IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v137y2021ics1364032120306869.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A review on biofuels for light-duty vehicles in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Puricelli, S.
  • Cardellini, G.
  • Casadei, S.
  • Faedo, D.
  • van den Oever, A.E.M.
  • Grosso, M.

Abstract

The European transport sector was responsible for more than 25% of the EU total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2017. 53% of these emissions came from the passenger cars and light-commercial vehicles segments. Biofuels are seen as one of the options to limit these emissions in Europe. To understand the recent evolution of biofuels and their future, this review gives an overview on the production, use, legislation, and environmental impacts of biofuels in Europe for light-duty vehicles. In 2017, biofuels made up 4.5% of the energy consumption in the road transport and non-road mobile machinery. Biodiesel in 2018 accounted for 62% of the biofuels consumed in the EU, followed by bioethanol (17.5%), HVO (16.6%), upgraded biogas (1.7%) and bio-ETBE (1.1%). A review of 86 LCA studies published between 2013 and 2020 indicated that the climate change impact of biofuels is generally lower than diesel and petrol, with average emission savings depending on the type of biofuel: 70% for biohydrogen, 63% for upgraded biogas, 41% for pure biodiesel, between 54% and 7% for bioethanol (depending on the blend percentage, between 100% and 10%). An important issue identified is the limited consideration of the land use change effects, which are rarely assessed and are of paramount importance, as the values found in this review were as high as 231 g CO2eq/MJ in some cases and thus non-negligible. Biofuels perform generally similarly or worse than fossil fuels for most of the non-GHG-related impact categories, except for ozone, fossil resource and abiotic depletion. Currently, it is highly recommended to move towards non-edible feedstocks, waste and by-products which guarantee a lower risk of land use change. The European legislation, through the Directive 2018/2001 and the regulation 2019/807, is pushing in that direction.

Suggested Citation

  • Puricelli, S. & Cardellini, G. & Casadei, S. & Faedo, D. & van den Oever, A.E.M. & Grosso, M., 2021. "A review on biofuels for light-duty vehicles in Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:137:y:2021:i:c:s1364032120306869
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2020.110398
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032120306869
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2020.110398?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ji, Xi & Long, Xianling, 2016. "A review of the ecological and socioeconomic effects of biofuel and energy policy recommendations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 41-52.
    2. M, Vinod Babu & K, Madhu Murthy & G, Amba Prasad Rao, 2017. "Butanol and pentanol: The promising biofuels for CI engines – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1068-1088.
    3. Antonio Molino & Vincenzo Larocca & Simeone Chianese & Dino Musmarra, 2018. "Biofuels Production by Biomass Gasification: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-31, March.
    4. González-García, Sara & Gasol, Carles M. & Gabarrell, Xavier & Rieradevall, Joan & Moreira, Ma Teresa & Feijoo, Gumersindo, 2010. "Environmental profile of ethanol from poplar biomass as transport fuel in Southern Europe," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 1014-1023.
    5. Thamsiriroj, T. & Murphy, J.D., 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, Elsevier, vol. 86(5), pages 595-604, May.
    6. Nanaki, E.A. & Koroneos, C.J. & Xydis, G.A. & Rovas, D., 2014. "Comparative environmental assessment of Athens urban buses—Diesel, CNG and biofuel powered," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 311-318.
    7. Koponen, Kati & Hannula, Ilkka, 2017. "GHG emission balances and prospects of hydrogen enhanced synthetic biofuels from solid biomass in the European context," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 106-118.
    8. Sadeghinezhad, E. & Kazi, S.N. & Sadeghinejad, Foad & Badarudin, A. & Mehrali, Mohammad & Sadri, Rad & Reza Safaei, Mohammad, 2014. "A comprehensive literature review of bio-fuel performance in internal combustion engine and relevant costs involvement," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 29-44.
    9. Awudu, Iddrisu & Zhang, Jun, 2012. "Uncertainties and sustainability concepts in biofuel supply chain management: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 1359-1368.
    10. Maarten Messagie & Faycal-Siddikou Boureima & Thierry Coosemans & Cathy Macharis & Joeri Van Mierlo, 2014. "A Range-Based Vehicle Life Cycle Assessment Incorporating Variability in the Environmental Assessment of Different Vehicle Technologies and Fuels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-16, March.
    11. Mikael Lantz & Thomas Prade & Serina Ahlgren & Lovisa Björnsson, 2018. "Biogas and Ethanol from Wheat Grain or Straw: Is There a Trade-Off between Climate Impact, Avoidance of iLUC and Production Cost?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-31, October.
    12. Gaurav, N. & Sivasankari, S. & Kiran, GS & Ninawe, A. & Selvin, J., 2017. "Utilization of bioresources for sustainable biofuels: A Review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 205-214.
    13. Savvas L. Douvartzides & Nikolaos D. Charisiou & Kyriakos N. Papageridis & Maria A. Goula, 2019. "Green Diesel: Biomass Feedstocks, Production Technologies, Catalytic Research, Fuel Properties and Performance in Compression Ignition Internal Combustion Engines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-41, February.
    14. Hooftman, Nils & Messagie, Maarten & Van Mierlo, Joeri & Coosemans, Thierry, 2018. "A review of the European passenger car regulations – Real driving emissions vs local air quality," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-21.
    15. Malça, João & Freire, Fausto, 2011. "Life-cycle studies of biodiesel in Europe: A review addressing the variability of results and modeling issues," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 338-351, January.
    16. Forte, Annachiara & Zucaro, Amalia & Faugno, Salvatore & Basosi, Riccardo & Fierro, Angelo, 2018. "Carbon footprint and fossil energy consumption of bio-ethanol fuel production from Arundo donax L. crops on marginal lands of Southern Italy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 222-235.
    17. Singlitico, Alessandro & Goggins, Jamie & Monaghan, Rory F.D., 2018. "Evaluation of the potential and geospatial distribution of waste and residues for bio-SNG production: A case study for the Republic of Ireland," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 288-301.
    18. Swain, Pravat K. & Das, L.M. & Naik, S.N., 2011. "Biomass to liquid: A prospective challenge to research and development in 21st century," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(9), pages 4917-4933.
    19. Koçar, Günnur & Civaş, Nilgün, 2013. "An overview of biofuels from energy crops: Current status and future prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 900-916.
    20. Withers, Mitch R. & Malina, Robert & Barrett, Steven R.H., 2015. "Carbon, climate, and economic breakeven times for biofuel from woody biomass from managed forests," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 45-52.
    21. Jennifer M. Zumsteg & Joyce S. Cooper & Michael S. Noon, 2012. "Systematic Review Checklist," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 16(s1), pages 12-21, April.
    22. Rajesh Kumar, B. & Saravanan, S., 2016. "Use of higher alcohol biofuels in diesel engines: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 84-115.
    23. Carneiro, Maria Luisa N.M. & Pradelle, Florian & Braga, Sergio L. & Gomes, Marcos Sebastião P. & Martins, Ana Rosa F.A. & Turkovics, Franck & Pradelle, Renata N.C., 2017. "Potential of biofuels from algae: Comparison with fossil fuels, ethanol and biodiesel in Europe and Brazil through life cycle assessment (LCA)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 632-653.
    24. Bhawna Singh & Geoffrey Guest & Ryan M. Bright & Anders Hammer Strømman, 2014. "Life Cycle Assessment of Electric and Fuel Cell Vehicle Transport Based on Forest Biomass," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 18(2), pages 176-186, April.
    25. Menten, Fabio & Chèze, Benoît & Patouillard, Laure & Bouvart, Frédérique, 2013. "A review of LCA greenhouse gas emissions results for advanced biofuels: The use of meta-regression analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 108-134.
    26. Patel, Paresh D. & Lakdawala, Absar & Chourasia, Sajan & Patel, Rajesh N., 2016. "Bio fuels for compression ignition engine: A review on engine performance, emission and life cycle analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 24-43.
    27. Czyrnek-Delêtre, Magdalena M. & Rocca, Stefania & Agostini, Alessandro & Giuntoli, Jacopo & Murphy, Jerry D., 2017. "Life cycle assessment of seaweed biomethane, generated from seaweed sourced from integrated multi-trophic aquaculture in temperate oceanic climates," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 34-50.
    28. Hossain, A.K. & Davies, P.A., 2010. "Plant oils as fuels for compression ignition engines: A technical review and life-cycle analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 1-13.
    29. Bongartz, Dominik & Doré, Larissa & Eichler, Katharina & Grube, Thomas & Heuser, Benedikt & Hombach, Laura E. & Robinius, Martin & Pischinger, Stefan & Stolten, Detlef & Walther, Grit & Mitsos, Alexan, 2018. "Comparison of light-duty transportation fuels produced from renewable hydrogen and green carbon dioxide," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 757-767.
    30. Vo, Truc T.Q. & Rajendran, Karthik & Murphy, Jerry D., 2018. "Can power to methane systems be sustainable and can they improve the carbon intensity of renewable methane when used to upgrade biogas produced from grass and slurry?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 1046-1056.
    31. Daylan, B. & Ciliz, N., 2016. "Life cycle assessment and environmental life cycle costing analysis of lignocellulosic bioethanol as an alternative transportation fuel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 578-587.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rahman, Arief & Dargusch, Paul & Wadley, David, 2021. "The political economy of oil supply in Indonesia and the implications for renewable energy development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    2. van den Oever, A.E.M. & Costa, D. & Messagie, M., 2023. "Prospective life cycle assessment of alternatively fueled heavy-duty trucks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    3. Bonaiuto, M. & Mosca, O. & Milani, A. & Ariccio, S. & Dessi, F. & Fornara, F., 2024. "Beliefs about technological and contextual features drive biofuels’ social acceptance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PA).
    4. Krzysztof Biernat & Izabela Samson-Bręk & Zdzisław Chłopek & Marlena Owczuk & Anna Matuszewska, 2021. "Assessment of the Environmental Impact of Using Methane Fuels to Supply Internal Combustion Engines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, June.
    5. Suprava Chakraborty & Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar & Arunkumar Jayakumar & Santanu Kumar Dash & Devaraj Elangovan, 2021. "Selected Aspects of Sustainable Mobility Reveals Implementable Approaches and Conceivable Actions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-31, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carneiro, Maria Luisa N.M. & Pradelle, Florian & Braga, Sergio L. & Gomes, Marcos Sebastião P. & Martins, Ana Rosa F.A. & Turkovics, Franck & Pradelle, Renata N.C., 2017. "Potential of biofuels from algae: Comparison with fossil fuels, ethanol and biodiesel in Europe and Brazil through life cycle assessment (LCA)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 632-653.
    2. Bergthorson, Jeffrey M. & Thomson, Murray J., 2015. "A review of the combustion and emissions properties of advanced transportation biofuels and their impact on existing and future engines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1393-1417.
    3. Karol Tucki & Olga Orynycz & Remigiusz Mruk & Antoni Świć & Katarzyna Botwińska, 2019. "Modeling of Biofuel’s Emissivity for Fuel Choice Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-22, December.
    4. Tahereh Soleymani Angili & Katarzyna Grzesik & Anne Rödl & Martin Kaltschmitt, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment of Bioethanol Production: A Review of Feedstock, Technology and Methodology," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Chistyakov, A.V. & Nikolaev, S.A. & Zharova, P.A. & Tsodikov, M.V. & Manenti, F., 2019. "Linear α-alcohols production from supercritical ethanol over Cu/Al2O3 catalyst," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 569-576.
    6. Nils Thonemann & Anna Schulte & Daniel Maga, 2020. "How to Conduct Prospective Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies? A Systematic Review and Methodological Guidance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-23, February.
    7. Severo, Ihana Aguiar & Siqueira, Stefania Fortes & Deprá, Mariany Costa & Maroneze, Mariana Manzoni & Zepka, Leila Queiroz & Jacob-Lopes, Eduardo, 2019. "Biodiesel facilities: What can we address to make biorefineries commercially competitive?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 686-705.
    8. Carolin Nuortila & Riikka Help & Katriina Sirviö & Helena Suopanki & Sonja Heikkilä & Seppo Niemi, 2020. "Selected Fuel Properties of Alcohol and Rapeseed Oil Blends," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-11, July.
    9. Rajaeifar, Mohammad Ali & Tabatabaei, Meisam & Aghbashlo, Mortaza & Nizami, Abdul-Sattar & Heidrich, Oliver, 2019. "Emissions from urban bus fleets running on biodiesel blends under real-world operating conditions: Implications for designing future case studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 276-292.
    10. Liang, Zhirong & Yu, Zhenhong & Liu, Haoye & Chen, Longfei & Huang, Xinyan, 2022. "Combustion and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine burning a wide range of conventional hydrocarbon and alternative fuels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    11. Kolb, Sebastian & Plankenbühler, Thomas & Hofmann, Katharina & Bergerson, Joule & Karl, Jürgen, 2021. "Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of renewable gas technologies: A comparative review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    12. Bauer, Christian & Hofer, Johannes & Althaus, Hans-Jörg & Del Duce, Andrea & Simons, Andrew, 2015. "The environmental performance of current and future passenger vehicles: Life cycle assessment based on a novel scenario analysis framework," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 871-883.
    13. Alizadeh, Reza & Lund, Peter D. & Soltanisehat, Leili, 2020. "Outlook on biofuels in future studies: A systematic literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    14. Sheriff, S. Abdul & Kumar, Indrala Kishan & Mandhatha, Petluri Sai & Jambal, Samraj Sunder & Sellappan, Raja & Ashok, B. & Nanthagopal, K., 2020. "Emission reduction in CI engine using biofuel reformulation strategies through nano additives for atmospheric air quality improvement," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 2295-2308.
    15. Zhang, Long & Bai, Wuliyasu, 2021. "Sustainability of crop–based biodiesel for transportation in China: Barrier analysis and life cycle ecological footprint calculations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    16. Guido Busca, 2021. "Production of Gasolines and Monocyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: From Fossil Raw Materials to Green Processes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-32, July.
    17. Daniele Cocco & Paola A. Deligios & Luigi Ledda & Leonardo Sulas & Adriana Virdis & Gianluca Carboni, 2014. "LCA Study of Oleaginous Bioenergy Chains in a Mediterranean Environment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-24, September.
    18. Yusri, I.M. & Mamat, R. & Najafi, G. & Razman, A. & Awad, Omar I. & Azmi, W.H. & Ishak, W.F.W. & Shaiful, A.I.M., 2017. "Alcohol based automotive fuels from first four alcohol family in compression and spark ignition engine: A review on engine performance and exhaust emissions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 169-181.
    19. Sergio Nogales-Delgado & José María Encinar & Juan Félix González, 2019. "Safflower Biodiesel: Improvement of its Oxidative Stability by Using BHA and TBHQ," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-13, May.
    20. EL-Seesy, Ahmed I. & Kayatas, Zafer & Hawi, Meshack & Kosaka, Hidenori & He, Zhixia, 2020. "Combustion and emission characteristics of a rapid compression-expansion machine operated with N-heptanol-methyl oleate biodiesel blends," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 2064-2076.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:137:y:2021:i:c:s1364032120306869. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.