Process engineers are vital to the future of biofuels
18 May 2012
Dr Emily Ho, technical development lead on the PDX biofuel reactor, sets out the environmental challenge for process engineers.
According to UK Department for Transport, the European Renewable Energy Directive requires the UK, by 2020, to source 15% of its overall energy and 10% of energy used in transport, from renewable sources.
The related Fuel Quality Directive also requires fuel and energy suppliers (principally those providing fuel and energy for land-based transport) to reduce the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of the fuel/energy that they supply by 6% per unit of energy by 2020.
Can EU countries, including UK, fulfil the Renewable Energy mandates in conjunction with relieving fuel insecurity, conserving energy resources, seeking energy independence and diversification?
How may the UK infrastructure develop to provide comprehensive, reliable and economical distribution and support systems to the renewable transport fuel users?
Globally, the UK/EU can become an international market, with export opportunities to countries with an established biofuel industry such as US and Brazil.
The effort and commitment from process engineers will play an important part towards the success of this operation.
The European demand for biofuels is predicted to more than double in the next years. Will we have the resource in process engineering to match the demand? In return, the process engineers need to work with some regulatory certainty and guidance.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, IMechE, is organising a biofuel seminar to be held on 22nd May 2012. This event provides the process engineers working in the EU/UK ethanol industry with the networking opportunities in a dynamics business-to-business environment.
This will be a chance for process engineers to explore the latest technology, suppliers, costs of production, biofuel production performance and other issues surrounding the sectors.
Furthermore it is an opportunity for process engineers to meet crop producers, automotive manufacturers and policy makers to propose, discuss and agree on sustainable solutions.
Would there be enough feedstock supply within UK/EU for the future bio-fuel production? How may the bio-fuel production be implemented with no adverse impacts on food for humans or livestock, on scarce resources such as land and fresh water, on our environment, nature or the community?
