PHB & UU: Pathways to sustainable mobility 2050

‍‍‘What are the key challenges in defossilising the Dutch heavy transport sector by 2050?’

The Platform Renewable Fuels and Utrecht University joined forces and organised a workshop on this subject on May 19th, 2022.

In the past two decades, defossilisation of the electricity sector has progressed steadily in the EU, and is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. For residential heating and light-duty transport, the electric heat pump and BEV are widely regarded as the path forward to provide sustainable solutions, even though  implementation is still a matter of decades. However, the heavy duty transport (road, marine and aviation) sector has seen very little progress apart from some stagnating/capped first generation biofuels use in the road sector. Also, with less than 30 years to go to 2050, only few options are available for these sectors. Second generation biofuels have not (yet) lived up to expectations, whilst the uptake of e-fuels (and direct use of batteries) is expected only in 1-2 decades from now, and is currently still costly, and limited by low TRL levels, scarcity of renewable electricity, low energy density of batteries and other factors. Yet, as the current crisis in Ukraine shows, further reliance on (relatively low-carbon) fossil fuels such as natural gas is also problematic from both a climate and energy security point of view. The aim of this workshop is to bring together experts from academia and industry to assess these and other challenges and discuss possible pathways for heavy duty transport sector how defossilisation targets till 2050 may (still) be reached, and what techno-economic and policy barriers may need to be overcome.

The workshop took place from at Utrecht Science Park. The organisation of the workshop was in the hands of Platform Renewable Fuels and Utrecht University (Martin Junginger, Professor Bio-based economy and Agneev Mukherjee, Postdoc Deep Decarbonisation Hub).

The programme featured the following presentations:

Prof. Gert Jan Kramer (UU)
‍“A plan that adds up – Availability of green electricity & H2 till 2050 and the  quest for ‘circular’(non-fossil) carbon – Implications for the Dutch transport sector”
(download presentation)

‍Loes Knotter (PHB)
‍“Dutch heavy transport and decarbonization: EU & Dutch Policy Overview” – A briefing of where we are and the visibility for the short- to medium-term
(download presentation)

Oskar Meijerink (SkyNRG)
‍HEFA and beyond – use of biofuels for aviation
(download presentation)

‍Johannes Schürmann (Goodfuels)
‍How (quickly) can we defossilize the Dutch shipping sector?
(download presentation)

‍Regina Goijen (Shell)
‍Expectations for biofuels in the heavy duty road transport sector
(download presentation)

‍Ruud Meulenbroek (BTG-Bioliquids)
‍The potential to scale pyrolysis oil for various transport fuels
(download presentation)

‍Pieter ‘t Hart (Maritiem Kenniscentrum)
‍Outlook on green methanol for shipping
(download presentation)

‍Bart Somers (TU Eindhoven)
‍Challenges of applying novel fuels in engines – options beyond hydrogen
(download presentation)

‍Lotte Asveld (TU Delft)
‍Towards  Responsible & Sustainable Marine Biofuels and involvement of local stakeholder – Insights from the clean shipping project
(download presentation)

‍Stephan Janbroers (TNO)
‍The role of gasification options to produce renewable fuels from a wide range of feedstocks
(download presentation)

‍Agneev Mukherjee (Utrecht University)
‍Expected techno-economic competitiveness of various marine biofuels (and e-fuels)
(download presentation)

‍Björn Heijstra (LanzaTech)
‍Carbon-based fuels from various industrial feedstocks
(download presentation)

‍Jan-Willem Könemann (TNO)
‍Outlook for electricity to carbon fuels (DME, synthetic kerosine)
(download presentation)

‍Prof. Andrea Ramirez (TU Delft)
‍The need for enabling infrastructure to move forward
(download presentation)

All presentations of this event are on YouTube, see the playlist here or see below for individual videos.