European Bio-Energy Projects

BABILAFUENTE
BIOETHANOL
PROJECT
Objectives
The construction of the bioethanol plant
in Babilafuente, Spain will represent
a significant change in the ethanol
production system. The new process,
using biomass as feedstock, will provide a
number of benefits and short-term solutions.
These are:
- enhancing the security and the diversity
of European agriculture
- reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
other pollutants
- creating energy from wastes
- creating new jobs in an under-developed
region of the EU
- reducing the EU´s trade deficit in animal
feed
- contributing to the goals of the 1997
Renewables´ White Paper, the 2000
Green Paper for energy supply security,
and the EC action plan of November 2001
to foster the alternative uses of transport.
The aim of this project is to reduce the
costs associated with lignocellulosic
bioethanol technology, by creating the first
plant of its kind within the EU. It will try
to demonstrate the integration of the
existing technology and practices with
quickly delivered research and new
technological developments throughout
the entire product chain, from feedstock
production to final use.
Ethanol from biomass:
The Babilafuente
bioethanol project
Description of the work
The project brings together partners from the
research community (University of Lund, Sweden
and Ciemat, Spain), industrial companies
(Biocarburantes de Castilla y León S.A., Spain,
Ecoagrícola S.A, Spain, Novozymes A/S, Denmark
and Repsol-YPF S.A., Spain), with a construction
company as a major sub-contractor to create an
integrated fuel bioethanol chain.
The centrepiece of the project is the construction,
followed by testing for one year, of a bioethanol
plant that sells 200 million litres of fuel
bioethanol, by combining a traditional cereals
process (producing 195 million litres) with a
lignocellulosic process (5 million litres). The
former uses barley grain as its feedstock, while
the latter uses the remainder of the barley plant
– the straw – as its primary feedstock (see
figure 1). The application of the lignocellulosic
materials, as well as the enzymes to convert
them, will be the subject of intense research and
development.
The project will also research the potential use
of other lignocellulosic raw materials. The
feedstock will be sourced, based on a study
that seeks to optimise the raw material from
sustainability (environmental, social and
economic) principles. Research into high starch
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using low input barley production will be carried
out, both to reduce agricultural pollution and to
improve the economic efficiency of bioethanol
production. If successful, the project will analyse
how to contract the new feedstock from local
farmers. Downstream of the plant new facilities
will be constructed to distribute the bioethanol
to the final users, and tests will be carried out
on vehicle emissions to assess the benefits of
its use. All new facilities will be subject to
intensive monitoring during the year of testing.
The whole project will be subject to a life cycle
analysis which, combined with a social and
economic analysis, will evaluate the benefits
that this integrated approach offers the European
Union within the context of the proposed biofuels
targets of the European Commission.
A website will be created to release the results
of the project, and all other research items will
be disseminated through conference papers
and scientific publications.