Sofia Poulikidou

A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT AND FUTURE FUELS FOR THE TRANSPORT SECTOR

To facilitate the transition to a sustainable and less fossil dependent transport sector in the short to medium term, the current fuel mix needs to be enriched with renewable fuel alternatives. The present work aims to assess and highlight the opportunities for current and future biomass based fuels to be utilized. Seven fuels and fuel blends fulfilling the EN590 diesel fuel standard have been selected and are compared using qualitative and quantitative criteria covering technical, environmental and economic attributes of the fuels. Mature fuels such as dimethyl-ether (DME) and hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO) are ranked higher in the assessment due to the increased possibility for environmental gains at moderate costs. For future fuels to be competitive stricter regulation in terms of GHG emissions savings are needed.