Study
Bio-LNG - A renewable and low-emission alternative in road freight and shipping: potentials, economic viability and instruments (only in German)
Authors: Patrick Schmidt, Werner Weindorf
Date: May 2019
Bio-LNG – A renewable and low-emission alternative in road freight and shipping: potentials, economic viability and instruments
Bio-LNG is a readily implementable option to address two of the most pressing challenges in the transport sector: Improving air quality in cities by reducing local nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and sulphur emissions, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in road freight transport and shipping. In cooperation with dena experts, the LBST experts investigated the technical, economic and ecological aspects of bio-LNG.
A successful establishment of bio-LNG in road freight transport and shipping could save around 7 million t CO2-eq (around 10% of the required GHG avoidance) by 2030 and make an important contribution to reducing local emissions. To achieve the 1.75 % share of advanced energy in the 1.75% of advanced fuels in 2030, bio-LNG is an important option, as many other advanced fuels are not yet ready for the market today.
The mandatory 30% reduction in average fleet CO2 limits for newly registered heavy-duty vehicles by 2030 is ambitious. If the number of new registrations of electric trucks and efficiency measures does not occur to the extent required, the crediting of renewable fuels, such as bio-LNG and PtLNG, is an option. This must be taken into account in the review by the European Commission in 2022.
To boost the production of bio-LNG in the short term, more investment security is required on the producer side. On the one hand, this is possible by exempting the production of renewable LNG from the EEG levy. Production costs can thus be reduced by 4-9 % and a level playing field for the energy-intensive production and liquefaction of biomethane and synthetic gases with locations outside Germany can be established. Investment subsidies or a tender for bio-LNG production volumes limited in time and volume would also stimulate investments and accelerate the production of bio-LNG.
Further information can also be found on dena’s project website (in German).