A Swiss study has revealed that, contrary to the claims of the industry lobby, the environmentally friendly and sustainable reputation of many biofuels is largely unfounded. In a damning study conducted at the request of the Swiss Federal Energy Office and released on Monday (24th September), research institute EMPA showed that in many cases the use of biofuels merely replaces one form of ecological damage with another.

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Researchers from Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen looked at the use of a number of biofuels, including their production processes, and came the conclusion that, overall, the ‘ecobalance’ of most biofuels is similar to that of petrol. EMPA had previously come to the same conclusion following a similar study in 2007.

According to lead author Rainer Zah, the study mostly updated previous work from 2007 with a more in-depth look at biofuel production. Zah said most of the biofuels investigated “just deflect the environmental impact: fewer greenhouse gases, thus more growth-related pollution for land used for agriculture.”

While biodiesel, fuel produced using plant oils, performed relatively poorly in the investigations, biofuels with an ethanol base were shown to carry less of an environmental burden. However, Zah’s team found that, although many biofuels produced from agricultural crops led to a reduction in greenhose gas emissions, other environmental impacts replaced these effects.

These impacts included acidification of soil and the eutrophication of rivers and other water resources. The study also showed biofuels produced from land that has been deforested have a higher environmental footprint, and emit more greenhouse gasses, than conventional fossil fuels.  

In Switzerland, biofuels including bioethanol, biodiesel and biogas have been exempted from petroleum tax in an attempt to exact a shift towards more sustainable fuel use. However, the EMPA study shows that more may need to be done to achieve a genuinely sustainable fuel supply.

Last week, the EU Commission announced it would be pushing for a cap on the production of biofuels from edible crops. The decision was made over fears that biofuel production is contributing to food price rises and could potentially lead to scarcer availability of essential staple foods.

In addition to fears over rising food prices, caused by the increasing use of food and feed crops in biofuel production, the controversial fuels have also been criticised for driving indirect land use change. Under this form of land use change regions which would be suitable for growing food are used to produce energy crops, which can impact on food availability and lead to deforestation if land elsewhere is then cleared for food production.

The Commission pushed for more research to be conducted into biofuels made from waste materials and by-products of agriculture, food manufacture and industry. The EU will limit production of food-based biofuels to the current level of 5 percent.

Commissioners said on Monday (17th September) that they remain confident the EU will achieve its targets of producing 10 percent of transport fuel using renewable resources by the end of the decade.

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