Project Title: - Biofuels for Road Transport

Project Aim: - The main priority of this project was to analyse and determine the potential for the production of biofuels (primarily biodiesel and bioethanol) within the UK transport fuel market. Based on our finding we attempted to devise a suitable UK biofuels policy in order to implement these fuels.

Background: - The introduction of biofuels into the UK could provide multiple benefits in terms of the environment - lower emissions than conventional fuels, agriculture - stimulate an ailing industry through the requirement for energy crops, and increased security of the UK's fuel supply - a result of lesser dependence upon external fuel sources. However, certain market barriers, such as the cost of production and lack of an existing market, provide major stumbling blocks to the successful implementation of biofuels in the UK.

Project Breakdown: - Through a quantitative analysis of the development of energy crops and a complete examination of the socio-economic effects of a pro-biofuels strategy we shall establish if the UK government could effectively introduce biofuels as an alternative source of fuel.

An extensive review of the subject matter was crucial to the understanding of the topic and many areas were covered. There is much diversity in the many various sources of raw materials that can be used to make a biofuel so it was important to take all of them into consideration. There also exists a number of methods which can be used to convert these raw materials into substances suitable for an internal combustion engine, so these had to be researched and understood also.

The understanding of the topic was crucial as we aimed to make an assessment of the type of biofuels that would be most suited to the UK road transport market. In doing so we had to eliminate the biofuels that would have limited success in the UK road transport market due to cost, land or availability constraints and infrastructure and integration problems. Eventually, the two biofuels we felt offered the most to the future success of biofuels in Britain were biodiesel derived from oil seed rape and bioethanol produced from sugar beet and wheat.

In order to assess the performance of one of our chosen biofuels, biodiesel, we ran the fuel through a diesel engine at various different blends. Biodiesel can be blended with conventional diesel. Unfortunately, we were constrained by the the equipment we had available and so we were able only to gain some limited results. However the results we did achieve can be found in the engine testing section.

Before establishing a suitable biofuels policy for the UK it was important to undertake an analysis of any British and European biofuels policy. It became clear that there were EU targets for the uptake of biofuels in member states but not all countries, particularly the UK, were pursuing them. However, some nations have accomplished a lot with respect to promoting biofuels use but have faced stiff opposition from oil companies, from within their own government, and also from other countries.

By using other nations experience of introducing biofuel into their road transport sector and drawing on the British government’s method used for the introduction of ultra low sulphur fuels into the UK market, we initiated the development of a cohesive policy for the UK on biofuels for road transport. By using these tried and tested techniques and by adding our knowledge of biodiesel and bioethanol’s potential market penetration, we formulated a requisite biofuels policy suitable for the UK road transport market.