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Biofuels and Waste

Biofuels & waste is comprised of solid biofuels, liquid biofuels, biogases, industrial waste and municipal waste. Note that for biomass commodities, only the amounts specifically used for energy purposes (a small part of the total) are included in the energy statistics. Therefore, the non-energy use of biomass is not taken into consideration and quantities are null by definition. Data under this heading are often based on small sample surveys or other incomplete information. Thus the data give only a broad impression of developments, and are not strictly comparable between countries. In some cases complete categories of vegetal fuel are omitted through lack of information. For more information on a fuel type, please see the following list:

Biogases
Biogases are gases arising from the anaerobic fermentation of biomass and the gasification of solid biomass (including biomass in wastes). The biogases from anaerobic fermentation are composed principally of methane and carbon dioxide and comprise landfill gas, sewage sludge gas and other biogases from anaerobic fermentation.

Biogases can also be produced from thermal processes (by gasification or pyrolysis) of biomass and are mixtures containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide (usually known as syngas) along with other components. These gases may be further processed to modify their composition and can be further processed to produce substitute natural gas.

Liquid biofuels
Liquid biofuels includes biogasoline, biodiesel and other liquid biofuels. It does not include the total volume of gasoline or diesel into which the biofuels are blended.

Biogasoline includes bioethanol (ethanol produced from biomass and/or the biodegradable fraction of waste), biomethanol (methanol produced from biomass and/or the biodegradable fraction of waste), bioETBE (ethyl-tertio-butyl-ether produced on the basis of bioethanol; the percentage by volume of bio-ETBE that is calculated as biofuel is 47%) and bioMTBE (methyl-tertio-butyl-ether produced on the basis of biomethanol: the percentage by volume of bioMTBE that is calculated as biofuel is 36%).

Biodiesels includes biodiesel (a methyl-ester produced from vegetable or animal oil, of diesel quality), bio-dimethylether (dimethylether produced from biomass), Fischer Tropsh (Fischer Tropsh produced from biomass), cold pressed bio-oil (oil produced from oil seed through mechanical processing only) and all other liquid biofuels which are added to, blended with or used straight as transport diesel. Other liquid biofuels includes liquid biofuels not reported in either biogasoline or biodiesels.

Industrial waste
Industrial waste of non-renewable origin consists of solid and liquid products (e.g. tyres) combusted directly, usually in specialised plants, to produce heat and/or power. Renewable industrial waste is not included here, but with solid biofuels, biogas or liquid biofuels.

Municipal waste
Municipal waste consists of products that are combusted directly to produce heat and/or power and comprises wastes produced by households, industry, hospitals and the tertiary sector that are collected by local authorities for incineration at specific installations.

Primary solid biofuels and charcoal
Primary solid biofuels and charcoal are defined as any plant matter used directly as fuel or converted into other forms before combustion. This covers a multitude of woody materials generated by industrial process or provided directly by forestry and agriculture (firewood, wood chips, bark, sawdust, shavings, chips, sulphite lyes also known as black liquor, animal materials/wastes and other solid biomass).

- Charcoal produced from solid biomass is also included here. Since charcoal is a secondary product, its treatment is slightly different than that of the other primary solid biofuels. Production of charcoal (an output in the transformation process) is offset by the inputs of primary solid biofuels into the charcoal production process. The losses from this process are included in the row other transformation. Other supply (e.g. trade and stock changes) as well as consumption are aggregated directly with the primary solid biofuels. In most countries, only the primary solid biofuels are reported.

 

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