The share of renewable liquid fuels (ethanol, fatty acid methyl ester, biogas, and renewable electricity) in the total transportation fuel in Sweden, has increased by the end of 2009 to such level that e.g. domestic bioethanol production is unable to satisfy current ethanol fuel demand. Regional small-scale ethanol production can assist the region in covering the regional needs in transport fuel supply.

Current case study system includes the production of ethanol, biogas, heat and power from locally available cereals straw. A mixed integer programming (MIP) model is developed for cost optimization of regional transport fuel supply (ethanol, biogas and petrol). The model is applied for two cases, one when ethanol production plant is integrated with an existing CHP plant (polygeneration), and one with a standalone ethanol production plant.

The optimization results show that for both cases the changes in ethanol production costs have the biggest influence on the costs for supplying regional passenger car fleet with transport fuel. Petrol fuel price and straw production costs have also a significant effect on costs for supplying cars with transport fuel for both standalone ethanol production and integrated production system.

By integrating the ethanol production process with a CHP plant, the costs for supplying regional passenger car fleet with transport fuel can be cut by 31%, from 150 to 104 €/MW h fuel, which should be compared with E5 costs of 115 €/MW h (excl VAT).

Energy security and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are the driving forces behind the development of renewable fuel sources worldwide. In Sweden, a relatively rapid development in bioethanol usage in transportation has been driven by the implementation of national taxation regulations on carbon neutral transport fuels. The demand for bioethanol to fuel transportation is growing and cannot be met through current domestic production alone. Lignocellulosic ethanol derived from agricultural crop residues may be a feasible alternative source of ethanol to secure a consistent regional fuel supply in Swedish climatic conditions. This paper analyzes how the regional energy system can contribute to reducing CO2 emissions by realizing local small scale bioethanol production and substituting petrol fuel with high blend ethanol mixtures for private road transport. The results show that about 13 000 m3 of bioethanol can be produced from the straw available in the studied region and that this amount can meet the current regional ethanol fuel demand. Replacing the current demand for petrol fuel for passenger cars with ethanol fuel can potentially reduce CO2 emissions from transportation by 48%.

The use of waste for energy purposes becomes increasingly interesting both with respect to waste management and for the energy systems. The decisions on alternative uses of waste for energy are mainly influenced by different policies, waste management, energy supply and use, as well as technologies. Two important issues, namely, a clear priority of waste prevention in waste management within EU and the growing concern for food losses and food waste at global and at national level, shall be carefully considered and addressed. This paper proposes scenarios for waste to energy systems with focus on Sweden and with a broader EU approach is applied: Biofuels Sweden, Electric vehicles and Bioenergy Europe. As baseline for the scenario development inventory of waste-to-energy related policies and goals on international, national, regional and local level as well as inventory of existing scenarios and reports with future trends is made. A low waste availability level is recommended to be included in sensitivity analysis for scenarios.

The use of waste for energy purposes becomes increasingly interesting with respect to waste management and the energy systems. The decisions on alternative uses of waste for energy are mainly influenced by different policies, waste management, energy supply and use, as well as technologies. Two important issues, namely, a clear priority of waste prevention in waste management within EU and the growing concern for food losses and food waste at global and national level, shall be carefully considered and addressed. This paper proposes policy based scenarios for waste-to-energy systems with a focus on Sweden and with a broader EU approach. As baseline for the scenario development an inventory of waste-to-energy related policies and goals on international, national, regional and local level as well as inventory of existing scenarios and reports with future trends is made. The main substitute for fossil fuels and the possibilities for renewable energy export are basic elements that define scenarios. Biofuels and electricity are identified as main substitutes for the fossil fuels. A low waste availability level is recommended to be included in sensitivity analysis for scenarios. This paper assumes relative decoupling in Low Waste scenario in 2030, and absolute decoupling first in 2050.

 Energy recovery from waste becomes increasingly interesting both with respect to waste management and for the sustainable energy supply. The REMOWE (Regional Mobilizing of Sustainable Waste-to-Energy Production) project, seeks to facilitate the implementation of sustainable systems for waste-to-energy in the project regions. Based on investigations done within the REMOWE project this paper discusses increased waste-to-energy utilization in Poland with focus on a comparison with the current state in Sweden. There are big differences between Sweden and Poland, and between Lower Silesia Voivodship in Poland and Västmanland County in Sweden. The REMOWE project through its outputs and discussions during meetings support transfer of technology, knowledge and best practice. Procedural justice and early involvement of public can increase social acceptance and successful implementation of projects regarding incineration, biogas production and separate collection of biodegradable waste.

A dynamic model of a regional energy system has been developed to support sustainable waste treatmentwith greenhouse gases (GHG) mitigation, addressing the possibility for development towardsa regional fossil fuel-free society between 2011 and 2030. The model is based on conventional mixedinteger linear programming (MILP) techniques to minimize the total cost of regional energy systems. TheCO2 emission component in the developed model includes both fossil and biogenic origins whenconsidering waste, fossil fuels and other renewable sources for energy production. A case study for thecounty of Västmanland in central Sweden is performed to demonstrate the applicability of the developedMILP model in five distinct scenarios. The results show significant potential for mitigating CO2 emissionby gradually replacing fossil fuels with different renewable energy sources. The MILP model can be usefulfor providing strategies for treating wastes sustainably and mitigating GHG emissions in a regionalenergy system, which can function as decision bases for formulating GHG reduction policies andassessing the associated economic implications.

Three optional pellet production processes integrated with an existing biomass-based CHP plant using different raw materials (wood chips and solid hydrolysis residues) are studied. The year is divided into 12 periods, and the integrated biorefinery systems are modeled and simulated for each period. The annual economic performance of three integrated biorefinery systems is analyzed based on the simulation results. The option of pellet production integrated with the existing CHP plant with the exhaust flue gas and superheated steam as drying mediums has the lowest specific pellet production cost of 105 €/tpellet, the shortest payback time of less than 2 years and the greatest CO2 reduction of the three options. An advantage in common among the three options is a dramatic increase of the total annual power production and significant CO2 reduction in spite of a small decrease of power efficiency.

Bioethanol is an alternative to fossil fuels in the transportation sector. The use of pellet for heating is also an efficient way to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This paper evaluates the techno-economic performance of a biorefinery system in which an existing combined heat and power (CHP) plant is integrated with the production of bioethanol and pellet using straw as feedstock. A two-stage acid hydrolysis process is used for bioethanol production, and two different drying technologies are applied to dry hydrolysis solid residues. A sensitivity analysis is performed on critical parameters such as the bioethanol selling price and feedstock price. The bioethanol production cost is also calculated for two cases with either 10 year or 15 year payback times. The results show that the second case is currently a more feasible economic configuration and reduces production costs by 36.4%-77.3% compared to other types of poly-generation plants that are not integrated into existing CHP plants. 

The development towards high energy efficiency and low environmental impact by human interactions, has led to a change in many levels of society. Due to the introduction of penalties on carbon dioxide emissions and other economic instruments, the energy industry is striving towards energy efficiency improvement and climate mitigation by switching from fossil to renewable fuels. Biomass-based combined heat and power (CHP) plants connected to district heating networks have a need to find uses for excess heat to produce electricity during summer when the heat demand is low. On the other hand, the transport sector is contributing substantially to the increased CO2 emissions, which have to be reduced. One promising alternative to address the two challenging issues is the integration of vehicle fuel production with biomass based CHP plants. In this paper, the configuration and operation profits in terms of electricity, heat and ethanol fuel from cellulosic biomass are presented. A case study of a commercial small-scale CHP plant has been carried out using simulation and modeling tools. The results clearly show that electricity production can be increased when CHP production is integrated with cellulosic ethanol production. The findings presented also show that the economical benefits of the energy system can be realized with near-term commercially available technology

The development towards high energy efficiency and low environmental impact from human interactions has led to changes at many levels of society. As a result of the introduction of penalties on carbon dioxide emissions and other economic instruments, the energy industry is striving to improve energy efficiency and climate mitigation by switching from fossil fuels to renewable fuels. Biomass-based combined heat and power (CHP) plants connected to district heating networks have a need to find uses for the excess heat they produce in summer when the heat demand is low. On the other hand, the transport sector makes a substantial contribution to the increasing CO 2 emissions, which have to be reduced. One promising alternative to address these challenging issues is the integration of vehicle fuel production with biomass-based CHP plants. This paper presents the configuration and operating profits in terms of electricity, heat and ethanol fuel from cellulosic biomass. A case study of a commercial small scale CHP plant was conducted using simulation and modeling tools. The results clearly show that electricity production can be increased when CHP production is integrated with cellulosic ethanol production. The findings also show that the economic benefits of the energy system can be realized with near-term commercially available technology, and that the benefits do not rely solely on ethanol yields.

Climate change poses an unprecedented challenge for policy makers. This paper analyzes how industry sector policy expertise can contribute to improved policy making processes. Previous research has identified that policy making benefit by including non-governmental policy analysts in learning processes. Recent climate and energy policy developments, including policy amendments and the introduction of new initiatives, have rendered current policy regimes as novel both to governments and the industry. This increases business investment risk perceptions and may thus reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of the policy framework. In order to explore how government-industry policy learning can improve policy making in this context, this article studied the Swedish case. A literature survey analyzed how policy learning had been previously addressed, indentifying that the current situation regarding novel policies had been overlooked. Interviews provided how industrial actors view Swedish policy implementation processes and participatory aspects thereof. The authors conclude that an increased involvement of the industry sector in policy design and management processes can be an important measure to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of climate and energy policies.

Due to differences in greenhouse-gas abatement costs within the industrial sectors, there is an ongoing discussion on potential negative competitive effects of climate and energy policies. This article argues that policymakers must acknowledge the relative performance of industrial operations parallel to the competitors, the compulsoriness of policies, and the harmonization of policies accordingly. To this end, the authors suggest a tool aimed for robust participatory policy evaluations at decision-maker levels. The tool promotes policy learning, transparency, and consensus building, hence contributing to more effective and efficient policy design and management process. The tool is exemplified in a Swedish context.

The paper evaluates to which extent that different designs of Voluntary Agreements (VAs) can work as catalysts for Policy Learning (PL) and thus contribute to improved policy design and management processes. Through a literature study, it is found that VAs in the form of Negotiated Agreements (NAs) are more successful in promoting PL than other types of VAs that have less focus on the participatory aspect of the policy processes. The paper contributes to the existing VA policy literature through highlighting the predominately overseen learning values of implementing NA as well as providing policy recommendations on VA learning processes

Present literature identifies policy learning (PL) as contributing to effective and efficient policy design and management processes. Similarly, the participatory nature of specific voluntary agreements (VAs) has been identified as contributing to increased policy framework effectiveness and efficiency. Against this background, this study aims to prove the hypothesis that an increased attention to the possibilities for PL that exists in the VA policy framework can contribute to a better design of VAs, as well as potentially providing more positive evaluations thereof if acknowledging said learning. Hence, the study analyses to which extent that the literature acknowledges VAs’ learning potentials, and evaluates which policy recommendations that can be provided to increase the potential for PL. The study finds that VAs in the form of negotiated agreements are more successful in promoting PL than other types of VAs that have less focus on the participatory aspect of the policy processes. The study also identifies that the policy cycle of negotiated agreements includes four different stages of learning possibilities. As to facilitate that these stages can be fruitfully explored, the study presents recommended policy design and management elements that can increase learning. To this end, the study does not aim to provide recommendations for the entire VA process, as suggestions focus specifically on the learning aspects. The paper contributes to the existing VA policy literature through highlighting the predominately overseen learning values of implementing negotiated agreements as well as providing policy recommendations on VA learning processes.