Report Compares Existing Global Standards Specifications for Bioethanol and Biodiesel
The governments of the United States, Brazil and the European Union (EU)—the world’s major producers of biofuels—released an analysis of current biofuel specifications with the goal of facilitating expanded trade of these renewable energy sources.
One potential obstacle to achieving greater efficiency in the global biofuels market is confusion over differing—and sometimes conflicting—standards for characterizing the make-up and properties of biofuels. To clarify the current situation and identify potential roadblocks to improved compatibility, the US and Brazilian governments and the EC convened a task force of experts from standards developing organizations (SDOs) to compare critical specifications in existing standards used globally (factors such as content, physical characteristics and contaminant levels that govern a fuel’s quality) for pure bioethanol and biodiesel.
The resulting White Paper identifies where key specifications in the standards are similar (and can be considered compatible); different, but could be reconciled in a short period; or irreconcilably different as they stand.
The experts found that these three sets of bioethanol and biodiesel standards, and the specifications they contain, share much common ground and, therefore, impose few impediments to biofuel trade.
Nine of the 16 ethanol specifications reviewed, the task force states, are “in alignment” and all but one of the remaining specifications could be aligned in the short term. A significant difference among the three sets of standards is water content, which is set at different levels primarily due to the varying ethanol concentrations permitted in gasoline and the gasoline distribution differences:
- The EU currently utilizes up to E5 and has the lowest limit of 0.24 vol%.
- The US has the highest limit of 1.0 vol%.
- Brazil does not have maximum water content in its specifications, but levels are calculated to be a maximum of 0.4 vol% based on a minimum total alcohol content of
99.6 vol%
For bioethanol, the Task Force concluded that there is no technical specification that constitutes an impediment to trade given the current situation. However, it is recognized that additional drying and testing will be required by Brazil and US exporters wishing to supply the EU market.
For biodiesel, the report lists six specifications out of 24 as in alignment. It suggests that many of the remaining differences could be handled in most cases by blending various types of biodiesel to create an end product that meets regional specifications for fuel quality and emissions.
However, the report notes, that while bioethanol is a single chemical compound, biodiesel is not a single chemical entity, but is derived from several types of feedstocks that can translate to variations in the performance characteristics of the finished fuel.
The “White Paper on Internationally Compatible Biofuels Standards” was produced by the joint task force after a six-month review process that considered thousands of pages of technical documents produced by ASTM International, the Brazilian Technical Standards Association (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas or ABNT) and the European Committee for Standardization (Comité Europeén de Normalisation or CEN). Standards developed by these three SDOs are currently being used in support of biofuels commodities trading between nations.
Recognizing that many of the issues relating to variations in specifications can be traced to different measurement procedures and methods, two leading metrology institutes—the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Brazil’s National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality (Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Normalização e Qualidade Industrial or INMETRO)—are collaborating on the development of joint measurement standards for bioethanol and biodiesel to complement the efforts of the SDOs.
Initial efforts focus on creating certified reference materials to support development and testing of bioethanol and biodiesel, and analytical measurement methods for source identification (to determine if a fuel comes from a renewable or non-renewable source and the source of origin of biodiesel, e.g., soy, palm oil, animal fat, etc.) by the end of 2008.
The United States, Brazil and the EU are all members of the International Biofuels Forum (IBF) and will continue to engage other IBF governments in future work. The named SDOs will also seek to involve their counterparts in the other IBF member countries—China, India and South Africa—in the effort to make biofuels standards compatible worldwide.
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