Page 182 - Advances in bioenergy (2016)

where different gasification technologies are used and also different products are produced. It
looks like, that the United States focuses more on ethanol (as blending component for gasoline)
and Europe more on diesel substitutes. This is logical, looking at the market shares of the
gasoline and diesel in these countries. Europe has a high share of diesel and the United States a
high share of gasoline in the transportation sector, so their focus of R&D is according to the
fuels used in the countries. In general, the impression is that so-called drop-in fuels are the
focus of demonstration in the near future.

Some projects focus also on gaseous fuels like BioSNG or hydrogen. Here the main advantage
is the high conversion efficiency of up to 70%. The main disadvantage in case of hydrogen is
that the infrastructure still has to be developed.

On the long term there is no alternative to advanced biofuels. Some sectors like heavy

transport or aviation will depend also in future on hydrocarbons, as they need fuels with high
energy density. In the private transport sector there is a trend to electric cars and hydrogen, but
a change in this sector needs decades, so also here hydrocarbons will be the main fuel for the
next decades. So it is necessary to develop this technology further, although there were some
drawbacks and failures of companies in the past.

NOTES

* Correspondence to: reinhard.rauch@tuwien.ac.at

REFERENCES

1. Hiller H, Reimert R, Stönner H-M. Gas production. In: Ullmann's Encyclopedia of
Industrial Chemistry; 2011. 9783527306732

2. Boerrigter H, Rauch R. Syngas production and utilisation. In: Handbook Biomass
Gasification. BTG biomass technology group, Enschede, The Netherlands; 2005.

3. http://www.ieatask33.org (Accessed December 2012).

4. Pfeifer C, Puchner B, Hofbauer H. Comparison of dual fluidized bed steam gasification of
biomass with and without selective transport of CO . Chem Eng Sci 2009, 64:5073–5083.
2

5. Tijmensen MJA, Faaij APC, Hamelinck CN, van Hardeveld MRM. Exploration of the
possibilities for production of Fischer Tropsch liquids and power via biomass
gasification. Biomass Bioenergy 2002, 23:129–152.

6. Göransson K, Söderlind U, He J, Zhang W. Review of syngas production via biomass
DFBGs. Ren and Sust En Rev 2011, 15:482–192.

7. Fischer F, Tropsch H. Über die Herstellung syn-thetischer Ölgemische (syn-thol) durch

Aufbau aus Kohlenoxyd und Wasserstoff. Brennst. Chem 1923, 4:276–285.