel in electric vehicles. With assistance from principal sponsor Meridian Energy, the conference hosted an impressive line-up of distinguished international and New Zealand keynote speakers.
Over 200 delegates attended the conference which provided a lively forum to discuss the issues and opportunities of using biofuels and electric vehicles in a New Zealand context. The conference highlighted what the future may hold, with some exciting developments on the horizon.
The conference was also generously supported by the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Transport and Biofuels Testing New Zealand.
Biofuels today
Sustainable biofuels are already here in New Zealand. Gull Petroleum has been selling a 10 per cent bioethanol blend, Force 10, for almost 12 months. Force 10 contains bioethanol sourced from whey, a natural by-product of the dairy industry.
Dave Bodger, General Manager, Gull New Zealand was at the conference to share his company’s first-hand experiences in the New Zealand market.
Since August 2007, Gull has filled over 100,000 vehicles with their biofuel petrol blend. This level of uptake at the pump strongly indicates that if sustainable, readily available biofuels are in the market, the public will respond, he said.
“And if Gull’s sales counted towards the biofuels obligation – a proposed government requirement for oil companies to make biofuels a set percentage of their sales – we would have met the first year target already.”
Jan Brentebraten, Director Flexifuel/ Alternative Fuel Vehicles Strategy for Ford Europe, gave an overview on the European Union’s status on biofuels and highlighted some of the initiatives taking place in Sweden, where they have a political vision for independence from oil by 2020.
Eighty-five per cent of the government fleet must now be ‘clean’ or environmentally enhanced vehicles, such as flex fuel vehicles which can run on 85 per cent bioethanol or ordinary petrol. In addition, Stockholm is now demanding ‘clean’ vehicles for all forms of transport including taxis and goods distribution vehicles, with 400 city buses already running on ethanol and rubbish collection trucks on biogas.
Huge potential for second generation biofuels
Internationally and in New Zealand a lot of work is underway on the development of second generation biofuels (biofuels produced from wood, straw, wastes etc).
While first generation biofuels (produced from crops, agriculture) have an important role in renewable transport fuel development, it is the second generation biofuels that are being viewed as the way forward in the long term, with some ground breaking work already well underway from unexpected resources.
Bill Orts, a California-based Department of Agriculture research leader, addressed the conference on the concept that a high proportion of cellulose from discarded paper packaging makes municipal rubbish a lucrative would-be fuel source.
His team has already been successfully making bioethanol from rubbish as part of a pilot project in California. Dr Orts noted that the annual US rubbish stream of about 500 million tonnes could theoretically yield up to 13 per cent of his country’s transport fuel – a far higher percentage than could ever come from US corn.
Peter Hall, Scion Research (a New Zealand Crown Research Institute) presented the findings of a study undertaken by Scion as part of their EnergyScape programme, on utilising New Zealand’s forest resources for biofuels production.
The study showed that if New Zealand harvested around 125,000 hectares per year of forests grown on marginal grazing land, the resulting biomass could be used to meet all of New Zealand’s projected needs for transport fuels and heat.
A number of New Zealand companies are already working on second generation biofuels including utilising sources such as sewage algae, and methods to convert cellulose from trees to ethanol. Carter Holt Harvey is a co-investor in research that has resulted in Scion successfully making ethanol from pinus radiata.
Electric vehicles
This year, electric vehicles were included in the conference for the first time and keynote speakers showcased the potential for electric vehicles in New Zealand.
The New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Stategy (NZEECS) sets the objective for transport to ‘reduce our overall energy use and greenhouse gas emissions’ – something which both sustainable biofuels and electric vehicles running on New Zealand’s high proportion of renewable generation can contribute to.
Ex-pat Kiwi, Edward Kjaer, leads Southern California Edison’s extensive electric vehicle programme. His presentation focused on electric vehicle potential, noting that if 60 per cent of the cars on the road by 2050 were Plug-in Hybrid EVs, the US could save 450 million tonnes of greenhouse gases or the equivalent of taking 82 million cars off the road.
“There is a great opportunity here in New Zealand when it comes to transportation connected to the grid – and that is your utter dominance of renewables,” Mr Kjaer said.
Bruce Smith from the Electricity Commission (New Zealand) noted that although New Zealand has less spare generating capacity than the US, even if electric vehicles gained a 60 per cent market share by 2040, they would use only 15 per cent of current power demand and that this could be met using existing unused off-peak generation capacity.
K-J Kells, leader of Meridian Energy’s Electric Vehicles Programme, reported on her team’s work actively positioning New Zealand globally as an early receipt market for electric vehicles, working with a wide range of manufacturers across Europe, America and Asia for the last four years.
She highlighted factors influencing the global supply and demand for electric vehicles, and Meridian Energy’s demonstration project which has provided New Zealanders with their first glimpse of electric vehicle technologies in 2008.
