ENERGIX-Stort program energi

It is expected that shipping activity will continue to increase in the coming decades. In 2050, emissions could be twice as high as today unless emission reduction measures are implemented. Electrification and hydrogen could be solutions to reduce CO2 emissions in some cases, such as more coastal traffic, however, other measures are needed to be considered for ships that cover long distances. In this project, we consider the use of sustainably produced biofuels for this purpose. One sustainable perspective is a necessity because the production of biofuels can exacerbate problems around competition for land that is already under pressure from population growth, food production, and nature conservation. In Bio4-7Seas, we apply an interdisciplinary approach, combining expertise in biofuel systems, shipping, life cycle analysis, as well as climate and environmental sciences. In this way, we can ensure robust analyses of the climate impacts of the use of biofuels in international shipping. Initial work has screened sustainable availability of biomass feedstocks to be used for the production of biofuels for the maritime sector. The most important biofuel production technologies have also been identified, and their process inventories in terms of mass and energy balances are under compilation. The combination of these biomass feedstocks and biofuel technologies is expected to achieve meaningful contributions for climate change mitigation in the shipping sector. Furthermore, the ship emission model MariTEAM is under further development to create scenarios for the use of biofuels, and early technical testing of the Earth system model NorESM2 has been done. This will enable further analysis in the project of the climate footprint of using biofuels in international shipping.

The shipping sector will strongly grow in the next decades, and by 2050 the associated emissions of CO2 are expected to be as much as 2.5 times higher than today, if mitigation measures are not taken. The use of biofuels for deep-sea shipping is among the key decarbonisation options with the largest climate change mitigation potential, in the order of 50-80%. As it remains a challenge to decarbonise through alternative measures, advanced biofuels produced from lignocellulosic biomass represent the most cost-effective low emission alternative for deep sea shipping. However, a sustainable transition is required because biofuel demands from shipping can add to the growing pressure on land and biomass resources from population growth, economic developments, and other land-based services. Currently, little information exists on the environmental dimension of integrating biofuel value chains with the shipping sector. The ambition of Bio4-7Seas is to fill this research gap by providing a robust understanding of the climate change mitigation potential and environmental effects associated with a growing deployment of biofuels for deep sea fleet. Achieving this requires a multidisciplinary approach combining state-of-the-art competence in biofuel systems, maritime engineering, life cycle assessment, and climate science. This project will integrate and build on the expertise of the FME Bio4Fuels and SFI Smart Maritime. We will integrate maps on the availability of a variety of biomass feedstocks (current and future residues available from agriculture and forestry, dedicated bioenergy crops on marginal land, etc.), inventories of advanced biofuel conversion technologies, and international shipping models within an Earth system model framework to assess the effects, benefits, and potential trade-offs of alternative biofuel utilization pathways in the shipping sector.