KYOTO PROTOCOL AND LOCAL OFFICES

BIOETHANOL: A FUEL USABLE IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME

Impact coming from the use of vehicles in urban areas is one of the major environmental problems to be solved, also because the increase in petrol and gas oil use, as the number of vehicles circulating, is in continue and constant expansion.
Since oil, which is a basic transport resource (97%), is also a source of energy which is depleting – evaluations state that this is going to happen in 40/50 years – it is indispensable, in medium-term future, to develop alternative fuels deriving from natural gas / coal or from biofuels (fuels deriving from natural and renewable resources such as biomass).
Bioethanol (ethanol deriving from agricultural cultivations) is one of the few alternative fuels that can be obtained in considerable quantity in a short period of time and that can be used immediately for feeding vehicles.
Bioethanol can be used, as substitute for petrol, in the so-called "flexible" cars (approximately 400,000 cars/year are sold at present in Brasil), as mixture 10%-85% in petrol for piston engines, as additive, 5%-10%, to gas oil for diesel engines, as gas oil substitute in diesel engines feeding (with appropriate modifications to engines).
Today, besides Brasil, also in the USA more than 1.000.000 of cars fed with ethanol are circulating.
In Sweden, in addition to 15,000 private cars, the whole bus group of Stockholm is fed by bioethanol (with small percentages of bus fed by biogas and by hydrogen).
Bioethanol is a liquid refined fuel with high energetic content (~ 70% with respect to petrol) and can be obtained from agricultural and forest cultivations as product derived from:
sugar (~ 2 ton/t bioethanol);
starch (~ 2 ton/t bioethanol);
wood cellulose (3 ½ ton of biomass /t bioethanol).
Concerning the economical aspects, current production costs of bioethanol in the world are approximately:

140 €/t in Brasil (from sugarcane);
500 €/t in E.U. (from beet / corn);
420 €/t in the USA (from corn);
700 €/t ethanol from ethylene syntesis

Long preliminary researches and experimental tests, show that new optimized cultivations such as "sugar sorghum", which can be cultivated also in the majority of European agricultural areas, will allow to lower the production price of bioethanol to approximately 250 €/t, thus making it competitive with respect to the production cost of refined products from oil (petrol-gas oil) that at present is between 350-450 €/TEP.

Environmental benefits deriving from the use of bioethanol as fuel are the following: since modern bioethanol production systems have an energetic ratio (net usable energy) = 2 -> 7 (according to cultivation and process used) close systems of production, conversion, use (by producing amounts ODF energetic resource much higher than that consumed) do not let CO2 in the atmosphere.

Bioethanol (mixed in petrols, even if in small amounts) produces:
• an increase in the number of octanes of the fuel (substituting tetraethyl lead which is now forbidden and reduction of the percentage of aromatic compounds, cancerogenous);
• e reduction of emissions of Nox, of fine particles, of CO, of Sox, of organic volatile compounds.

The European Directive on biofuels (2003/30/EC) aims at obtaining a minimum contribution of 5.75% from biofuels (bioethanol and biodiesel) for transport field and aims at reaching the 20% by 2020 (Green Paper).
Germany will already reach this year the 5.75% of contribution and is planning how to reach the 25% in 2020 by using ¼ of the whole agricultural area.

BEST PROGRAMME

The European Commission, within the 6° Framework Programme (Research, Development and Demonstration) approved an important Project ( BEST project precisely) of which the city of Stockholm is the leader.
The aim of BEST Project is that of promoting, at European level, the bioethanol development as fuel for feeding buses and cars in Europe.

The Project provides:
1 Experimentation of vehicles fed by bioethanol (both cars and buses)
2 Experimentation of buses fed by biodiesel;
3 Experimentation of buses fed by fuel with a percentage of bioethanol.

Many European countries, and not only European, participate in this project: Stockholm, Rotterdam, Somerset, Dublin, The Basque province, Madrid, the Chinese city of Nanyang and the Brazilian Research office.
Within this project will be developed a group of more than 500 buses fed by bioethanol, a group of cars consisting of more than 1,500 units and it will be set a first network for fuel distribution.
Finally will be discussed all problems concerning, from the point of view of the user perception, the development of this type of fuel and it will be set a special sensitization campaign.
The Italian situation is such as to imply that this type of fuel (apart from some residual uses in feeding agricultural vehicles) hasn't found any development until now.
La Spezia, within this project, and in Italy, thus represents, in this context, a real pilot lab for the use of fuel deriving from biomasses.

The Italian Team is formed by:
1 Province of La Spezia
2 Municipality of La Spezia
3 ATC S.p.A.
4 ETA Energie Rinnovabili (Renewable energies)
5 University of Pisa

BEST Project activities, for La Spezia, are the development of an experimentation of bioethanol as fuel for the group of buses and for a small group of cars (100 cars).
This is about discussing, as in the rest of Europe, the whole group of problems concerning the introduction of a new fuel: from technical verification of the functioning of the group, to the realization of a first limited network of fuel distribution, to the definition of the technical norms, to the overcoming of technical prejudices, to the definition of a promotion campaign.
The development of the project then places La Spezia among those cities that in Europe had a "pioneer" role in the solving of problems coming from emissions and that try to contribute seriously to the achievement of the aims set by the Kyoto protocol..

AIMS OF BEST PROJECT FOR LA SPEZIA

Cars
In La Spezia the aim is that of developing a group of 100 cars fed by bioethanol.
Vehicles will be acquired by the Public Administration, by small and medium-size companies and by private individuals.
Within BEST Project specific incentives are not scheduled but Ford and SAAB, that are also involved in the project, have already committed to grant considerable discounts on the sale prices.

Municipal Administration and Province Administration have already acquired the first 10 cars, two of which have already been delivered during the month of December 2006.
The aim of the experimentation is to verify the use of flexible-fuel vehicles (fed by bioethanol) in different conditions in order to compare technical performances, practical use and user satisfaction.

Then, as already mentioned, actions will be developed that allow the development of a fleet of up to 100 cars on the territory, a special attention will be directed to taxi drivers and to all those who carry out a public service.

Buses
It is scheduled to develop and to experiment small groups of buses in the project sites.
For La Spezia this is about 3 buses fed by bioethanol and a dedicated fuel station.
ATC has acquired 3 buses fed by bioethanol, that will be active from the first days of January 2007.
At the same time the bioethanol filling station has come into service.
The realization of this last intervention required a considerable effort due to the scarcity of norms and of specific knowledges of the offices in charge, concerning this field.
Environmental, normative and tax problems have been discussed.
Within the Project we are considering to set and place at the companies' disposal what have been developed, thanks to the creation of a small "project and realization manual".
Another aim is represented by the possible use of mixtures of gas oil – bioethanol and petrol - bioethanol for feeding the vehicles circulating on the territory.
Experimentation on mixtures of gas oil – bioethanol will be carried out by ATC.
Experimentation will be carried out on cars, upon agreement with the manufacturers of the same vehicles.

Experimentation will consist in the gradual introduction of low bioethanol content mixtures in petrol (for cars) and in gas oil (for heavy vehicles).
In La Spezia the first two public filling stations for vehicles fed by bioethanol or flexible-fuel are under construction.
Stations will be realized by ACAM in the two methane pumps already present, thus realizing the first two multi-fuel "ecological" stations.
The two under construction stations will refuel the 100 vehicles under experimentation and will be able to distribute fuel also to motorists who want to try the low ethanol content petrol-bioethanol mixtures.
A plan of incentive for bioethanol cars is under advanced definition.
The plan schedules also:
• the possibility to park freely in the blue-line areas;
• the possibility to use the fast lanes;
• the exemption from any form of reduction of circulation ( ex. alternating numberplate) deriving from particular air quality conditions..

The total budget of the project for La Spezia is more than 1,170,000 €, the Community contribution is more than 481,000 €.

Conclusions
The evolution of the demand of people and goods mobility represents an important challenge for those who deal with environmental quality and with energy.
ATC has developed a strategy, shared by the Province and Municipal Administration, which is about the use of different technologies for the development of the Fleet for Public Transport in La Spezia territory; the development of trolleybus (both from the point of view of trolleybus line and from that of the purchase of new trolleybuses), the creation of a small group of buses fed by methane and experimentation of a small group fed by bioethanol represent today the strongest answer to environmental and energetic needs of our territory.
The participation in the BEST Project is a unique opportunity for having a presence from La Spezia in one of the most important European strategic projects (that in general of the development of biomasses for energy production).
Finally, BEST represents also the occasion for the creation of a real national lab for biofuel development in Italy.