P2269@com.qz.se ("ENG-LEONG FOO ", MIRCEN-STOCKHOLM) (10/05/89)
On 2-4 Dec 1987, CNRE held a yechnical consultation on Liquid
Fuels from Biomass in France -
- to evaluate and conduct a survey on the state-of-the-art of
producing liquid fuels from biomass
- to discuss the technical-econiomic barriers of future development
of liquid bio-fuel production technologies
The consultation was attended by 33 paerticipants with 24 presentations
Topics covered were :
- technical-economic aspects of producing liquid fuels from biomass
- utilization of liquid biofuels in current and future emgines
- macro-economic aspects of producing liquid fuels in European
countries.
Several issues and problems were discussed :
- Though technically feasible with wide scale R & D activities
exist for (a) plant oil production for substitution of diesel
(b) bio-ethanol production as an additive to gasoline (c) enzymatic
and acid hydrolysis of ligno-cellulosic materials, the participants
agreed that if usual subsidies cannot be taken into account
due to the present low-level of international oil prices, then
none of the technical feasible technologies can be profitable
due to the high ratio and level of raw material costs.
- Though faced with this primary problem, the consultation recommended
to acrry on the national R & D programmes and international
cooperation in this field of rural energy development because
in the long-term prospective bio-liquid fuel production can
considerably contribute to -
a) rational use of low quality and marginal lands
b) extension of farmers' employment and income
c) improvement of environmental and ecological conditions.
Recommendations:
- Dr A.V.Bridgewater (UK) was invited to act as chairman of the
working group for 1988-1990 and to prepare a State-of-the-Art
study on Liquid fuels from Biomass.
- three topics were recommended for further research
(a) development of plant oil production technologies
(b) improvement of bio-ethanol technologies
(c) elaboration of economic evaluation methodology for
comparison of various projects
Reports now available:
CNRE Report No. 6.
Producing liquid fuels from Biomass. 1989
CNRE Reoprt No. 22.
Technical Consultation on liquid fuels from biomass. 1987.
Available from: CNRE Regional Office at FAO (see address above)