E-fuels are being promoted as a climate solution for aviation, shipping, and road transport. There are a variety of e-fuels, but beware! Some of them use woody biomass in their production and are another manifestation of the failed industrial biomass energy model – dressed up as innovation.
A new brief from BAN exposes the flaws in the tempting narrative that simple ‘drop-in’ e-fuel solutions can quickly replace oil-based transport fuels for shipping, aviation, and road transport. Far from always representing a clean, responsible alternative, some e-fuel solutions risk becoming a major new driver of forest destruction and carbon emissions, wreaking havoc during their production and/or combustion.
The problem is that vast amounts of wood can be used to produce e-fuels, resulting in the release of significant carbon emissions to the atmosphere, although some e-fuels are made through forest-free processes. It is the fuels made using woody biomass that BAN is focused on, with the aim of raising awareness of the issues and urging caution among consumers, and advocates for both climate and forest action. E-methanol and e-diesel are of particular concern.
E-fuels are made in 2 steps, either of which may use large amounts of woody biomass. This is justified by the usual false claims that carbon from forests is carbon neutral and that the vast volumes of lower quality wood used – the ‘waste and residues’ generated from intensive industrial logging – somehow don’t harm ecosystems or communities. Additionally, the shift to these e-fuels will also drive further expansion of plantations, including ‘energy plantations’.
There’s a serious risk of lock-in that may delay or substitute electrification of transport, moving instead to a business-as-usual approach using e-fuels rather than reducing resource extraction and consumption.
Read our brief and help spread the word that wood-based e-fuels are a false solution that simply replicate and expand the harms of industrial biomass energy.
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