Groningen University to explore ratio of biofuel gases in industrial emissions

A research project at Groningen University, the Netherlands, is determining the best way to calculate how much biogenic carbon dioxide is being emitted from industrial sources.

Currently, European guidelines state that carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels must be paid for, whilst biofuel emissions are exempt. The total amount of carbon dioxide produced by a company is relatively easy to determine since the amount of fuel used, as well as data on burning and emissions, can be worked out. Biofuel emissions, however, are more difficult to calculate – one of the reasons why such emissions are exempt from charges. Biofuels can often come from a variety of sources, so the quantity and nature are difficult to determine.

Groningen University’s Centre for Isotope Research (CIO) has conducted research on the process and reliability of using carbon-14 to determine the proportion of biogenic carbon dioxide in emission gases. This type of analysis has been used for around fifty years to distinguish between different emissions sources, but the method has not yet been used to calculate industrial emissions. The process works by measuring emissions for levels of carbon-14, which does not exist in fossil fuels: a carbon-14 count therefore indicates the presence of biofuel emissions.

The project team, financed by RWE, tested the technique at the Essent Amercentrale power plant and at waste burning plant AZN Moerdijk, where carbon ratio was unknown before the carbon-14 process was used. Groningen University will now take the research further in order to establish a method of carbon-14 analysis that can be directly and continuously used in the field.

For more information on the project, contact Jos Speekman at j.a.t.j.speekman@rug.nl

Published: Wednesday, 17th March 2010 by Tom Freeman

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