Platform for the Future

At a conference held by the Forum for Future Energy in Berlin, the carmaker Volkswagen, the oil corporation Shell and plant manufacturer Lurgi presented their ideas for the manufacturing and promotion of second-generation biofuels. While parliamentary committees from Germany’s Bundestag discussed the issue of how to tax biofuels and negotiated agreement on mandatory fuel blending to be introduced in 2007, the three industry representatives had opportunity to emphasise the benefits of these fuels and their good future prospects as they discussed the expectations of industry with Ulrich Kasparick, undersecretary in the federal ministry of transportation, Rolf Hempelmann, spokesman on energy affairs for the SPD parliamentary group, and Dr Maria Flachsbarth, the member of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group responsible for the issue of renewable energy on the Environmental Committee. The mission of the Forum for Future Energy, a politically independent cross-sector institute, is to facilitate the use of energy supplies which place as little burden as possible on natural resources and the environment. As part of that mission, the Forum provides this platform for information and communication on the possible architecture of a sustainable energy industry.

In his speech on second-generation biofuels, Prof Jürgen Leohold, head of Group research at Volkswagen, outlined the potential of these fuels for CO2 reduction. Leohold provided a clear picture of the framework conditions required for long-term planning and utilisation of the given opportunities. Compared with first-generation biofuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol, synthetic fuels – so-called biomass-to-liquid (BtL) fuels – can replace a much higher proportion of fossil fuels. They incur no costs for a distribution infrastructure, since it is possible to blend them with conventional fuels in any desired concentration. Leohold emphasised that, unlike the process used to make first-generation biodiesel and bioethanol, the production of second-generation biofuels such as SunFuel makes use of all parts of the crop plants, allowing much higher hectare yields coupled with a higher degree of CO2 efficiency. Germany’s federal government is planning to exempt BtL fuels from taxation until 2015. Volkswagen’s proposal for the long-term, technologically neutral promotion of biofuels in Europe is to introduce a market-economy-based fuel-taxation model which focuses on CO2 efficiency and sustainability criteria versus a simpler quota system.

Volkswagen believes reliable framework conditions are imperative in order not to lose the existing technological leadership in biofuel production and to ensure that the innovative abilities of local developers are utilised. Only under such conditions can an investment in innovative manufacturing techniques for second-generation biofuels be considered to be economically viable.