Sustainability of solid biofuels
The SolidStandards project supports the development of systems ensuring the sustainability of solid biofuels.
This is done by
1. Organising a workshop on voluntary versus mandatory sustainability criteria for solid biofuels,
2. Analysing existing sustainability certification schemes,
- Reading guide
- Factsheets of sustainability certification initiatives for solid biomass and solid biofuels
- Comparative analysis of sustainability certification initiatives for solid biomass and solid biofuels
- Contextual review of sustainability criteria recommended by the EC for solid biomass
- PowerPoint presentation slides for training purposes
3. Investigating the practical application of certification systems in different supply chains.
The establishment of sustainable solid biofuel supply chains is necessary to ensure the full utilisation of potential environmental benefits offered by solid biofuel applications and to promote the public acceptance of solid biofuel technologies. Especially against the background of growing international solid biofuel trade volumes, the sustainability of solid biofuels sourced outside the EU has to be ensured.
At the moment, the sustainability of solid biofuels is addressed in a number of national and/or voluntary certification systems. Examples are the combination of a green certificate system with sustainability criteria in Belgium, the NTA 8080 certification scheme for sustainably produced solid, liquid and gaseous biofuels developed by a Dutch multi-stakeholders setting, or the development of sustainability certification systems by individual utilities such as Essent in the Netherlands (GreenGold Label). Another initiative to be mentioned here is the development of sustainability standards for biomass by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). A Technical Committee (CEN/TC 383) has developed standards for sustainable biomass with a focus on liquid biofuels. On international level ISO is developing a standard with sustainability criteria for bioenergy, including solid biofuels.
The EU Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) introduced binding sustainability criteria for liquid biofuels. The following discussions on the introduction of similar criteria for solid biofuels resulted in a European Commission report on sustainability requirements for the use of solid biomass sources in electricity, heating and cooling (COM/2010/11). This report states that “the Commission does not at this stage propose binding criteria at EU level”. Only recommendations are provided to Member States how to set up voluntary sustainability criteria. However, the Commission will again report by the end of 2011, following a public consultation on whether common sustainability criteria at EU level would be appropriate.
An overview on solid biofuel sustainability can be found in the SolidStandards sustainability guidebook.
All the resulting publications on sustainability in the frame of the SolidStandards project can be found here
If you have specific questions regarding the sustainability of solid biofuels, please contact:
Martin Junginger
Utrecht University
Tel. +31 30 2537 613
h.m.junginger(at)uu.nl