The transport sector is one of the main contributors of GHG emissions globally and in the EU. There is an urgent need to speed up decarbonising the transport sector in Europe in order to comply with the internationally agreed emission reduction targets. Advanced biofuels and other liquid renewable fuels are among the key options for short to medium-term decarbonisation of the transport sector. However, their further development raises significant challenges in terms of sufficient biomass supply for advanced biofuels, innovative biomass conversion processes, sustainability aspects, energy policy, and the shaping of industry and markets.
The ADVANCEFUEL project aimed to provide clear and scientifically robust support for sustainable transport fuels. It empowers decision makers to take complex, high-risk decisions affecting the full extent of their value chains and the involved market segments. The overarching goal of the project was to facilitate the market roll-out of advanced liquid biofuels and other liquid renewable fuels (further jointly addressed as “RESfuels”) in the transportation sector between 2020 and 2030, with an outlook on post-2030 impacts. This was achieved by providing new knowledge in regard to the current status of the sector, including good-practice examples, a user-friendly set of tools with integrated calculators, sustainability standards, and recommendations to remove the most prominent barriers against RESfuels commercialisation.
ADVANCEFUEL assessed the development of innovative cropping schemes and biomass supply scenarios, the efficiency of conversion technologies and how to integrate them into existing energy infrastructures. Additionally, socio-economic and environmental sustainability was investigated across the entire value chain. This resulted in providing recommendations for international standards and additional sustainability criteria. The main project outputs were compiled in a user-friendly way in form of a “Decision Support Tool”, which is published on the project website (
http://www.advancefuel.eu/(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)). The tool focuses on providing results for feedstock production, for the conversion elements of the RESfuels value chain as well as their further development.
The development of the transport sector until 2050 was investigated in a scenario analysis and model calculations, which revealed the most promising pathways for increasing the share of RESfuels.
In the course of the project, frequent stakeholder interactions and consultations were ensured to evaluate its results and for providing new perspectives that helped developing innovative approaches for the further commercialisation of RESfuels.
